Morbidly Obese Algae

A California group has discovered a metabolic trigger in algae cells that "would substantially increase lipid production and lead to high yield." They're calling this, in other words, "fat" or "obese" algae (link).

In California, Sustainable Green Technologies announced that SGT scientists have uncovered a “lipid trigger” in green algae. Under certain conditions, many microalgae had appeared to “flip a switch” that increased production and storage of oils instead of starch. SGT said that it is able to activate the switch and to create “obese algae.

“We found the waste from our biohydrogen system sparked tremendous growth of our green algae, and more importantly, massively increased lipid production and storage within our algae,” said SGT CSO Dr. Elmar Schmid. SGT’s CSO. In other words, our algae became obese within one week! We now have a highly efficient, cost-effective way of producing large amounts of algae oils for biodiesel fuel production. On top of that, we can produce clean biohydrogen from the resulting biodiesel refinery waste!” exclaims Dr. Schmid.

SGT’s biohydrogen-producing microbes can convert a variety of feedstock into biohydrogen energy including glycerol waste, sugars derived from sugar cane and sugar beet, brewery waste. SGT said it had also applied for a DOE grant for its biohydrogen and algae system.

- Brewskie

OriginOil's Algae Biofuel Breakthrough

Yup, yup... I'm 100% cocksure that breakthroughs will make algae biofuel viable on a cost-competitive scale. It may be a few years away, perhaps as far as 10, but some herd of eggheads is going to nail this. I'm putting my ego's stock in this like I pumped it into shale gas: betting it would be abundant, it would become cheaper to produce, that it would be a viable energy source far past our lifetimes (and look what happened). So, without further ado, let's check into OriginOil's latest proclamation:

OriginOil, based in Los Angeles, just announced another potential breakthrough in getting oil from pond scum. One big difference from the spate of recent announcements in the algae-sphere: Origin’s new technology promises a better way to “milk” algae to extract their natural oils.

The upshot is that Origin uses electrical pulses to get at the oil inside algae without killing them, leaving them alive to produce more oil. Other processes rely on “harvesting” the algae, extracting the oil, then waiting for a fresh batch of algae to grow. Origin plans to merge the two methods—culling part of the algae and milking part of it.

The company says it is a low-tech and thus lower cost solution than other ideas that have been making the rounds. Most of those rely on genetically-engineering algae to excrete hydrocarbon-like liquids. And cost is still a huge issue for algae-to-oil operations, even if the cavalry is coming in the form of more government goodies.

- Brewskie

Dow Chemical to Demonstrate Algae Biofuel Plant

As reported earlier, ExxonMobil announced it was pumping big money into algae biofuels, and now, Dow Chemical is announcing it will partner with Algenol to demonstrate an Algae Biofuel plant:

Florida startup Algenol Biofuels says that it can efficiently produce commercial quantities of ethanol directly from algae without the need for fresh water or agricultural lands--a novel approach that has captured the interest and backing of Dow Chemical, the chemical giant based in Midland, MI.

The companies recently announced plans to build and operate a demonstration plant on 24 acres of property at Dow's sprawling Freeport, TX, manufacturing site. The plant will consist of 3,100 horizontal bioreactors, each about 5 feet wide and 50 feet long and capable of holding 4,000 liters.

The bioreactors are essentially troughs covered by a dome of semitransparent film and filled with salt water that has been pumped in from the ocean. The photosynthetic algae growing inside are exposed to sunlight and fed a
stream of carbon dioxide from Dow's chemical production units. The goal is to
produce 100,000 gallons of ethanol annually.

[...]

Blue-green algae do produce small amounts of ethanol naturally, but only under anaerobic conditions when the cyanobacteria are starved or in the dark. Paul Woods, cofounder and chief executive of Algenol, says that his company has modified its algae so that it can produce ethanol under sunlight through photosynthesis, first by turning carbon dioxide and water into sugars, then by boosting and controlling the enzymes that synthesize those sugars into ethanol.

Another big difference for Algenol is that it doesn't have to harvest its algae to extract the ethanol, eliminating a step that has proved costly and complex for other algae-to-biofuel startups. John Coleman, chief scientific officer at Algenol and a professor of cell and system biology at the University of Toronto, says that the ethanol produced within the algae will seep out of each cell and evaporate into the headspace of the bioreactor.

[...]

Dow is particularly interested in Algenol's process because ethanol replaces fossil fuels in the production of ethylene, which is a basic chemical feedstock for making many types of plastics. Oils from algae are less useful, says Steve Tuttle, business director of biosciences at Dow. "Biodiesel doesn't necessarily fit in with what we'd want to use as a downstream product," he says.

