Algae for Seaport's Energy Needs

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The Venetian port authority's deal with Enalg, announced last week, represents one of the latest and highest-profile forays into algae-fueled energy production. As detailed in the port's news release, the plan calls for construction of a $273 million, 40-megawatt power plant by 2011, using technology pioneered by Washington-based Solena Group.

Like many other plants, algae produce an oil that can be converted for industrial use. Solena's process involves growing the algae in plastic cylinders that are supplied with water, carbon dioxide and sunshine. The resulting biomass is then turned into a synthetic natural gas to fire electricity-generating turbines. The carbon dioxide released by burning the gas is fed back into the system to help grow the next generation of algae.

"The lagoon surroundings are ideal for experimenting with this new technology," said Paolo Costa, president of Venice's port authority. "The objective is to guarantee the energy self-sufficiency of the port of Venice and, in the near future, to look for the possibility of supplying energy to the ships moored at the dock."

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Thermo-chemical Conversion to Make Biofuels From Algae - A Reality

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"Key advantages for algae include prolific growth rates and relatively high oil contents in certain species," said Lance Schideman, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Missouri."In addition, algae can help clean up water resources with excess nutrients and can be grown on lands that aren't useful for agricultural purposes."

The traditional method to produce biofuel from algae calls for extracting algae oil from the other biomass components and converting it via transesterification, Schideman said, but extraction methods are relatively expensive.An alternative processing method is called thermo-chemical conversion, or TCC, a chemical process that transforms organic compounds in a heated and pressurized enclosure to produce a biocrude oil

"It simulates the processes that went on in the earth when our petroleum reserves were formed. You're just doing it a lot faster," Schideman said."It's my opinion that TCC will be a very important technology in helping biofuels from algae become a reality."

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Indonesia and South Korea to Develop Biofuel from Seaweed

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Indonesia and South Korea have agreed to develop a seaweed-based biofuel as part of the two countries’ commitment to encourage green energies and tackle global warming.

The use of seaweed as the raw material for biofuel production is expected to draw support from environmentalists, who recently criticized the use of land-based raw materials such as palm oil, maize and sugar cane as having caused massive deforestation across Indonesia’s tropical forests.

Secretary general of Indonesia Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry Widi Agoes Pratikto and president of the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) Kyoung-hoan Na signed a memorandum of understanding for the biofuel development in Jakarta on Saturday, marking a joint cooperation to harness Indonesia’s abundant seaweed resources.

The agreement was signed at a meeting between chambers of commerce and industry from the two countries, and was witnessed by Indonesia’s Acting Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Sri Mulyani Indrawati and South Korea’s Knowledge Economy Minister Lee Youn-Ho.

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Stellarwind Bioenergy - Oil from Algae Technology

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Source: Indianapolis Bussiness Journal

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Eastern Cape to Turn Algae into Power

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OWING to ideal climate and mix of industry, the Eastern Cape has been handpicked for a unique pilot project using marine algae to convert the greenhouse gas of carbon dioxide into biofuels and other products.

The use of algae as one of the next generation sources of biofuel has not been without controversy, but research at Jacobs University using marine algae to capture, through photosynthesis, the carbon dioxide in flue gases at two major power stations is yielding great results.

A low-cost, custom-built 800m² photobioreactor housed in a closed, greenhouse- type setting, and set up at a German lignite coal-based powerplant has been converting carbon dioxide into biomass since August last year.

By the end of June, a 200m² photobioreactor capable of producing two tons of dry biomass a year – will be up and running at NMMU. This will be followed early next year by the creation of two 1000m² photobioreactors at sites adjacent to interested industrial partners, to evaluate the technology in industrial applications.

To keep costs down, the photobioreactors will be built locally, based on the original Phytolutions designs. The use of black economically empowered enterprises has been planned.

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Indonesia could be the Middle East for Microalgae Biofuel

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Mujizat Kawaroe, a scientist from the Bogor Institute of Technology, or IPB, has studied cultivable microalgae under different climactic conditions for two years. However, scarce funding has slowed her research, which is currently being carried out at the IPB’s Surfactant & Bioenergy and Research Center.

“Previously we only studied six different kinds of microalgae, but now we have 13 types in three different colors — brown, red and green,” Mujizat said. “We can cultivate microalgae in ponds or even in industrial waste, which would help reduce expenditure for waste processing.”

Microalgae’s fatty acids and carbohydrates can be processed into biodiesel and bioethanol, respectively.Protein can also be used as animal feed, Mujizat said, adding that her team has already tested microalgae’s survivability in industrial waste in Batam, Riau Islands Province.

