A little Green Power may go a long way
By Azam on March 27, 2008The alternative energy source that may solve a solution for energy requirements maybe reside in a unicellular organism algae. Some have called the pond scum technology as an effective alternative and more likely alternative to traditional biofuels that compete with the food supply and the unintended consequences of food inflation affecting the ability to feed the world. The idea of harvesting algae as potential fuel source has been proposed earlier and the federal government through NREL has funded fundamental research that has lead to progress in the field. A number of companies are now working on different strategies to turn little green algae into fuel that can power the energy the requirements of the world.
A time during the U.S. faced an energy crisis in 1978, President Carter established the Aquatic Species Program (ASP) lead to research initiative with goal of developing biodiesel from algae for an alternative to gasoline. The program was axed at the NREL 1996, and the team kept the promising research available at the Dept of Energy for the future use. Now there is increasing and renewed interest in the field and projections that in near future commercialization of technology will bring fuel to the market.
Biofuels Comparison
SugarCane 650 gal/acre
Corn Ethanol 370 gals/acre
Soybean 60 gal/acre
Palm Oil 600 gal/acre
The Algae Advantage
* Cheap, Clean, Renewable and Natural oil source (Algae is comprised of up to 60 percent oil).
* Highly Reproductive & Easy Grow almost anywhere (does not require large land mass as food crops).
* Ability to Remove CO2 from the air as they grow
* Thrive on water, sunlight, CO2 and nutrients
* Offers higher harvest yields per acre yields that are estimated between 10,000 to 15,000 per/acre
Also, the algae has potential for being converted into a variety of useful products Algae can use to produce alcohol for ethanol, biomass that can be burned in a furnace, or used as animal feed. A single hectare has potential to generate 8,000 gallons of oil, 2,400 gallons of ethanol a year and 2.6 tons of glycerin, a material bought by the cosmetics industry, he said.
The additional benefit is having algae in ponds next to coal-fired power production plants to consume CO2 gases. The carbon dioxide from the plants is captured and provides the nutrient for growing the algae. At a 100 megawatt coal-burning power plant, 100 acres of algae ponds, optimized with species that grow well in that particular environment, will consume 90 percent of the CO2 from the plant. The real benefit to the environment in capturing greenhouse gases and reduces issue of global warming and negative impact.
GreenFuel
Green Fuel is developing algae bioreactor systems to convert carbon dioxide emissions into renewable, clean-burning biofuels. GreenFuels comes out of research from MIT and NASA to combine algae bioreactors and CO2 from power plants to yield a variety of products from algae based on design of the project. The company has been pilot testing in Arizona next to a power plant. Recently, the company is working on a potentially larger scale project in Europe.
LiveFuels
LiveFuels plans to cost-effectively producing large amounts of biocrude that will have to be refined. The company strategy is to grow algae in ponds for low cost production and . The company plans to invest in research and is working with Sandia Labs and experts consultants in the field to further R&D and plans to commercialize biocrude product by 2010.
Solix
The Fort Collins based company plans to create bio reactors to increase yield of the algae. Solix uses Photo bioreactor, algae selection, and specific photo biological formula that is designed to dynamically change over the algae growth-cycle for optimum cell growth, oil production, and pre-harvest stabilization for increased yields. The company plans to place reactors near power plants to take advantage of CO2 for feeding into bio fuel reactor. The company has pilot running with brewing company utilizing the CO2 from fermentation. The company is working on perfecting the combination of the right algae and condition to produce yields of biofuel on a large scale.
Solazyme
Solazyme prefers taking a darker approach to algae. The company keeps their algae in the dark to increase production and the nutrient feed. The company claims that algae are 1000 times more efficient at producing oils from sugar compared to growth by sunlight. The company plans to turn algae into biodiesel, jet fuel, food oils and high-end cosmetic oils. The company is partnering with Chevron to develop super crude for refining.
Currently, the algae bio fuel is expensive to produce and has yet been able to produce large scale amount of product. The companies are in the early stages of research and need to scale production to be cost effective. As the green revolution moves on, an alga is likely to play its part in crude and a more refined form in the future.
Tags : Algae, Biofuel, Green Fuel, LiveFuels, Solazyme, Solix