# Algae to Fuel



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Race to turn pond scum and other algae into affordable fuel heats up with new money, research *
1 November 2008

SEATTLE (AP) - Turning pea-green pond scum into cheap fuel for automobiles and airplanes is still years away, but supporters are still betting heavily with infusions of venture capital money and intensive research.

About $180 million in venture capital money has been raised for algae research, with more than half coming in the third quarter of this year, according to Cleantech, an industry research group.

Some academic institutes have set up dedicated algae research centers, and a handful of start-ups are planning to test algae on a larger demonstration projects in coming months.

"I'm convinced algae will work, but it'll take a different, out-of-the-box approach," said Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla, delivering the keynote address at the Algae Biomass Summit in Seattle last month.

The potential for algae to compete with fossil fuels is there, but it will take scientic breakthroughs to bring down costs and solve climate change, said Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems whose Khosla Ventures has invested in renewable energy though not algae.

That hasn't tempered interest in the field.

The federal government is starting to throw money into it. The Department of Energy has invested $2.3 million in algae-to-fuel grants so far this year. It invested $2.2 million in algae research in 2006 and 2007, though it wasn't specific to fuel production.

And the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research arm of the Defense Department, is launching a new program to study algal feedstock material, said Jan Walker, an agency spokesman.

About two dozen startups and researchers are developing ways to maximize growth and reduce costs -- including growing it in the dark, increasing the amount of sunlight that reaches the organisms and experimenting with oil-rich strains.

Algae offer the promise of a non-food feedstock with extremely high yields per acre. But how to grow it cheaply on a large scale is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry.

"We can grow algae. It's been demonstrated," said Al Darzins, a manager at the National Bioenergy Center at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colo.

But it costs anywhere from $10 to $100 a gallon now, and "obviously that's not cost-effective," he said.

The Colorado lab led a $25 million study of algae from 1978 to 1996, before money dried up and government research shifted to ethanol. The lab is now working with Chevron Corp. on a five-year project to research transportation fuels from algae.

But "people are starting to make the move from small little ponds to thinking about acres," Darzins said. "It's starting to scale up."

Sapphire Energy in San Diego is planning to build a demonstration station in Las Cruces, N.M. The startup has raised more than $100 million from investors, including Bill Gates's Cascade Investments LLC firm and ARCH Venture Partners.

Solazyme, in South San Francisco, said it produced thousands of gallons of fuel from algae that was tested to meet strict ASTM international standards for jet fuel.

"We are far beyond proof of concept," said Harrison Dillon, co-founder of Solazyme, which grows algae in the dark by feeding it biomass such as woodchips. "The test at hand is to bring the manufacturing cost down."

Dillon said the company is about 24 to 36 months away from hitting its target manufacturing cost of $2 to $3 a gallon, or $40 to $80 a barrel.

In Virginia, Old Dominion University has teamed up with a contractor to grow algae in a one-acre farm.

And GreenFuel Technologies in Cambridge, Mass. announced plans last month to build greenhouses in Spain to produce 25,000 tons of algae biomass a year with partner Aurantia SA.

In the Seattle area, startup Bionavitas is testing a process to bring light deeper below the surface, solving the problem of algae shading out growth below the initial top layer.

"If this can be done, the payoff will be large," said Bionavitas's chief executive officer Michael Weaver.

PetroAlgae, based in Melbourne, Fla., plans to complete a 20-acre demonstration farm early next year, said Fred Tennant, the company's executive vice president of business development.

The company was acquired in August by PetroTech Holdings Corp., a joint venture of a group of investors managed by New York based Valens Capital Management.

"The cost has to be low, the product has to be valuable," Tennant said. "Nobody needs another feedstock that is not economically sustainable."

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On the Web: Algae Biomass Organization: http://www.algalbiomass.org
National Renewable Energy Laboratory: http://www.nrel.gov


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## Whiteeclipse (Mar 31, 2005)

*Production, infrastructure, usage grow worldwide*

Throughout the world, biodiesel projects and policies are simultaneously being crafted. Biodiesel Magazine recently discovered such activities underway in China, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Brazil and Argentina.