However, the technology to cultivate microalgae is still in its early stages and very costly, prompting investors to back off, Mujizat said.

With no projects across the globe ready for commercialization, “even the IPB doesn’t support us financially, because there haven’t been significant results yet,” Mujizat said.“But Indonesia could be the Middle East for microalgae-based biofuel. We have faith that microalgae will be successful in reducing fossil fuel imports. There are around 2 million hectares of coastline that could be used for cultivating algae.”

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Algae Venture System's Harvesting Technique

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The breakthrough technology in algae harvesting, dewatering,and drying is a model of nature’s liquid moving strategies in organisms. No biological system has anything even remotely close to a functioning centrifuge.

A centrifuge moves the entire mass of water and its contents in order to separate into fractions. This was also true of flocculation, flotation, and other methods to a certain degree because the focus was on moving the algae and not moving the water. A water molecule is 1/33,000 the size of a 10 micron algae. When differential pressure (even excessive gravitational pressure in the form of a water column) is moved to force algal mass and water through a screen, this energy compacts the algal mass into a form that blocks water and impacts algal mass into screen.

So using several of methods to move the water molecules by changing the surface tension, adhesion, cohesion, taking advantage of the meniscus being formed, a capillary action from a compression pull (think artificial Transpirational) allowing absorption and next, use water’s surface area to mass to dramatically improve evaporation (think of a water based paint applied thin and how quick it dries).

Surface tension can be broken by hundreds of ways, however, a class of materials that were patented several years ago called superabsorbent polymer (SAP) fabrics. It is these SAP fabric material types of we call our “cap belt” when put into contact with the bottom of the screen (water meniscus), have the capability to move vast amounts of water without moving the algae because the molecular bonds from water to water are stronger then water to algae, as long as energy applied does not break water’s bonds to itself. The capillary effect and adhesion effect (once wetted, and rung) can be designed to be continuous, just like the screen can be designed to be continuous.

This continuous approach allows for a thin layer of algae to be continuously processed from in solution to dry flake in a distance of four feet at a scalable rate with scalable equipment. In our prototype equipment, the rate exceeds 500 liters per hour on less than 40 watts per hour of run time.

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Algae Research Projects at Virginia

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College of William & Mary — William & Mary and Virginia Institute of Marine Science researchers are leading a collaboration to develop transportation fuels from algae, with an emphasis on production of automotive and aviation fuels. Also, Applied Science Department researchers have developed materials and methods for production of solid-oxide fuel cells and supercapacitors that could be used in electric vehicles.

Old Dominion University — In conjunction with the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, ODU researchers have developed an algae-growing farm and biodiesel production facility. They are trying to determine the most effective means to grow and harvest algae and the most efficient way to convert it to biodiesel.

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Peterborough Renewable Energy Ltd Use Algae to Tap Up CO2 from Flue Gases

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Peterborough Renewable Energy Ltd believes it can use algae to tap up carbon dioxide from flue gases to produce a biomass fuel suitable for combustion.

The company has been invited to submit a full proposal to the European Commission's Research Dictorate by May 28, 2009, with the hope of attracting up to £2.5 million R&D funding.

The Algae Technology and Carbon Capture project could initially capture 10-20% of the energy-from-waste plant's emissions, with the algae making use of nutrients from the plant's potash to produce between 5,000 and 10,000 tonnes of biomass fuel a year.

The firm's managing director Chris Williams told New Energy Focus yesterday that ultimately, the project could develop technology capable of capturing higher proportions of emissions, producing enough biomass fuel for an entire dedicated biomass power station.

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Green Jobs in the Algal Biofuel Field

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Hatcher started exploring biofuel three decades ago. His work was interrupted in the early 1990s when the DOE stopped funding research in alternative fuel. In today’s green-friendly climate, Hatcher thinks the time for this technology has finally come. The Spring Grove pilot project is capable of generating 3,000 gallons of biodiesel a year on one acre of land. “To do this on a large scale,” says Hatcher, “requires a lot of acres and that’s where the jobs are.” A 1,000-acre algal biofuel project would mean roughly 30 to 40 high-tech jobs, each with an annual salary of $50,000 or more, says Hatcher. “It’s not grunt labor. To monitor the algae requires someone who knows something about algae.”

In Blacksburg, JAS Energy is planning to build an algae conversion plant that will be fully automatic, but that doesn’t mean it won’t create jobs, says company President John Verbeck. In one of the more inspired pairings of Virginia’s alternative energy movement, JAS is partnering with ATK (Alliant Techsystems), a defense contractor that operates a TNT manufacturing facility in the New River Valley.

