Industrial-scale production of bioenergy from algae, or seaweed, has a reasonable chance of occurring but still needs fundamental research, the top official at a newly created bioenergy body said on Wednesday.

Companies around the world are racing to find economical ways to make biofuels from algae, one of the planet's oldest life forms. Such fuels are considered to be net carbon neutral because the algae absorbs greenhouse gases when they grow.

Research into algae-made biofuels has been active in the last three to five years and the big question is when industrial-scale output will take place, said Raffaello Garofalo, executive director of the European Algae Biomass Association (EABA).

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