ITHACA — A research project led by two Cornell University professors aims to create compact reactors used in production of biofuel from algae.

Biofuels can be made from a variety of stocks, including corn and wood. As it turns out, algae is especially energy dense, meaning a given amount of algae would produce more fuel than the same amount of corn, says David Erickson, one of the project’s lead researchers.

The problem is the algae for fuel are typically grown in large pond-like reactors. They use a lot of land and water and require large amounts of energy to produce fuel, explains Erickson, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

The pond-like reactors are simply not economically viable.

Erickson and Largus Angenent, an associate professor in Cornell’s Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, are working on a way to change that. The reactor they’re developing would be a 1-meter cube, but yield the same amount of biofuel as a pond measuring 100 meters by 10 meters.

A $910,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy is helping the project move forward.

So far, the researchers have demonstrated all the various elements of the reactor separately. The grant will help them bring the system together into a prototype that can be tested and evaluated as a whole.

It will also help them identify the best path to market, Erickson contends. He and Angenent could look to license the technology to another company or commercialize it themselves through a startup business.

The reactor is compact enough that it could be located close to sources of carbon used in biofuel production, Erickson says. Such sites could include power plants and/or chemical production facilities.

The reactor would be especially helpful in environments where outdoor ponds would freeze in the winter, making production at carbon-producing sites more challenging. It would also allow biofuel production in places that don’t have enough space for the large ponds currently used.

Currently, carbon used in biofuel production is transported to the reactor from the source, Erickson notes. The compact reactor he and Angenent are working on could change that.

The researchers are in the process of filing patents to protect their technology. The system works by using unique ways to deliver light, introduce carbon and other nutrients, and extract fuel at the same time, Erickson explains.

The federal grant was one of 66 awarded by the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy (ARPA-E). The projects received a total of $130 million through the department’s OPEN 2012 program.

ARPA-E seeks out transformational, breakthrough technologies that show fundamental technical promise, but are too early for private-sector investment, according to the Energy Department. The Cornell project was one of four in New York state to receive a total of $9.5 million in funding.

GE Global Research in Niskayuna, GE Power and Water in Schenectady, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Rensselaer were the other New York winners.

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com