Gushan Environmental Energy Ltd., a biodiesel plant in Beijing, resumed operations Sept. 22 after travel regulations during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games forced it to halt production Aug. 1. Traffic control measures restricted the ability of the plant’s suppliers to deliver raw materials. The company estimates it lost 3 million gallons in production during the Games.

Meanwhile, the Republic of China has granted 110 acres near an industrial site in Wahan, China, to BioCentric Energy Algae LLC. The company aims to build an algae farm that captures carbon dioxide to grow 80 tons of algae per day for biodiesel production. The algae would contain 47 percent oil, according to Dennis Fisher, president and chief executive officer of BioCentric.

In other algae developments, Alternative Energy Resources Ltd. in Dublin, Ireland, and a team of researchers at the National University of Ireland in Galway have successfully produced biodiesel from local species of algae, according to John Travers, chief executive for Alternative Energy Resources. The project reached the milestone after 18 months of work. 

http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2951


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Company pushing catfish ponds as biofuel farms *
24 November 2008

GREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) - With the catfish industry in turmoil and fuel prices in flux, an Arizona-based energy company has a plan for Mississippi's catfish farmers: transform their ponds into biofuel farms.

At a recent Mississippi Biomass Council meeting, PetroSun BioFuels unveiled a proposal to convert Mississippi's catfish ponds into algae farms. The algae, which have a high oil content, would be converted to biodiesel, ethanol, animal feed and other products.

By providing a potentially profitable use for Mississippi's 80,000 acres of catfish ponds, PetroSun's plan has generated interest from members of the state's aquaculture industry.

"This is definitely something that catfish farmers are interested in looking at as an alternative source of revenue for their farms," said Andy Whittington, president of the Mississippi Biomass Council.

Questions remain about the algae-to-biofuels technology, which is much newer than corn- and soybean- based biofuel. And with crude oil prices dropping after this summer's historic highs, the market for biofuels has weakened, threatening the profitability of the fledgling algae farming industry.

After peak profits in the 1990s, Mississippi's catfish farmers have fallen on hard times, due to the triple threat of high grain prices, high fuel costs, and competition from foreign-raised fish.

The market is so bad that Keith King -- president of Catfish Farmers of Mississippi and head of Dillard & Co., a catfish company in Leland -- decided last year that his company was going to exit the catfish business altogether.

King said Dillard has not determined what will be done with the company's 3,500 acres of ponds -- farm rice and soybeans, perhaps, or grow trees and grass through the federal Conservation Reserve Program.

Scottsdale, Ariz.-based PetroSun hopes struggling catfish farmers like King will also consider algae farming as a new use for their unprofitable catfish ponds.

The company wants to lease ponds for algae farming in exchange for rent and monthly royalties from algal oil and algal biomass production, as well as potential future profits from a carbon credit program, according to a press release announcing the plan.

PetroSun claims on its Web site that algae farming has the potential to produce 2,000 gallons of algae oil per acre, 30 times more oil per acre than corn and soybean crops, the traditional sources of biofuels.

Algal biofuel has another advantage over corn- and soybean- based biofuel, according to Whittington: It does not compete with food production.

Because it relies on crops usually used for food products, grain-based biofuel has been named as a cause for recent skyrocketing food prices. Land that was once used to grow corn for food is now being used to grow corn for fuel, thereby reducing the food supply and driving up food prices, according to critics.

Using catfish ponds to grow algae would not pose that problem because algae is not a traditional food product, and the ponds are no longer profitable as a way to raise catfish.

"(Algae farming) is not problematic because the ponds they are looking at are out of production," Whittington said. "The catfish market hasn't been what it needs to be, and there are a lot of ponds going out of production now."

Despite the apparent advantages of adopting algae farming, some still have questions about whether it could work in practice.

Mississippi Farm Bureau aquaculture coordinator Paul Chamblee said most algae-growing experiments he has seen have been in closed test tubes, rather than in an open pond.

"This is my first real exposure to it," Chamblee said. "These are my first dealings with an open-pond system."

Both Chamblee and King said that most of what they know about algae farming comes from PetroSun, rather than from their own independent research.