“Our plant will be treating discharged water which is high in nitrates. That’s pretty much the cause of algae blooms that are a problem in the New River Valley, the Chesapeake Bay and the James River.” The JAS plant will use that erstwhile-pollutant to grow algae to convert to fuel, the first step in its vision of a Virginia where every major source of nitrates filters its waste water through an algae “farm.”

This pilot project breaks ground in the New River Valley this fall with hopes of a December startup date. It will take engineers and construction crews to get the plant online. Once running, says Verbeck, “The main jobs that will come from this are plant operators and managers.” Plus hundreds of what he calls “domino jobs”: everything from truckers to cleaning crews.

If the wheels were set in motion today, says Hatcher, 1,000 Virginians could be working in the algal biofuel field in as little as five years. That timetable would require major investors. “Look what happened with ethanol,” says Hatcher. “That developed at blinding speed.

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Cana Algae for Venice? - Enalg, Italy is Going to Try

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“Sargassum muticum” and “Undaria pinnatifida” are the names of two kinds of algae brought by the ships coming from Japan and the Sargassi sea. The algea grows over the seaport of Venice, causing problems for gondolas and ferry boats. But today it could be turned into a resource.

Italy recently announced a 200 million euro eco-friendly project to harvest the prolific seaweed that lines Venice’s canals and transform it into emissions-free energy. The idea is to set up a power plant fuelled by algae, the first facility of its kind in Italy. The plant, to be built in collaboration with renewable energy services company Enalg, will be operative in two years and will produce 40 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to half of the energy required by the entire city centre of Venice.

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Redmond company Bionavitas developed a system of light-producing rods

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Now a Redmond company may have found a way to increase algae production tenfold. Engineers at Bionavitas say the problem with algae is it only grows on a very thick layer at the top of a pond or other body of water. Once it covers the surface it blocks the sunlight needed to grow at lower depths.

Redmond's Bionavitas demonstrates their light immersion technology. The company is working on increasing algae production with a system of light-producing rods

"As you know algae grows at the very top of a pond," said Michael Weaver, company spokesperson. "And then once it gets dense it starts blocking its own light."

This company has developed a system of light-producing rods it can use to penetrate the thin algae top layer and deliver the light source needed to produce algae down below. Company officials showed us they can do it in a laboratory setting. They say the next step is for mass production in man-made ponds in the Southwest.

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Solid Catalyst to Convert Algae into Biodiesel

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United Environment & Energy, an engineering company in Horseheads, N.Y., uses a "mixed metal oxide" catalyst (a form of certain metals resistant to corrosion but reactive). chemical engineer Ben Wen and his colleagues at United have come up with a conversion process that is 40 percent cheaper than an industrial scale version of the traditional methanol and lye process . That process must also be finished by purifying the biodiesel with water to wash out left over chemicals that then linger in the water.

This new process would make biodiesel that also doesn't require the purification step, because there is no liquid catalyst mixed into the resulting fuel, Wen says. He notes that his company has made around 10 gallons of algae biodiesel this way to date, though its main interest is not in manufacturing the fuel but in selling the technology to make it to other companies. He says there are already some takers—including one that has made at least 100 gallons of the fuel and certified it to ASTM standards, a legal requirement to be sold in the U.S.—but he declined to identify any of them.

Other refining or fuel companies, such as Illinois-headquartered UOP and San Diego-based Sapphire Energy, are also aiming at producing oil and fuel alternatives from algae but have struggled to get adequate supplies of it. Wen says his company has a "stable supplier" of algae oil that he also refused to identify for competitive reasons. He adds that said supplier was not U.S.-based as environmental regulations in this country hamper use of the toxic solvents necessary to extract oil from the algae. "Algae growth is not a big problem, people know how to grow it," he says. "The big barrier is extraction."

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Using Phytoplankton to Trap Carbondioxide in Ocean Faces a Snag

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The voyage, a joint venture by India’s National Institute of Oceanography and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, was controversial from the start. Some environmental groups claimed it was akin to pollution, and thus illegal.

Those researchers, led by Wajih Naqvi and Victor Smetacek, created a bloom of phytoplankton by fertilising an area of 300 square kilometres with six tonnes of iron sulphate, which dissolves in water. In two weeks the bloom’s mass doubled. But it also proved to be extremely tasty for small crustaceans called copepods, which gobbled the phytoplankton up so quickly that even with further iron fertilisation the bloom stopped growing. As a result, only a small amount of CO2 was dispatched to the ocean floor.

