It’s a simple concept born in 1897: use oils to power an engine, and give power, literally to the farmer.

Quickly, petroleum companies figured out how to make a petrofuel that would run in diesel engines.

Fast forward 111 years and a blend of biodiesel has begun to fly.

More will fly if Highlands Ranch resident and engineer George Bye is successful.

Bye founded Bye Energy to create biodiesel fuel for business jets. He wants King Airs, Lears and Gulfstreams running on fuel that will not put more carbon into the atmosphere.

Some commercial airlines, notably Virgin-Atlantic, have tried low-percentage, up to about half, biodiesel with success.

GreenFlight, a company in Orlando, Fla., flew a craft 2,486 miles from Nevada to Florida, in November 2008.

Lockheed Martin was part of the support for the plane, which flew 1,776 miles of the trip on 100 percent bio-diesel.

Biodiesel is a fuel created by esterifying plant oils with alcohol and lye. In a process similar to soap making-fats and lye make real soap and glycerin will float to the top-esterification with plant oils creates a substance the burns under pressure in a diesel engine.

Bye is among a pioneering bunch of entrepreneurs looking to find an oil that will not compete with food sources such as soy beans.

Enter algae, that persistent single-celled organism that will grow in the most miserable conditions, as long as they are wet.

“Crude oil is just plants from millions of years ago put under pressure and heat over millions of years,” Bye said. “We are just speeding up the process.”

By taking algae and treating it, the algae releases oils and also leaves a plant residue that could be used for livestock feed.

This biodiesel could create food, according to Dr. Bryan Wilson of Solix, an algae company partnered with Colorado State University.

In fact, the food and other uses for the algae aside from oil production are what could make the enterprise profitable.

It could also flatten the cost swing for pilots. Priced March 19, Jet fuel A was $3.51 at Centennial Airport and $5.29 per gallon at Denver International Airport. That’s the same company, Signature Flight Support.

At Front Range Airport near Watkins, and 12 miles from DIA, Jet Fuel A was $3.21 per gallon.

Bye partnered with American BioResources to work on an algae production test. He believes that biodiesel from algae could capture a small part of the market, business jets, but ultimately could fuel commercial airliners.

Bye presented his business model at the Renewable Energy Taskforce, a group under the South Metro Chamber of Commerce, March 20.

Algae