Many companies are trying to grow algae commercially. None are profitable because you simply cannot achieve the necessary density that makes the oil extraction economic.
I don’t have a problem with researching it though. If you only researched technology that was ready for market, you’d never discover anything.
Where they go wrong is in trying to actually produce the stuff with noneconomic technology that is not ready for market. That’s what Obama is trying to do with solar and with ethanol.