The problem lay with the species of phytoplankton in the bloom. In previous experiments the blooms had consisted of a group of algae known as diatoms. As diatoms have shells made of silica they are protected from copepods and so are more likely to die without being eaten and thus take take their carbon to the ocean floor. But in the area where the researchers were working natural blooms had already depleted much of the silicic acid, which the diatoms use for shellmaking. The result was that the beneficiaries of the iron were instead groups of algae such as Phaeocystis, which are among the most heavily grazed by copepods.

Since silicic-acid levels are naturally low across about two-thirds of the Southern Ocean, the expedition’s results suggest that iron-fertilisation would remove less CO2 from the atmosphere than optimists had hoped.

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Algae-to-Oil Pioneer OriginOil Appoints Adam Meislik

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OriginOil, Inc. the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform algae, the most promising source of renewable oil, into a true competitor to petroleum, announced the appointment of Adam Meislik to the company's Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Meislik is the founder of Irvine, California-based Onionomics LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in providing companies and stakeholders with crucial management and leadership expertise by evaluating advantage, assessing competitive environments and identifying industry trends and how they relate to capital formation and liquidity.

Meislik presently serves on the Board of Directors of Lateral Data, a leading provider of software and services supporting e-discovery, and is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the Turnaround Management Association, Association for Corporate Growth and the Forum for Corporate Directors. He graduated from Tulane University with a Bachelor of Science in Management and currently resides in Irvine, California with his wife and two children.

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AlgaeVenture Systems Brings Algae Energy Into Spotlight

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Univenture established AlgaeVenture Systems to address the growth of algae in industrial and agricultural areas in Ohio and other Midwest areas that demonstrated opportunities for algae farms to be located near existing waste and water sources, creating opportunities to develop a variety of products - including fuels - while cleaning up land and water waste.

The company focuses on manufacturing and installing simplified greenhouse ponds near power plants, wastewater plants, farm waste facilities, food processing plants and other locations where the geography and climate support algae growth year-round.

"Algae farmers can grow food, feed or fuel, and can change crops and be ready for harvest in less than 20 days," Youngs said. "Algae can protect fuel supplies because it can be grown virtually anywhere in the United States, and can benefit national security by decentralizing the fuel supply and reducing our dependence on foreign oil."

AlgaeVenture Systems' technology - developed by studying processes that exist in nature - utilizes a variety of methods of moving water, including capillary effect, cohesion, absorption and transpiration pull - the method used by trees and plants to move water from their roots to the highest growth, often hundreds of feet straight up.

"The process is counterintuitive," Youngs said, "because with so much water and so little algae, it is natural to want to move the algae. But moving water instead is very efficient, and all water is recycled."

AlgaeVenture Systems' prototype is scalable and portable, and can be custom made to a customer's specifications. While designed specifically for microalgae, the invention is applicable to several other separating and dewatering applications.

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AlgaeVenture Systems Brings Algae Energy Into Spotlight

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Univenture established AlgaeVenture Systems to address the growth of algae in industrial and agricultural areas in Ohio and other Midwest areas that demonstrated opportunities for algae farms to be located near existing waste and water sources, creating opportunities to develop a variety of products - including fuels - while cleaning up land and water waste.

The company focuses on manufacturing and installing simplified greenhouse ponds near power plants, wastewater plants, farm waste facilities, food processing plants and other locations where the geography and climate support algae growth year-round.

"Algae farmers can grow food, feed or fuel, and can change crops and be ready for harvest in less than 20 days," Youngs said. "Algae can protect fuel supplies because it can be grown virtually anywhere in the United States, and can benefit national security by decentralizing the fuel supply and reducing our dependence on foreign oil."

AlgaeVenture Systems' technology - developed by studying processes that exist in nature - utilizes a variety of methods of moving water, including capillary effect, cohesion, absorption and transpiration pull - the method used by trees and plants to move water from their roots to the highest growth, often hundreds of feet straight up.

"The process is counterintuitive," Youngs said, "because with so much water and so little algae, it is natural to want to move the algae. But moving water instead is very efficient, and all water is recycled."

AlgaeVenture Systems' prototype is scalable and portable, and can be custom made to a customer's specifications. While designed specifically for microalgae, the invention is applicable to several other separating and dewatering applications.