"We're just going by what they told us," King said. "We'd like to pursue it and find a little more about it, see if it's something that can work for us.

"If it appears to be viable, I think it could be great. That's yet to be determined."

Even if PetroSun's algae farming technology works, the market for alternative energy may not be as profitable as it once was, now that the price for crude oil has fallen below $60 a barrel after record highs this summer.

The price of ethanol cut in half between June and October, dropping from $3 to $1.50 a gallon.

But Whittington said the shifting energy market should not stop Americans from exploring biofuels, as oil prices could surge again.

"We need to remain committed to alternative fuel sources because we're going to face this situation again," he said. "If we table this now, we're going to be facing the same problems again."

And despite dropping oil prices and a weakening biofuels market, PetroSun plans to go forward with its push to convert Mississippi's catfish ponds to algae farms.

"Mississippi is one of the top states for getting involved with solutions for getting our country free from dependence on foreign oil," said Terri Chiang, a spokeswoman for Biomass Partners, which has served as a liaison between PetroSun and Mississippi's catfish farmers.

"We've had nothing but a positive response and good, open communication with all the farmers we've introduced the technology to."

------

On the Net:

PetroSun, http://www.petrosun.com

Catfish Farmers of Mississippi, http://catfishfarmersofms.org

Mississippi Biomass Council, http://www.ms-biomass.org


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## Homer J. Simpson (Dec 2, 2003)

I read about this in PopSci years ago.

I thought back then it was a seriously clever idea if it does turn out to be practical. The article was pretty hot on the idea of using large commercial roof top and over parking lot apparatuses would greatly decrease the land area needed for this technology to make a noticeable change.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Boeing, airlines testing algae oil as jet fuel; pond scum could be nonfood source of biofuel*
8 December 2008

SEATTLE (AP) - Boeing, airlines and engine makers are testing jet fuel made from algae and a nonfood plant called jatropha.

Continental Airlines says it will test the biofuel on a demonstration flight, with no passengers, Jan. 7 in Houston.

One of the engines of the Boeing 737-800 will be powered with a mix of jet fuel and fuel derived from algae and jatropha seeds. Boeing is a partner in the project that Continental says will be the first using algae as a fuel.

Air New Zealand also is testing jatropha fuel in a 747 jetliner using technology developed by UOP, a Honeywell company.

The Tacoma News Tribune reports Boeing was instrumental in forming the Algal Biomass Organization in Seattle to look for sustainable fuels that don't use farm land.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Weary catfish farmers becoming landlords of algae *
9 March 2009

BELZONI, Miss. (AP) - Pond scum was once an aquatic nuisance that Hall Barret III once hated to see in his catfish ponds.

It just might become his next cash cow.

After more than 30 years, Barret is giving up catfish and becoming a landlord of algae. And he's hoping his lease agreement with PetroSun BioFuels Inc. pays him huge royalties.

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.

"Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that I would be doing this," said Barret, who for decades has operated the Mississippi Delta fish farm with his sister Liz Jordan near Belzoni, known as the Catfish Capital of the World.

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.

Barret and his employees once battled the blue-green plantlike organism that can taint farm-raised catfish with a musty off-flavor and cost farmers time and money. That wild algae is not fit for production, but PetroSun says it can grow some suitable for alternative fuel.

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.

"We have given the landlord the opportunity to participate on all products that are produced on their property," Chiang said. "So initially, we have arranged for the landowner to receive $50 per water acre signed into the program as a sign-up, one-time payment. Additionally, the landlord will receive advance base rent payments at the beginning of every year of $100 (per acre)."

The real money for farmers would be the monthly royalties. For Barret and Jordan, who own 744 water acres, royalties could mean between $744,000 and $892,800 a year, based on PetroSun's formula.

However, there are skeptics.

Tom Konrad, a regulatory consultant and financial analyst for AltEnergyStocks.com, says PetroSun's idea of harvesting algae in open ponds isn't feasible.

"I believe that you can never economically produce algae for biofuel by that method," he said.

Konrad said it has been produced in closed environments where there are fewer challenges to harvesting.

PetroSun, a diversified energy company founded in 2001 by Gordon M. LeBlanc Jr., would not reveal the details of its algae growing methods.