Tuttle says that Dow, on top of leasing land and supplying a source of industrial carbon dioxide, will also assist with process engineering and help develop advanced plastic films for covering the bioreactors. Other partners in the project include the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Algenol has applied for a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy that would help fund the demonstration project.

Woods is convinced that the process can be scaled up, and at a favorable cost of production. "It's our expectation to produce ethanol for $1.25 a gallon," he says, adding that the resulting ethanol gives back 5.5 times more energy than what it takes to produce it, making the renewable fuel competitive with cellulosic ethanol production. Woods notes that Algenol's approach offers another bonus: "Every gallon of ethanol made creates one gallon of fresh water out of salt water."

- Brewskie

Exxon Mobil Gets Into the Algae Game

Exxon Mobil is dead set to prove algae-derived biofuel critics dead wrong (link):

On Tuesday, Exxon plans to announce an investment of $600 million in producing liquid transportation fuels from algae — organisms in water that range from pond scum to seaweed. The biofuel effort involves a partnership with Synthetic Genomics, a biotechnology company founded by the genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter.

The agreement could plug a major gap in the strategy of Exxon, the world’s largest and richest publicly traded oil company, which has been criticized by environmental groups for dismissing concerns about global warming in the past and its reluctance to develop renewable fuels.

[...]

Algae also has another benefit, which could eventually help cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Like any plant, it needs carbon dioxide to grow. But Exxon and Synthetic Genomics hope to genetically engineer new strains of algae that can absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide — like that emitted by power plants, for example.

Exxon’s investment includes $300 million for in-house studies and “potentially more” than $300 million to Synthetic Genomics “if research and development milestones are successfully met,” Exxon said.

- Brewskie

Grubby Landfill to Algae Biofuel Plant

The town of Woodbine has spent decades of dealing with the after-effects of its closed landfill. Now a solution has arrived: converting it into a $200 million biofuel plant to convert Algae into usable fuels:

To Mayor Bill Pikolycky, Woodbine's old landfill has been a big headache. Closed for decades, the 45-acre property is covered with scruffy vegetation and needs an environmental cleanup that would cost the tiny Cape May County borough millions of dollars.

The site began to look like an opportunity, however, after the mayor heard Andrew Greene's unusual proposal.

Greene sees the landfill as a prime location for Garden State Ethanol, a $200 million biofuel plant that would use more than 100 bioreactor tanks to convert algae into ethanol and biodiesel oil. And Pikolycky sees the venture as a way to generate tax income and jobs and to have the site remediated at no expense to the borough.

[...]

Greene, president of Garden State Ethanol of New Brunswick, and former chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Health Network, is seeking funds for the project. He has been "in talks with an institutional investor," he said.

If approved, work on the plant, off Fidler Road, could begin by early next year, said Greene, of East Windsor, N.J.

He said the project was expected to yield scores of construction jobs and about 60 permanent positions at the 24-hour-a-day plant.

Garden State Ethanol plans to work with Rowan University to identify the most productive species of algae and the best environment in which to grow it, Greene said.

"These are the early days" of algae bioreactors, said Jim Lane, editor and publisher of the Miami-based Web publication Biofuels Digest. "About 20 to 30 companies are actively developing pilot programs.

[...]

The town of 3,000 has a 9 percent unemployment rate, one of the worst in South Jersey, and is the 86th most economically distressed of 566 state municipalities, the mayor said.

A water-treatment plant operated by the borough and another at the Woodbine Developmental Center would provide the 100 million gallons of treated but nonpotable water that would run through pipes to Garden State Ethanol.

There, the water would be fed into bioreactor tanks up to 20 feet high and 12 feet wide, with light and temperature controlled to grow algae, Greene said. Electricity at the plant would be supplemented by solar units.

Once the algae blooms, a third of the water is removed and sent through a centrifuge to produce an algae cake. That cake contains oil and carbohydrates that are separated. The oil is sent by rail to a nearby refinery and turned into biodiesel fuel. The carbohydrates are processed into ethanol, which is added to gasoline at the refinery, Greene said.

"You can do the whole thing again in 24 hours," Greene said. "Every year, we'll produce 13 million gallons of biodiesel oil and 25 million gallons of ethanol."

- Brewskie

Milking Diatoms For What They're Worth

Research into algae bio fuels counties at a fantastic pace. It seems evident some company, or someone will nail this. Here's a twist by Indian and Canadian scientists (link):

Richard Gordon, T. V. Ramachandra, Durga Madhab Mahapatra, and Karthick Band note that some geologists believe that much of the world's crude oil originated in diatoms, which produce an oily substance in their bodies. Barely one-third of a strand of hair in diameter, diatoms flourish in enormous numbers in oceans and other water sources. They die, drift to the seafloor, and deposit their shells and oil into the sediments. Estimates suggest that live diatoms could make 10−200 times as much oil per acre of cultivated area compared to oil seeds, Gordon says.