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Team Algal Scientific Wins Inaugural Clean Energy Prize

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DTE Energy and University of Michigan clean energy business competition designed to move new energy technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. A plan to use algae to simultaneously treat wastewater and produce the raw materials for biofuels won the inaugural Clean Energy Prize on Friday.

The competition was established by DTE Energy and the University of Michigan along with sponsors, Masco Corporation Foundation and The Kresge Foundation, to encourage entrepreneurship in Michigan and the development of clean energy technology.

Team Algal Scientific Corp., comprised of business and engineering students from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, earned the top prize of $65,000.

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Venice's Seaport Plans For a Power Plant Fueled By Algae

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Venice's seaport plans to become self-sufficient in its energy needs by building a power plant fueled by algae, in what would be the first facility of its kind in Italy, the port authority said.

The plant will be operative in two years and produce 40 megawatts of electricity, Venice's port authority said, adding that an emissions-free energy source would help preserve the historic lagoon city's delicate ecological balance.

In Venice, the algae will be cultivated in laboratories and put in plastic cylinders where water, carbon dioxide, and sunshine trigger photosynthesis. The resulting biomass will be treated further to produce a fuel to turn turbines.The carbon dioxide produced in the process is to be fed back to the algae, resulting in zero emissions from the plant.

The port needs about 7 megawatts to satisfy its energy needs, so the excess energy could be supplied to ships docked at the harbor, it said.

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PetroSun Issues Algae-to-Biofuels activities related to its program

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PetroSun, Inc. announced today the following activities related to its domestic algae-to-biofuels program.

The Company is a project participant in a number of USDA-DOE and DOE projects that have filed applications for federal funding. These projects are designed to demonstrate that micro algae and macro algae are a commercially viable feedstock for our future energy needs.

PetroSun is a USDA-DOE project participant with Carnegie Mellon, the University of New Hampshire and Simply Green Biofuels in a proposal submitted as the Life Cycle Assessment of Algae-based Biofuels.

A USDA-DOE project was applied for by the University of Arizona and includes PetroSun, Purdue University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Renascent Energy, Carbon2Algae, Innovative Trade Development Center, USDA Laboratory (Peoria, IL) and Pukyong University (South Korea) as pre-application participants of a project titled as the Production of Advanced Biofuels from Algae.

A DOE grant proposal application was submitted by the University of Arizona for the Demonstration of a Sustainable and Integrated Algae-Oil Biorefinery in the Semi-Arid U.S. Southwest. Participants in this program include the University of Arizona, Arizona Public Service, PetroSun, Texas A&M, Purdue University, Renascent Energy, ABRI-Tech, Carbon2Algae and Rolls Royce.

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LOHAFEX Gained Crucial Insights Into The Marine Biology

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The LOHAFEX team found that though the algae mass doubled in size after four tonnes of dissolved iron was dropped in a 300 sq km patch of ocean, most of it was quickly eaten away by a crustacean zooplankton species. "This grazing resulted in most of the CO2 trapped by the algae to be recycled into the air,'' said Dr S W A Naqwi from National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, who was co-chief scientist of the project.

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World Congress To Explore Timeline For Bringing Advanced Biofuels To Market

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Advanced biofuels companies will report on progress toward bringing cellulosic and other next-generations biofuels – such as algae, biobutanol, and biohydogen – to the marketplace at the 2009 World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, to be held July 19-22, 2009 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) recently released the full schedule of breakout sessions and speakers.

The full list of sessions and speakers can be found on the World Congress web site at http://www.bio.org/worldcongress/applications/breakout/. Sessions and speakers reviewing progress in commercializing advanced biofuels include:

Synthetic Biology for Next Generation Biofuels

* Jim Barber, Barber Advisors LLC
* Bill Haywood, LS9, Inc
* Jonathan Wolfson, Solazyme
* Patrick Gruber, Gevo

Progress Toward Commercialization of Lignocellulosic Ethanol Processes

* Kevin Gray, Verenium Corporation
* James Flatt, Mascoma Corporation
* Andre Koltermann, Süd-Chemie AG
* Georg Anderl, Dupont/Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC

Algae for Fuels and Chemicals

* Steve Gluck, The Dow Chemical Company
* Atul Saxena, Growdiesel Consortium
* Ben Cloud, XL Renewables, Inc

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Algal Fuel Headed For The Racetrack

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American boutique automaker Panoz Auto Development wants to return to the top tier of the American Le Mans Series in car powered by algal biofuel.