Tom Byrne, a Minnesota-based renewable energy consultant and member of the Algal Biomass Organization, said companies researching algae-to-biofuel technology are looking at ponds because bio reactors are expensive.

Another challenge he said, is separating water from the algae.

"Algae isn't something you can just run through a filter," he said. "It is not easy to de-water once you really start working with it, so that's ... the bottleneck."

If the capital cost drops and the de-watering technology improves, Byrne said, aviation and the military could become viable markets for algae-based fuel. He predicts it will take five to 10 years before the industry makes a real difference.

"Which is faster than you can drill off the coast," he said.

Andy Whittington, president of the Mississippi Biomass and Renewable Energy Council, supports the PetroSun project.

"Algae-to-biofuels has a real chance to be successful and generate significant income for these farms," Whittington said.

He said revenue could potentially come from algae oil for biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol from the leftover algaecake, and a livestock feed additive from the residuals.

About 95 percent of the nation's catfish are produced on farms in Mississippi and the three neighboring states, in one of the nation's poorest regions.

Growers are suffering because of the rising cost of fish feed, fuel, and the influx of foreign fish into their market.

U.S. catfish growers had sales of $409 million in 2008, down 8 percent from the previous year. Sales have dropped 16 percent since 2006, according to USDA statistics.

"Right now the opportunity to grow algae is an option for these farmers," said Paul S. Chamblee, aquaculture coordinator for Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation. "If catfish farmers have an opportunity to make more money by changing crops, they will."

PetroSun has set up an office in Belzoni and the company is visiting sites in Mississippi and Arkansas.

Farmers looking to participate need at least 320 acres within the same area. Those with fewer acres would have to partner with a neighbor.

Jordan, 57, is excited about the new opportunity, but disappointed that an old way of life is ending.

In Belzoni, catfish was king.

"You have so many friends that are in the business ... And it is just sad to see them start to move away, looking for a job somewhere," Jordan said.

But she and her brother understand that change is a part of farming.

"Long years ago, daddy used to say he would never grow anything that you had to feed. Some people were in cows and livestock," Jordan said. "And then, lo and behold, we had all of these fish to feed. But we had to diversify, and so here we are. So we did get into the fish and ..."

"Now we are into the algae," Barret said with a smile.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Venice seaport eyes algae to fuel energy needs *

ROME, March 24 (Reuters) - Venice's seaport plans to become self-sufficient in its energy needs by building a power plant fuelled 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.

The plant -- only the third of its kind being planned in Europe -- will be built in collaboration with renewable energy services company Enalg at a cost of 200 million euros ($272.6 million), a port authority spokeswoman said.

Several companies are in the race to find economic ways to turn algae, one of the planet's oldest life forms, into vegetable oil that can be made into biodiesel and other fuels.

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 harbour, it said.

The port is was also considering a photovoltaic park that could produce 32 megawatts of solar energy.


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## nomarandlee (Sep 24, 2005)

..



> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123940976513610235.html
> 
> *Pond Scum Gets Its Moment in the Limelight
> An Algae Collection in Texas Is a Big Hit With the Biofuel Crowd*
> ...


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Iowa Power Fund approves $2 million grant to commercialize algae production for renewable fuel *
11 April 2009

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Iowa energy officials have approved more than $2 million for an effort to grow algae at a southwest Iowa ethanol plant and use the material to make fuel.

The 18-member Iowa Power Fund Board approved the $2,085,000 grant to assist in the commercialization of algae production technology.

The project by BioProcessAlgae LLC, is a joint effort by Omaha, Neb.-based Green Plains Renewable Energy and three other companies.

Scott Poor, corporate counsel for Green Plains, said the research and development grant will fund an algae production project at the company's Shenandoah, Iowa, ethanol plant.

"There is a great deal of synergy between ethanol production and algae production," he said. "The algae can utilize the carbon dioxide, water and heat from the ethanol plant, so some of the key inputs for algae production are already available."

Kevin Lynch, the chief executive of BioProcessAlgae, said the company will test its photobioreactor design in hopes of commercializing the algae production process.

