Mark,
• Cost reduction of algal oil production -- one order of magnitude in the last two years
• Cost reduction on algal extraction -- two new methods promise two orders of magnitude
• Cost reduction on energy for mixing -- one order of magnitude in the last two years

This sounds encouraging can you give more details of the types of cost reductions?

It seems that raising marine algae for aquaculture feeds( for marine fish) would help to solve the problem of using fish by-catch for aquaculture feeds. Fish, abalone and prawns generally get much higher prices/kg than land animals and should avoid methane.

Not the above as far as I know but recently reported and it includes not only algae but also a new solar panel:

Scientists in Canada and India are proposing a surprising new solution to the global energy crisis —“milking” oil from the tiny, single-cell algae known as diatoms, renowned for their intricate, beautifully sculpted shells that resemble fine lacework. Their report appears online in the current issue of the ACS’ bi-monthly journal Industrial Engineering & Chemical Research.

Estimates suggest that live diatoms could make 10−200 times as much oil per acre of cultivated area compared to oil seeds.

“We propose ways of harvesting oil from diatoms, using biochemical engineering and also a new solar panel approach that utilizes genetically modifiable aspects of diatom biology, offering the prospect of “milking” diatoms for sustainable energy by altering them to actively secrete oil products,” the scientists say. “Secretion by and milking of diatoms may provide a way around the puzzle of how to make algae that both grow quickly and have a very high oil content.”

Well, early days but milk is not harvested from cows by grinding them up and extracting the milk is it?