Founder Don Panoz said the company is "investigating concepts" that could it return to the premier LMP1 prototype category Panoz didn't offer many details when he made the announcement at a press conference before Saturday's 12 Hours of Sebring race, but Autoweek says "it is understood" that the car would use a Chevrolet engine and may burn butanol produced from algae.

"We are looking at something that has never been done before, something that would be good for sports car racing, good for Le Mans and good for us," Panoz said.

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Bionavitas Develops Algae Growth Booster for Biodiesel

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Bionavitas is using what the company calls Light Immersion Technology.. pencil-shaped rods that bring more light to algae, stimulating growth.

The acrylic tubes can direct sunlight deeper into a pond of algae which could allow algae to grow up to 1.5 meters deep, rather than the about 10 centimetres depth now possible before “self-shading” prevents deeper growth.

And that density of growth per square meter could allow algae-based biofuel to compete with petroleum-based diesel and gasoline on price.

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Bionavitas Develops Algae Growth Booster for Biodiesel

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Bionavitas is using what the company calls Light Immersion Technology.. pencil-shaped rods that bring more light to algae, stimulating growth.

The acrylic tubes can direct sunlight deeper into a pond of algae which could allow algae to grow up to 1.5 meters deep, rather than the about 10 centimetres depth now possible before “self-shading” prevents deeper growth.

And that density of growth per square meter could allow algae-based biofuel to compete with petroleum-based diesel and gasoline on price.

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UCLA Find Algae To Be The Fuel Of The Future

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UCLA brought politicians, business leaders and researchers to campus for a March 6 conference exploring how they will meet aggressive requirements to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The California Air Resources Board recently developed a scoping plan for implementing Assembly Bill 32, which requires steep reductions in carbon emissions by 2020. Cities, companies and universities are among the agencies that will have to slash their gas emissions.

"UCLA is already demonstrating ways to reduce traffic emissions, to make its buildings more efficient and re-landscaping with drought-tolerant plants," said Nichols, a professor-in-residence at the UCLA School of Law. "There's just a whole series of things being done to make the campus itself more efficient. As one of the world's great research institutions, UCLA is also in a position to bring together some of the best scientists and policy thinkers in the world to develop new solutions. There are people right now working in laboratories to find algae that are going to be the fuel of the future."

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Stellarwind Bio Energy Cultivates Algae in Indianapolis

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Stellarwind said the process of harvesting algae involves feeding the material into a processor, which extracts the oils. Residual bio-mass can then be converted into one of several valuable resources including methane, industrial grade charcoal, fertilizer and/or synthesis gas.

"Our goal is to produce a continuously renewable energy source that is ecologically friendly, uses everything, and wastes nothing," Will Kassebaum, president and CEO, said in a statement.

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The NAA's MId-South Chapter Announces A Successful 'Algae for Biofuels' Workshop in Atlanta

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Attendees from 9 states converged in Atlanta on February 27 for the first official event of the National Algae Association's new MId-South Chapter. Barry Cohen, director of the NAA opened with a keynote address entitled, "Algae, the New Biocrude".

Other speakers included Dr. K.C. Das, Director of algae research- University of Georgia, John Ries, cogeneration engineer, Ronald Putt- Auburn University, Bob Vitale, CEO of the Water Wheel Factory, and Jill Stuckey, Director of the Georgia Center for Innovation of Energy.

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San Antonio goes green by growing Algae

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Murray, an assistant professor of geology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, thinks the city is perfectly poised to become a research and production hotbed for literally one of the greenest fuels around, mined from the slippery marine life that thrives in the shallow ponds and warm, sunny weather that are hallmarks of this region.

Rather than punching holes into the ground to find petroleum, Murray envisions a shift to commercial production of native algae species and processing that harvest into biodiesel, which then would power the massive trucks that roar through San Antonio along the NAFTA corridor from Mexico.

Murray and his students are in the early stages of their project, which is beginning by collecting water samples and identifying the algal species that thrive in this area. There are at least 20,000 known species of algae in the world, he said.

"First we have to characterize the algae and pick the most robust strains for oil," he said "The next step is to put them into production and harvest them as a crop."

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Climate Change Affects CO2 sequestration by Diatom

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Tiny creatures at the bottom of the food chain called diatoms suck up nearly a quarter of the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide, yet research by Michigan State University scientists suggests they could become less able to “sequester” that greenhouse gas as the climate warms.

Zoology professor Elena Litchman, who works at MSU's Kellogg Biological Station

Litchman analyzed data from lakes and oceans across the United States, Europe and Asia and found a striking difference between the size of diatoms in freshwater and in marine environments. In oceans, diatoms grow to be 10 times larger on average than in freshwater and have a wider range of sizes.