He said the reactor -- about 16-feet tall and 3-feet wide -- is placed above the ethanol plant's fermenter. The enclosed system then captures the carbon dioxide, which when combined with incoming light forms the algae.

Lynch said the photobioreactor will produce up to 50 tons of algae a year from about 100 tons of carbon dioxide. About 25 tons of the algae will be in the form of oils that they hope can be converted into fuel such as biodiesel. The other 25 tons will be biomass-type products that can be used to make distillers grains, then fed to animals or transformed into more ethanol, he said.

He wouldn't speculate how much renewable fuel could be produced on a mass scale through algae production.

"You have got to be really careful when you talk about what the limits of any technology are," he said. "We have to tie it into an industry that exists already, which in this case is going to be ethanol, and then we have to see if we can make the algae ... cheaply and energy-efficiently, and then we have to see if we can process it into the usable fuel and a usable project."

If the project succeeds, Lynch said the state of Iowa could have the grant repaid, but it wouldn't get any ownership in the technology.

Brian Crowe, a senior program analyst with the Iowa Office of Energy Independence, which oversees the board, said it's important for Iowa, even during tough budget times, to invest in research and development projects that could create manufacturing jobs and next generation biofuels.

It helps Iowa "to maintain its position as a leader in renewable energy production and really taking the next steps that are necessary to put our state and our country on the path toward energy independence," Crowe said.

The other companies in the joint venture are filtration products manufacturer CLARCOR Inc., of Franklin, Tenn.; Bioprocess H2O LLC, a water filtration product and service company from Portsmouth, R.I.; and NTR PLC, an Irish energy-holding company.

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On the Net:

Iowa Power Fund: http://www.energy.iowa.gov


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Exxon Mobil makes first big investment in biofuels; partners with California firm*
14 July 2009

HOUSTON (AP) - Exxon Mobil Corp. said Tuesday it will make its first major investment in greenhouse-gas reducing biofuels in a $600 million partnership with biotech company Synthetic Genomics Inc. to develop transportation fuels from algae.

Despite record-breaking profits in recent years, the oil and gas giant has been criticized by environmental groups, members of Congress and even shareholders for not spending enough to explore alternative energy options.

One of the company's requirements was finding a biofuel source that could be produced on a large scale. It says photosynthetic algae appears to be a viable, long-term candidate. If the alliance is successful, pumping algae-based gasoline at Exxon service stations is still several years away and will mean additional, multibillion-dollar investments for mass production.

"This is not going to be easy, and there are no guarantees of success," Emil Jacobs, a vice president at Exxon Mobil Research and Engineering Co., said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But we're combining Exxon Mobil's technical and financial strength with a leader in bioscientific genomics."

Jacobs said the project involves three critical steps: identifying algae strains that can produce suitable types of oil quickly and at low costs, determining the best way to grow the algae and developing systems to harvest enough for commercial purposes.

Besides the potential for large-scale production, algae has other benefits, Jacobs said. It can be grown using land and water unsuitable for other crop and food production; it consumes carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas blamed for climate change; and it can produce an oil with molecular structures similar to the petroleum products -- gasoline, diesel, jet fuel -- Exxon already makes.

That means the Irving, Texas-based company will be able to convert the bio-oil into fuels at its own refineries and use existing pipelines and tanker trucks to get it to consumers.

The $600 million price tag includes $300 million for Exxon's internal costs and $300 million or more to La Jolla, Calif.-based Synthetic Genomics -- if research and development milestones are successfully met.

"Even though this is a multiyear program, we both still consider it a very aggressive timetable, and it involves a lot of basic research," said J. Craig Venter, founder and CEO of the privately held company. "As a result, you don't know the answers until you've done these tests and experiments."

Algae is considered a sustainable source for second-generation biofuels, which go beyond corn-based ethanol into nonfood sources such as switchgrass and wood chips.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC said earlier this year it would scale back large investments in wind and solar in favor of next-generation biofuels. The European oil giant is working with Canadian company Iogen Corp. on a method to produce ethanol from wheat straw, and partnering with Germany-based Choren Industries to develop a synthetic biofuel from wood residue.

