Poop-Grown Algae to Fuel Cars? - Red Herring

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Poop-Grown Algae to Fuel Cars?

Aquaflow says biodiesel made from wild algae extracted from sewage ponds got a successful test drive - December 15, 2006, By Jennifer Kho @ Red Herring

Excerpts

1. Aquaflow Bionomic, a startup based in Malborough, said earlier this year that it produced the world’s first sample of biodiesel from sewage ponds, and the test drive proves the “wild algae” biodiesel can power a car.
2. Many consider algae to be an attractive alternative to current biofuel materials—such as corn, soybeans, and palm—because the slime has a high lipid density.
3. But growing algae is difficult, and challenges to bringing it to mass production include cost and reliability, among other things. So the idea of extracting algae that already exists, such as in sewage ponds is an interesting possibility
4. Algae are already readily produced in huge volumes in nutrient-rich waste streams such as in sewage settling ponds.
5. Aquaflow has developed organic chemistry and engineering technology to convert sewage algae into biodiesel.
6. A company spokesperson said Aquaflow’s technology could supply 10 percent of America’s biodiesel requirement in five to 10 years.
7. U.S. aims to replace 30 percent of its transportation fuel with biofuel by 2030.
8. Joel Makower, a principal at Clean Edge, said waste streams are a great untapped resource.
9. The company Aquaflow has only produced “a couple of liters” of the stuff so far, and plans to grow production to 1 million liters next year. It still must prove its technology can economically produce large volumes.
10. One particular advantage of the human-sewage approach is that algae from sewage tends to have a lot of oil, said Cary Bullock, CEO of Greenfuel Technologies
11. Sewage-treatment plants with open ponds make up only about a third of New Zealand’s plants. With Aquaflow’s technology, that would make a potential supply of 20- to 30-million liters a year. That’s not much compared to a 3.1-billion-liter worldwide biodiesel market, itself a tiny part of the diesel market.
12. Aquaflow has gotten inquiries from the U.S., Portland, Scotland, Italy, and South America
13. Outside of sewage, Aquaflow hopes to tap into other waste streams, such as dairy, wine, and food.

Read the complete report @ Red Herring

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About Oilgae - Oilgae - Oil & Biodiesel from Algae has a focus on biodiesel production from algae while also discussing alternative energy in general. Algae present an exciting possibility as a feedstock for biodiesel, and when you realise that oil was originally formed from algae - among other related plants - you think "Hey! Why not oil again from algae!"

To facilitate exploration of oil production from algae as well as exploration of other alternative energy avenues, Oilgae provides web links, directory, and related resources for algae-based biofuels / biodiesel along with inputs on new inventions, discoveries & breakthroughs in other alternative energy domains such as solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, geothermal, hydrogen & fuel cells, gravitational, geothemal, human-powered, ocean & wave / tidal energy. We hope Oilgae proves to be useful as a research information & inputs resources, and as a source of news & info for business & trade of algal oil, algal fuels & new alternative energy products - specially with regard to new feedstock / feedstocks, production processes and uses, and market info such as price / prices, data & statistics