Pond Biofuels pilots unique algae bioreactor at cement plant

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  Pond Biofuels assessed and selected strains based on robust growth rates and reliability for use in southern Ontario environmental conditions.
  
  

Toronto, Ontario-based Pond Biofuels Inc. is piloting a unique algae production system at St. Mary’s Cement with support of the Ontario government. According to Pond Biofuels, the new system will reduce greenhouse gases by absorbing dirty smokestack emissions to grow algae, which can be used in oil production, converted into biodiesel or bioplastics, or act as a renewable replacement for coal.

“Ontario is proud to support innovative companies like Pond Biofuels that are turning innovative ideas into great jobs,” said Brad Duguid, Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development and Innovation. “We are proud to support the development of new technology that benefits the environment, provides an alternative source of energy and creates new, high-quality jobs in Ontario.”

Pond Biofuels is currently piloting a 16,000 liter (4,227 gallon) algae production facility at the cement plant. According to Pond Biofuels Project Manager Jaime Gonzalez, the company’s technology utilizes a unique bioreactor system. Unlike most traditional algae bioreactors, Gonzalez said Pond Biofuels’ system utilizes high-efficiency LEDs. “We use these LEDs to produce wavelengths of light that algae use for photosynthesis,” he said. LEDs, however, aren’t the only source of light energy the technology employs.

“To be even more energy efficient, we also use solar light during the day,” Gonzalez said. “We filter it so we don’t have to transmit all of the solar spectrum into the bioreactors. We only transmit the wavelengths in the spectrum that algae need for photosynthesis.” The remainder of the light can be used to produce electricity via photovoltaic systems. According to Gonzalez, the system is able to put almost as much power into the grid during the day as it pulls at night, making the energy balance nearly zero. Pond Biofuels has designed it’s systems to be even more energy efficient by utilizing waste heat from industrial hosts as energy to dry the algae.

“One of the main criticisms of bioreactors is they use a lot of energy [when compared to raceways or open ponds],” Gonzalez said. He noted, however, that Pond Biofuels has been able to significantly reduce the energy required to run its systems. The unique systems are also more suitable for co-location with industrial hosts, he said, due to the fact that the bioreactors require far less land than open ponds.

With the pilot plant already in operation, Pond Biofuels is preparing to scale up its system. According to Gonzalez, a 100,000 liter (26,417 gallon) demonstration scale facility should be operational by mid-2012. A commercial-scale facility could be operational at St. Mary’s by 2014.

Max Kolesnik, Pond Biofuels’ president, noted that his company is able to leverage two different business niches: reducing greenhouse gases at industrial emitters, and producing feedstock for the biorefining indsutry. “The two-sided coin of a business model has a very big potential in the marketplace,” he added.

Once commercial production is reached, Kolesnik said he expects Pond Biofuels will expand its operations in three ways. It will build, own and operate its own algae production facilities. It also plans to build, own and operate facilities in partnership with industrial emitters. Finally, he noted that his company plans to license its technology to third parties.

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Algae.Tec: Standard and Poors initiates Factual Stock Report coverage

Algae.Tec (ASX: AEB) has become the subject of Factual Stock Report coverage by New York financial services firm Standard and Poors.

“The S&P coverage will extend our reach to a wide range of investor audiences in the USA and internationally providing weekly updates on pricing, trading volume, recent developments, a financial review, key operating information, industry and peer comparisons, and institutional holdings analysis,” executive chairman Roger Stroud said.

The coverage coincides with Algae.Tec’s recent successful $5 million capital raising. This will fund the fast tracking of the company’s recently announced commercial projects.

The market continues to respond to the company's recent milestones including the signing of major deals with companies in China, Sri Lanka and Europe.

Algae.Tec is now well funded for 2012, as the company continues to talk to groups about potential offtake agreements.


Shandong Kerui Group Holding Milestone Deal

Earlier this month, Algae.Tec signed a binding memorandum of understanding for a 50:50 equity joint venture in China with Shandong Kerui Group Holding to build the first biofuels and carbon capture facility in China.

Importantly, Shandong will be putting half the equity into the project, which shows very strong commitment to the project on their part.

The 250-module biofuels facility will be built in Dongying, in Shandong Province, and will produce about 33 million litres of algae derived transport oil and 33,000 tonnes of biomass per annum at a combined value of over $40 million. It will capture 137,000 tonnes of waste carbon dioxide.