Another oil major, BP PLC, plans to team up with Verenium Corp. to build a $300 million cellulosic ethanol plant in Highlands County, Fla.

For Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, the biofuels investment is tiny compared with its spending to find new supplies of crude and natural gas.

CEO Rex Tillerson said earlier this year Exxon's 2009 spending on capital and exploration projects is expected to reach $29 billion, up from the $26.1 billion it spent in 2008. The company said those levels are likely to remain in the $25 billion to $30 billion range through 2013.

Exxon Mobil shares rose 25 cents to $65.95 in trading Tuesday. They've traded in a range of $56.51 to $86.47 in the past year.

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AP Energy Writer Dirk Lammers in Sioux Falls, S.D., contributed to this report.


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## Huti (Nov 13, 2008)

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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Algae fuel a braves' new world
Ancestral land is being used to test facilities that can turn pond weed into biofuel*
6 September 2009
The Sunday Times

The sun shines on Coyote Gulch for an average of 300 days a year. The land in southwest Colorado belongs to the Southern Utes, the region's oldest continuous residents and now one of the wealthiest American Indian communities.

Beneath their ancestral lands lies one of the world's richest natural-gas fields. Energy and property investments have made the Utes a wealthy people. Now they believe they have spotted another opportunity: they have literally gone green.

Coyote Gulch is home to a high-tech plant that uses algae to make biodiesel. Pond scum and its relatives are fast becoming one the hottest research and investment areas in biofuels, part of a second generation of fuels trying to escape the controversies that tainted their forerunners based on food crops such as corn.

As a fuel crop, algae have a lot of advantages over corn and other plants. They are among the fastest-growing plants in the world and about 50% of their weight is oil. Grown in either open-pond or closedpond systems, once the algae have been harvested, the oils can be extracted and refined to make biodiesel.

Exxon, considered by some to be the world's least green oil company, has put $600m (¤419m) into algae research and thinks that when the system has been developed it could yield 2,000 gallons of fuel per acre each year. Corn yields 250 gallons per acre a year.

The Coyote Gulch experiment is being run by Solix Biofuels.

The Utes contributed almost one-third of the $20m in capital raised by Solix and have donated land and equipment to the project.

Doug Henston, Solix's chief executive, said many challenges remain. Rival firms are concentrating on finding the best types of algae to use. "We've had thousands of years to domesticate other plants. Nobody has domesticated algae," he said. Solix is "algae agnostic" and is concentrating instead on the other big dilemma for algae growing — open ponds versus closed ponds.

Algae fuel is not a new idea. The US Department of Energy conducted studies using open ponds for 18 years. It shut down the programme in 1996 after concluding that algae oil could never compete on price with fossil fuels.

However, open ponds are subject to contamination and Henston believes closed systems, while expensive now, can increase efficiency and, with scale, bring down the price of the final fuel. He is confident that the company has the technology to grow algae efficiently in tanks — known as photo-bioreactors — using less space than open ponds and allowing for more controlled conditions.

Solix is looking for partners among the large oil companies that already have the systems in place. Scaling up the technology will be all about those partners, he said.

Bob Zahradnik, who oversees the Utes' multi-billion-dollar energy investments, said the tribe had three main criteria for making renewable investments. "First, it has to be technically feasible. It might not have everything in place, and there may be some bugs to iron out, but it's got to be possible," he said.

Second, the project has to be "truly environmentally sound". The tribe ruled out investments in corn ethanol because they did not like the idea of using food for fuel. "For us, in a world with seven billion people, competing with food even for space is not a rational proposition," he said.

Third, it has to make economic sense. "We are long-term investors but we want to make money," said Zahradnik.

The Utes' interest comes at a low point for the biofuels revolution.

The recession, falling oil prices and "irrational exuberance" have all taken their toll, said Henston.

According to the National Biodiesel Board, an American trade association, two-thirds of American biodiesel production capacity now sits unused. Last year biofuels were blamed for soaring food prices and the use of food for fuel has become political dynamite in some countries. The surge in food prices led to a leap in algae investments last year, according to New Energy Finance (NEF), the research firm. Biofuel investment has reached $3.6 billion in the past two years and nextgeneration technologies such as algae now account for more than a third of that money.