"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."

- Brewskie

EU Snubs Algae Biomass; US Cocksure

The European Algae Biomass Association released a pessimistic outlook for algae biomass, where as the US seemed uberly optimistic (link):

In Italy, the European Algae Biomass Association officially launched yesterday with a decidedly pessimistic outlook for commercial-scale algae bioenergy production. New EABA Executive Director Raffaello Garofalo said that it will take 10 to 15 years for algae to reach industrial-scale production, and that, at present, making biodiesel from algae costs 10 to 30 times the cost of making biodiesel from traditional feedstocks.

Garofalo told Reuters that the new association has 54 members and that he saw a price of $500-$550 emerging for the algal fuel market, in the long-term, after other fractinos of algae biomass were sold for animal feed or to the nutraceutical markets. Garofalo referred to pilot projects in Portugal and Italy but cautioned against expectations of quick breakthroughs in the path towards algae commercialization.

This outlook contrasts with a more upbeat assessment from the United States, where Sapphire Energy has projected that it will reach 1 Mgy in production in 2011 and 100 Mgy by 2018, while Solazyme has projected reaching 100 Mgy by 2012 or 2013. Biofields has projected production in Mexico of 250 Mgy by 2013 based on the Algenol process, and PetroAlgae has indicated it expects reach commercial-scale production volumes (below 100 Mgy) in 2011 based on its licensing activity to date. Aurora Biofuels has projected the development of “$1.30 at the gate” fuel by 2013.

My opinion of this? I think the European Algae Biomass Association should pay closer attention to the news.

- Brewskie

"Pond Scum" to Power Venice

It's known as "Serenissima," "Queen of the Adriatic," "City of Water" and as I call it, "the City of Slime;" but now Venice has an energetic plan to power its town, and deal with its plaguing algae problem. Read below, or be lazy... and check out the link:

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.

The algae will be cultivated in laboratories and put in plastic cylinders where water, carbon dioxide, and sunshine can trigger photosynthesis. The resulting biomass will be treated further to produce a fuel to turn turbines. The carbon dioxide produced in the process will be fed back to the algae, resulting in zero emissions from the plant. “Venice could represent the beginning of a global revolution of energy and renewable resources. Our goals are to achieve the energetic self-sufficiency for the seaport and to reduce CO2 emissions, including those one produced by the docked ships”, says the president of the seaport of Venice Authority, Paolo Costa.

- Brewskie

Major Breakthrough for Algae Growth to Benefit Biofuels

Bionavitas recently announced a new technology, Light Immersion Technology (LIT), that ignites Algae into rampant growth. Algae is the warlord biofuel and it's easy to grow; a major hurdle is getting it to grow in meaningful quantities, because as it grows, it becomes denser and blocks out needed sunlight to aid scalable growth.

Bionvavitas' new Light Immersion Technology is geared to solving just this. Read below:

Algae, shown to have the potential for solving the reliance on fossil fuels for energy production, are widely recognized as an important source for biodiesel production. Harnessing the power of the sun or an artificial light source by immersing it in the culture, Light Immersion Technology effectively produces an order of magnitude more algae biomass than existing growth methods, thereby increasing yields and reducing the cost to make algae-based biofuels price competitive with petroleum products.

Algae are the ultimate feedstock for biofuel production, promising yields that are hundreds of times greater than those of traditional land-based oil crops such as soy beans or rapeseed (canola oil). The dramatic yields depend upon the efficient use of solar energy not possible using previously existing technologies. Before Bionavitas made its Light Immersion Technology available to the public, nearly every large scale approach to algae growth has been challenged by a simple fact of nature: as algae grow, they become so dense they block the light needed for continued growth.

This “self-shading” phenomenon results in a layer that limits the amount of algae per acre that can be grown and harvested. The Light Immersion Technology developed by Bionavitas fundamentally changes this equation by enabling the algae growth layer in open ponds to be up to a meter deep. This represents a 10 to 12 time increase in yield over previous methods that produced only 3-5 centimeters of growth.

Bringing light to algae...

At the core of Light Immersion Technology is an innovative approach at bringing light to the algae culture in both open ponds and closed bioreactors through a system of light rods which extend deep into the algae culture. By distributing light below the surface “shade” layer and releasing the light in controlled locations, algae cultures can grow denser. In external canal systems, the rods distribute light from the sun into the culture. This abundant and free energy source is ideal for generating large amounts of algae for use as biofuels.

In closed bioreactors, the rods evenly distribute more readily absorbed red and blue spectrum light from high efficiency LEDs. While the LEDs increase the cost of production, algae grown in these systems are used for higher value markets such as nutraceuticals.

- Brewskie