Video: Turning green algae into green power

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It sounds like a great concept: clean up an environmental threat and make clean energy at the same time.

That's what a local company is hoping to do with a growing problem on Puget Sound.

They look a little out of place as they stroll to their historic fishing boat docked in Seattle, but these two businessmen feel right at home as they prepare the old boat to make a living at sea.

"We're going to use the boat to harvest wild algae, and then convert the wild algae into renewable energy," said Kelly Ogilvie, CEO, Blue Marble Energy.

We watch algae invade Seattle's Green Lake on a regular basis. Satellite images show it invading enormous patches of the world's oceans at an increasing rate.

And while scientists say it is a threat to all sea life around it, it is packed with biofuel potential that adds up to an opportunity.

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Satellite images show algae invading enormous patches of the world's oceans at an increasing rate.

"One, is we're going to remove the algae from the sea which normally would die and decay and take all the oxygen out of the water, which cause anoxia fish kills, and the second benefit is, we're taking that waste material and converting it to energy," he said.

Seattle-based Blue Marble Energy is converting a historic fishing vessel into its first algae skimmer. The collected algae can be easily converted into rich fuel sources for ethanol, biodiesel, and other renewable fuels.

And while other biofuels are criticized for taking food off the plates of a hungry world, algae is a rapidly growing organism that threatens the oceans' food supplies. It thrives in contaminated water, saltwater or fresh, and even blooms in sewage.

Algae is fueling a mini-energy boom that is attractive to both environmental groups and big oil.

And this is just one more group that envisions a whole new world of energy out there, and they're charting their own course to get there.

Blue Marble hopes to set sail on its first test algae runs when the first blooms start showing in a few months.