Harry Boyle, an NEF analyst, said: "I was extremely sceptical about algae to begin with. It seemed like a classic area for venture-capital investors with little or no energy experience, simply seeing the big exit as where you sell your technology to an oil company or a utility."

Boyle said several factors, though, had now made algae more attractive. The first two are political. The rise in food prices has put fresh impetus behind the new generation of biofuels that do not need to use food crops. And algae can be raised on land that is not suitable for farming, avoiding arguments about using arable land for fuel.

Boyle said algae technology also had some inherent advantages of its own. Algae biodiesel can be used as aviation fuel — last year Continental flight No 9990 became the first example of an airliner testing algae fuel during a commercial trip.

The process, he said, is also a useful way of sequestering carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas thrown off in harmful amounts by power stations. The unique properties of algae mean they can be used to clean up the environment.

Nasa scientists are working on a project that uses municipal waste water to grow algae. The system purifies waste water at the same time as producing oil. A cost-effective way of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions would provide a powerful boost for the algae industry.

America has set a target of injecting 36 billion gallons of biofuels into the fuel supply in 2022, up from 11.1 billion gallons in 2009. Present trends — both political and scientific — suggest that if the American government is to hit its targets, algae and other second-generation fuels will have to be part of that mix.

Despite last year's ructions, the Utes' long-term view may turn out to be a green investment in more ways than one.

GREEN IDEA

UK households throw away 6.7m tonnes of food each year, but the trend for home composting is growing. BEEcycle, founded by Kenneth Cheung, 24, creates products to help with recycling. His miniature self-contained eco-system, the OvO, uses worms to break down waste into compost. He was a finalist in this year's Make Your Mark Awards. You can order his products on www.beecycle.co.uk

How the process works

Algae make oil naturally and can be processed into biocrude, an equivalent of petroleum, or refined to make other fuels and chemicals for plastics and drugs

1 Cultivation takes place in open ponds or closed photo-bioreactors where nutrient-laden water is pumped through plastic tubes that are exposed to sunlight

2 During photosynthesis, algae capture carbon dioxide and sunlight and convert it into oxygen and biomass from which the biocrude is extracted. They can grow 20 to 30 times faster than food crops

3 The oil can be harvested in a variety of ways. The simplest method is to squeeze the algae in a manner similar to an olive press. More chemically complex methods can extract a higher percentage of oil. The remaining waste is biodegradable Sunlight Carbon dioxide Biomass Oxygen Algae


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## nomarandlee (Sep 24, 2005)

> http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091022/sc_afp/lifestyleusclimateenergyalgae_20091022065724
> 
> *Algae may be secret weapon in climate change war*
> 
> ...


..


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## disnalan (Nov 17, 2009)

"This is my first real exposure to it," Chamblee said. "These are my first dealings with an open-pond system."

Both Chamblee and King said that most of what they know about algae farming comes from PetroSun, rather than from their own independent research.

"We're just going by what they told us," King said. "We'd like to pursue it and find a little more about it, see if it's something that can work for us.

"If it appears to be viable, I think it could be great. That's yet to be determined."

Even if PetroSun's algae farming technology works, the market for alternative energy may not be as profitable as it once was, now that the price for crude oil has fallen below $60 a barrel after record highs this summer.

The price of ethanol cut in half between June and October, dropping from $3 to $1.50 a gallon.

But Whittington said the shifting energy market should not stop Americans from exploring biofuels, as oil prices could surge again.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Yes .. once China and India start to secure their part of the oil supply, prices will spike again. Hope people realize that is coming and go the renewable route well beforehand!


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## Orton39 (Nov 4, 2009)

*Fuel from algae?*

I was talking with a friend about a poll I just put a comment to on th and then the idea of renewable fuels came up (or just renewable power). During the gas crisis of last year there was tons of posts about algae created fuels, whether it was everyday gas or diesel... now I haven't heard anything about them. Has their funding dried up now that gas is arguably cheaper now? Or are things still going on and it's still in the research phase? There any site out there that keeps up on how things are going?


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