BURROWSVILLE Jes Sprouse quit his job to follow his dream.

He became an algae farmer.

Sprouse, 35, grows the emerald slime in a 1-acre pond in eastern Prince George County.

If his gamble pays off, Sprouse will turn the algae into enough biodiesel fuel to make himself rich, ease the country's reliance on petroleum and help fight global warming.

Talk about going green.

"Pond scum is what made crude oil" over millions of years, Sprouse said. "All we're going to do is speed up the process a little bit."

As he spoke, algae-rich water that looked like green Kool-Aid flowed through a series of parallel lagoons, or raceways, that make up Sprouse's pond about 20 miles east of Hopewell.

Sprouse's vision might sound wacky at first, but he has the support of some of the state's top scientists and political leaders.

"We made a conscious decision to go with him," said Patrick G. Hatcher, an Old Dominion University geochemist who heads a state organization investigating potential energy sources. "He seemed to have done a lot of homework."

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is scheduled to participate in a ceremony today to officially open Sprouse's pond, a pilot project with ODU and the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, the group studying energy sources.

Experts have felt for decades that algae could be an important source of diesel fuel. Others have made it, but not on a major, commercial scale, Hatcher said.

"We have an untapped resource that I think could potentially replace oil if it's done on a large enough scale," Hatcher said.

Now, the 1-acre pond produces just a few ounces of diesel a day. But Sprouse and Hatcher believe algae can eventually produce 3,000 to 5,000 gallons per acre per year.

By comparison, an acre of soybeans -- the main biodiesel source in the U.S. -- produces about 48 gallons per acre, Hatcher said.

Algae may produce 10 to 100 times more diesel per acre than any other plant, Hatcher said.

Sprouse plans to expand on his own, growing algae in four 25-acre ponds within two years and later expanding beyond that.

Algae biodiesel barely contributes to global warming compared to regular diesel. And it could even help clean waterways.

If ponds were built next to sewage-treatment plants, Hatcher said, the algae could feed on nutrients such as nitrogen in the plants' wastewater. When released into streams, those nutrients can fuel the growth of unwanted algae.

At ODU, Hatcher invented a process for converting algae to diesel. The details are secret, but the process involves growing algae, drying it and putting it in a device with chemicals that convert it to diesel.

The process has produced only small amounts of fuel. To produce a lot, Hatcher needed a lot more algae.

That's where Sprouse came in.

"Ever since I was a little kid, I was worried about the finite nature of oil," said Sprouse, a Texas native who grew up in Colorado and Wyoming.

Sprouse has lived in Virginia on and off since age 12. He has worked various construction jobs. He attended college but didn't graduate.

In Prince George, Sprouse and his wife, Sandra, ran a concrete and masonry business. Work was slow last winter, and Sprouse started researching alternative fuels on the Internet.

On Feb. 21, Sprouse had one of what he calls several epiphanies -- a vision of how to grow algae on a large scale.

Sprouse, who had heard about ODU's work with algae, contacted Hatcher. The college professor and the mechanically minded country boy clicked.

"He convinced us, and the rest is history," Hatcher said.

Sprouse shut down his contracting business, although he does a little work when he needs money.

ODU gave Sprouse a $100,000 contract to build the pilot project. Sprouse said he plowed that directly into building and equipping the pond.

At the pond, the algae-rich water is sucked into three centrifuges that draw water from the algae, leaving a green paste that is converted into fuel.

The process uses several strains of native, microscopic algae, which are rich in oil.

Keys to Sprouse's vision include keeping labor and energy costs low. The operation is largely automated, and Sprouse plans to install windmills to supply much of his electricity.

Sprouse believes God has prepared him to be an algae farmer. "I think I was definitely led up to it."

Sandra Sprouse said, "We are not only risking everything financially, but we are risking our reputations . . . He's had a lot of people tell him, 'That's the most absurd idea I ever heard of.'"

But she supported her husband's plan from the start. "I thought it was brilliant."
Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or rspringston@timesdispatch.com.