One factor that affects growth is nutrient availability, Litchman said. The research shows that limitations by nitrogen and phosphorus exert different selective pressures on cell size. The availability of these nutrients depends on the mixing of water from greater depths. Using a mathematical model, Litchman and her colleagues found that when those nutrients are constantly limited and mixing is shallow, smaller diatoms thrive.

But when nitrate comes and goes, as often happens in roiling oceans, diatoms evolve larger to store nutrients for lean times. Deep mixing also benefits large diatoms. Depending on how intermittent the nitrate supply is and how deep the ocean mixes, there can be a wide range of diatom sizes. Size matters for the creatures that eat them and also for carbon sequestration, as large diatoms are more likely to sink when they die.

Changing climate could alter the mixing depths and delivery of nutrients to diatoms and their subsequent sizes with a cascade of consequences, Litchman said.

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"Why aren’t VCs putting money into pond scum?" Michael Weaver

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For all the hype surrounding algae biofuel, the moneymen still aren’t ready to invest. At a panel at the WSJ Eco:nomics conference, top venture capitalists John Doerr, Vinod Khosla, and Bryant Tong explained what they like (smart-grid technology) and what they don’t (algae).

The algae discussion was prompted by a question from Michael Weaver, whose company Bionovitas has made advances, he says, in bolstering the yield and cost-competitiveness of algae. Why, he asked, aren’t the big VCs putting money into pond scum when every other clean tech seems fair game?

All three said they’ve looked at dozens of algae biofuels plans in recent years; Mr. Khosla says he’s looked at more than 100. None have invested a dime so far.

For Mr. Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, the problem is algae itself. To get better economics, you need to grow the stuff in cheap, open-air ponds, not in fancy bioreactors. But that is rough on algae and limits yields. Mr. Tong, of Nth power, says both the economics and the timeline of algae biofuels are still ugly at this point.

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Catfish Farmers Becoming Landlords of Algae

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The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company wants to convert Barret's catfish ponds into an algae farm to produce alternative fuel, paying the owner of B&B Fish Farm thousands of dollars to baby-sit the new and unusual crop.

Barret and Jordan have agreed to lease their old catfish ponds to PetroSun to grow algae used in the production of biodiesel, ethanol, and livestock feed. The company plans to begin algae-to-biofuel operations after obtaining permits from the Department of Environmental Quality and other state agencies. Former catfish farm employees would help harvest the algae.

Terri Chiang, an authorized agent for PetroSun BioFuels, has been introducing the lease program to state officials and catfish farmers in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alabama. She said it's like an oil and gas lease.

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Solazyme Produces Algae Fuel and High-end cosmetics

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Solazyme’s researchers are genetically modifying algae to consume common feedstocks, like switchgrass, sawdust, or even glycerol waste from chemical plants; then fermenting it to get it to grow as fast as possible. If the algae consume more feedstock than they can use, they produce oil as a way to store the excess energy. It’s that crude oil that can be refined into biodiesel.

Thousands of gallons of algae oil are stored in 42-gallon drums then the crude oil is refined into “Soladiesel” for vehicles, jet fuel, food products, and high-end cosmetics.

Another product is Solazyme’s “healthy beauty serum” – a clear, odorless, pleasantly viscous substance that soaks into my skin immediately, supposedly imparting the same natural sun protections microalgae develop in the wild and attacking my crows’ feet with algae-powered antioxidants.

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Aurora Biofuels Completes Algae Trial, Appoints CEO

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Aurora Biofuels announced this week it had completed a successful trial of growing algae for biofuels and appointed former Royal Dutch Shell executive Robert Walsh as CEO.

Aurora has been growing algae in two outdoor ponds (each roughly the size of an Olympic swimming pool) in Florida for the past year and a half. Algae produces bio-oil which can be converted into biodiesel.

Aurora says the test results suggest it can go ahead with plans for a 50-acre demonstration facility for which it has raised $20 million.

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PetroSun provide Algae Biodiesel for Emissions Studies

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PetroSun, Inc. announced today it has agreed to provide five drums of B100 biodiesel derived from algae for three independent emissions studies being conducted by Carnegie Mellon, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and NextEnergy. The information produced from these studies will be of benefit to the algae-to-biofuel industry and assist in the Company's efforts to establish a carbon credit program for commercial algae operations.

The emissions studies conducted by Carnegie Mellon will include the investigation for scientific evidence that the emissions from the combustion of algae derived biofuels are characterized and provide a comparison of emissions to that of fossil fuel combustion. The program calls for emissions testing from several different sources.

