Vanderbilt engineer pioneer in algae-as-biofuel movement

Cynthia “C. J.” Warner

BE’80 so believes that algae fuel can be a direct replacement for fossil fuel that she traded her nearly 30-year career in Big Oil to join a startup with a big vision: to change the world by developing a domestic, renewable source of energy that benefits the environment and hastens America’s energy independence.

“I feel strongly that we need to start working now to develop good and viable alternatives to crude, or face the inevitable crisis of major crude oil shortages,” Warner told IIT magazine from the San Diego headquarters of Sapphire Energy, Inc. “The energy market is so large that alternative supplies need to be very well developed before they make much difference at all, and developing such significant volumes of truly viable substitutes takes time. That’s why I am now devoting all of my own attention to developing Green Crude—a sustainable, low-carbon, scalable substitute for crude oil,” she explains.

Read full story>>>