When US President Donald Trump transformed the gigantic Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, into a gigantic breeding ground for green algae, everybody laughed. That’s not quite fair to the President. After all, Trump’s own “American Energy Dominance” policy embraces biomass as a key domestic energy resource, and the high oil content of algae makes it a potentially rich resource for sustainable fuels. What better way to support the domestic algae biofuel industry than by giving it a high profile showcase smack in the middle of the nation’s capitol. Actually, The President Does Support Algae Biofuel The transformation of a national monument into an algae biofuel showcasae will not surprise those of you following the “American Energy Dominance” policy. Although giving the short end of the stick to wind and solar power (especially wind), the White House fully embraces other renewables, including biomass as well as geothermal energy and hydropower. Researchers and other stakeholders have long been attracted by the potential of oil-rich algae to replace conventional crops in the biofuel industry. According to some estimates, algae can produce 10–100 times more fuel per acre than other energy crops. They can also be cultivated in human-made infrastructure, helping to relieve the pressure on farmland and food systems. On the down side, algae cultivation is a complicated endeavor. The expense of algae oil extraction and processing has also been a formidable obstacle. Still, fresh signs of a commercial-level breakthrough began to emerge in 2024, and now another wave of interest has surfaced. The photo above, for example, can be found on the website of the Hong Kong-headquartered firm BRK Technology (not to be confused with similarly named companies). BRK is aiming its efforts on algae biodiesel for the heavy equipment used in construction, agriculture, and other industries where electrification uptake has been slow. The company aims to compete against other liquid fuels with a proprietary microalgae engineered to optimize oil content. The modified algae also reproduces more rapidly than other varieties. “By accelerating the natural metabolic processes that drive photosynthesis and biomass production, we can cultivate larger volumes of oil-rich algae in a shorter time frame,” BRK explains. “This accelerated growth cycle enables continuous, high-volume production, significantly reducing costs and increasing scalability,” they add. The UK firm Hutanbio is another algae stakeholder on the move, having recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with biofuel stakeholders in Oman focusing on the aviation and maritime sectors. Mazda Pursues Algae Biofuel For Your Sports Car, Too On the smaller side of the mobility spectrum, last year Mazda recapped its efforts to introduce algae biofuel to the street-legal motoring world, with the unveiling of the new Mazda Vision X-Coupe plug-in hybrid concept EV at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show, equipped with algae biofuel and an onboard carbon capture system, too. Mazda is concentrating its efforts on algae biofuel produced by the microalgae Nannochloropsis. “We can extract oil with properties close to diesel, and we can also make gasoline from it,” Mazda explained in November. “We’ve now reached the theoretical goal of refining over 1L of fuel from a 1,000L cultivation tank in about two weeks, and we’re making steady progress,” the company added, indicating that it is a long way from volume production. Still, Mazda is among the stakeholders taking note of the carbon removal potential of algae biofuel operations, including the possibility of achieving carbon negativity. “First, by creating fuel from microalgae that has absorbed CO₂, we reduce CO₂ emissions by about 90%. Then, using the CO₂ capture technology, we can recover 20% of the CO₂ in exhaust gases, totaling 110%. In other words, this combination achieves 10% carbon negativity of atmospheric CO₂,” the company states. Meanwhile, Back In The USA Mazda’s vision of a carbon negative, algae-fueled future is still in the futuristic stage, though a pre-Trump report from the US Department of Energy indicates that the algae biofuel dream could some day become reality. The 2022 report, titled, “Economic, Greenhouse Gas, and Resource Assessment for Fuel and Protein Production from Microalgae,” focused on the technical potential for deploying non-farm land along with non-potable water and waste carbon dioxide from industrial sources in the moderate climate of the southern states. With an emphasis on “technical potential,” the report identified almost 1,000 possible co-production sites for fuel and nutritional algae. That same year, the US Department of Energy spotted an opportunity that could help algae biofuel stakeholders work their way into commercial-level activity. The funded six projects aimed at leveraging microalgae as a carbon sponge, helping industry stakeholders work their way into commercial-level activity by teaming up with industries in need of carbon capture systems. The Reflecting Pool Factor By 2024, though, the bloom was off the rose. ExxonMobile was a among the top algae investors to rush for the exits (shocker, right?). However, some activity has remained percolating in other quarters, and now that Trump has drawn new attention to algae cultivation, perhaps a new burst of private sector interest will emerge. In fact, there does seem to be some kind of high-level experimentation going on in DC. Over the weekend word surfaced that Trump has deployed the National Guard around the Reflecting Pool, perhaps indicating that invaluable trade secrets are in play. The addition of hydrogen peroxide to the endeavor is intriguing, as is the idea of deploying additional chemicals in the form of off-the-shelf commercial pool paint. Apparently drying the paint in situ in the empty pool is part of the process, followed by a peeling effect after the paint is filled with water and the hydrogen peroxide is applied, possibly to help ensure that the chemicals are distributed evenly throughout the pool. Among other treatments that could be applied, zinc oxide is a possibility. In July of 2025, for example, the University of Texas at El Paso recapped its work on deploying nanoparticles of zinc oxide to stimulate oil production in Chlorella vulgaris. UTEP describes the microalgae as “a fast-growing species commonly found in freshwater environments that is used to produce biofuels.” “Under normal growth conditions, the research team observed C. vulgaris cells contained about 14 percent lipids. But when exposed to moderate concentrations (30–50 mg/L) of synthesized ZnO nanoparticles, the cells increased their lipid content to as much as 48 percent of their mass – more than triple the baseline – without significant harm to the cells,” the school reported last July. What do you think, has the Reflecting Pool become a high-profile, $16 million (and counting) showcase for American inventiveness in the algae biofuel field, or is it just another in a long and growing series of taxpayer dollars vanishing into a black hole of avarice and corruption? If you have any thoughts about that, drop a note in the discussion thread. Better yet, find your representatives in Congress and let them know what you think. Readers please note, all conjecture about the Reflecting Pool in the article is conjecture to be taken with a grain of salt. Photo: Algae biofuel is beginning to show up as a sustainable substitute for diesel in heavy equipment, potentially leading to widespread commercial application at some point in the future (cropped, courtesy of BRK Technology).
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