The UCLA program, funded by a multi-year grant from the US Department of Energy, will conduct research to advance scientific knowledge of particulate emission rates and the chemical and physical properties of those particles relevant to climate. Other properties of the fuel such as nitrogen oxide emissions and organic compound speciation may also be completed.

The NextEnergy research will be conducted as part of the National Biofuel Energy Laboratory program based in Detroit, Michigan. The goal of the project will be directed at comparing the effect of biofuels on a lab scale basis, engine dynamometers and the operation of vehicles during cold weather.

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Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist- NASA Quote Algae

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A chief NASA scientist argues that the future is green ... and salty.

He says "Algae and bacteria are the two most important biofuel technologies of the twenty-first century. As a replacement for oil, algae is extremely practical, utilizes mostly cheap and abundant resources like saltwater and wasteland, and has the potential to reduce global carbon-dioxide output tremendously. Unlike corn or even sugar ethanol, halophyte algae (algae that grow in saltwater) do not compete with food stocks for freshwater. Agriculturalists are told to think of salt as bad, but people living on the shores of India have had a saline-based agricultural system for hundreds of years. For halophyte algae, salt is good"

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Aurora's algae payoff: $50 a barrel.

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Aurora Biofuels on Wednesday said that it has completed a successful trial of growing algae for biofuels and named former Royal Dutch Shell executive Robert Walsh CEO. The company has been running a test at growing algae in two outdoor ponds--each about as big as an Olympic-size swimming pool--in Florida for the past year and a half. 

Based on the results of that test, the company expects it can create a larger-scale demonstration facility that's 50 acres in size late next year, said Walsh who joined Aurora Biofuels from biofuel company LS9. The company raised $20 million last July to build that planned plant. 

The biofuels industry has been hit particularly hard by the financial markets meltdown and recession. Several new technology companies are developing techniques for turning algae into fuel because it isn't food and can grow in a wide range of conditions.

The challenge, though, is making and harvesting algae at large scale at a price that's competitive with other feedstocks, such as palm oil or soybeans. Aurora Biofuels is using a combination of biotechnology and engineering techniques to bring the cost down, said Walsh.

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Algal Biofuel Research Program by CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship

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The CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship is working with a number of partners, both national and international, to develop a strong algal biofuel research program.

“The Flagship’s research has made significant progress in a short time and our extensive biofuels program will continue to develop solutions that result in a secure fuel future for Australia,” Dr Beer said.

“Although the findings of our study are very promising, challenges still exist in relation to cost, infrastructure needs and the scale of production required to make algal plants feasible,” Dr Beer said.“We see biodiesel from algae as one potential option for sustainable fuel production amongst a range of other technologies.”

The paper, Greenhouse gas sequestration by algae – energy and greenhouse gas life cycle studies, is authored by CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric researchers Peter K. Campbell, Tom Beer and David Batten.

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High Energy Requirements Make the Algal Biofuel Manufacturing Prohibitive

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Algal biodiesel will be subject to the Law of Receding Horizons, which simply means that energy sources that require high energy inputs will always see their point of economic viability pushed farther out as energy prices rise.

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Useful Algae Culture and Cultivation Tutorials from Instructables

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Here's a detailed and excellent tutorial on how to cultivate algae. A must read for anyone interested in growing algae at home


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Algae Fuel Companies and Facilities in Hawaii

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Hawaii is big on algae, guess it is next only to San Diego!

Hawai'i has some world-class research teams, including HR BioPetroleum, led by Barry Raleigh and Mark Huntley, in a partnership with Shell Oil; Pacific BioEnergy, led by Paul Zorner and comprising Kamehameha Schools, Grove Farm and Maui Land; and Kuehnle AgroSystems, led by Heidi Kuehnle.

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Ingrepro Algae Production Facility in Netherlands

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Set amid the placid fields and farmland in Borculo, in the eastern part of the Netherlands, a 21,500 square foot pool is rapidly turning green with Algae in Ingrepro’s Algae production facility.

The algae is harvested and processed and the carbon exhaust from the steam engine used to dry the algae is once again pumped back into the pool.

Ingrepro BV is Europe’s largest Industrial Algae producer and boasts in-depth knowledge of cultivating algae under extreme (stress) conditions in order to obtain Enriched Algal Biomass (EAB).

Ingrepro is offering a tour of its facilities for those attending the Algae World 2009 conference in the Netherlands in April 2009. More on this from here

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