Startups Are Working on Algae Biofuels 56 startups are looking to algae as the cure for our oil addiction.

If algae oil doesn't become a reality, it's not for lack of trying.

Greentech Media is reporting about another algae startupthat thinks it has the secret formula to turn pond scum into the answer to curing our addiction to oil.

The headline of the story stopped us in our tracks: "Algae Company Number 56: Plankton Power." Yowsa, that's a lot of companies working on algae.

We've heard lots of noise about algae this year, sometimes up close, and sometimes from afar, but it didn't really strike us how many companies were invested in the space until we saw that.

We'd say there's an algae bubble being blown, but little money has been dumped into the field to date, compared to other cleantech fields, like solar. Also, Greentech says all these startups have "yet to produce commercial-scale quantities" of algae.

But, one day, if they do, look out! The promise of algae is pretty awesome. Companies will suck the CO2 off their power plants and feed it into tanks that grow algae. The algae then becomes fuel, and the power plants get carbon reduction and carbon offsets.

Maybe one of these 56 companies will get it right, and make a bunch of money.

Via