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Microbubble technology improves algae harvesting

Researchers at the University of Sheffield (UK) have developed a technique for harvesting algae using microbubble technology. The technique builds on previous research in which microbubbles were used to improve the way algae is cultivated.

Algae produce an oil which can be processed to create a useful biofuel; however, cost-effective methods of harvesting and removing the water from the algae for it to be processed effectively are challenging.

A team led by Professor Will Zimmerman in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering developed an inexpensive way of producing microbubbles that can float algae particles to the surface of the water, making harvesting easier, and saving biofuel-producing companies time and money. The research will be published in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering.

Zimmerman and his team won the Moulton Medal, from the Institute of Chemical Engineers, for their earlier work which used the microbubble technology to improve algae production methods, allowing producers to grow crops more rapidly and more densely.

“We thought we had solved the major barrier to biofuel companies processing algae to use as fuel when we applied microbubbles to grow the algae more densely. It turned out, however, that algae biofuels still couldn't be produced economically, because of the difficulty in harvesting and dewatering the algae. We had to develop a solution to this problem and once again, microbubbles provided a solution”, Zimmerman said.

Microbubbles have been used for flotation before: water purification companies use the process to float out impurities, but it has not been done in this context, partly because previous methods have been very expensive.

The system developed by Zimmerman's team uses up to 1,000 times less energy to produce the microbubbles and, in addition, the cost of installing the Sheffield microbubble system is predicted to be much less than existing flotation systems.

The next step in the project is to develop a pilot plant to test the system at an industrial scale. Zimmerman is already working with Tata Steel at their site in Scunthorpe using CO2 from their flue-gas stacks and plans to continue this partnership to test the new system.

The research was supported by the University of Sheffield's Knowledge Transfer Account, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It was also backed by the Royal Society Innovation Award 2010, and the Concept Fund of Yorkshire Forward.

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Aurora Algae set to raise $100M

Aurora Algae began operations in Karratha mid last year and now has its sights on raising $100 million after hitting the $22 million mark a few months ago.

The $22 million has left the company fully funded until its next expansion phase of harvesting algae-based biomass for products in the nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, aquaculture and renewable energy markets.

Daniel Sanudo checks the water quality in the 50sqm pond

The company’s Karratha operation is planned to be increased from the initial 100 hectares of commercial operation to 400 hectares in the next stage, and then 1000 hectares.

The company is looking to raise $100 million from existing and new private investors by mid-year, and is aligning at an IPO later in the year.

Founder and managing director, Matthew Caspari said the next phase will get Aurora Algae into profits.

“It’s highly scalable,” he said.

Mr Caspari said that existing investors such as Gabriel Venture Partners are expected to return in this round, plus an un-named strategic investor.

The venture uses a large amount of marginal land, but being in Karratha enables it to take advantage of the improving infrastructure, thanks to the resources boom.

‘’It is easy to get things in and out, thanks to the resources industry,’’ Mr Caspari said.

‘’The downside is labour is amazingly expensive and housing is amazingly expensive.”

The company has not provided any indication of likely production volumes as it scales up, but it will produce ‘’hundreds of tonnes of material a month; thousands of tonnes a year’’.

Karratha has been the perfect place for Aurora Algae to make profit within a few months.

The abundant sunlight means the algae grow quickly – doubling in volume in a day – ensuring plentiful product for processing.

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Scientists hail algae biofuel breakthrough

New production method promises to save cost and energy as Etihad becomes latest airline to trial biofuels

Using algae to produce sustainable biofuel could become a commercially viable option after scientists claimed to have developed a new cost-effective harvesting method.

One of the major stumbling blocks to the technology, which promises to yield greener fuels without impacting food production, has been removing water from the algae to allow it to be processed effectively.

But by creating a cheap method of producing microbubbles that allow algae particles to float to the surface of the water, researchers at the University of Sheffield believe they can make harvesting easier and save biofuel producers time and money.

The system also uses 1,000 times less energy to produce the bubbles than previous methods and could be installed at much lower cost, professor Will Zimmerman, who led the research, claimed in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering.

The research builds on earlier work by the team at Sheffield, which allowed producers to grow algal crops more rapidly and more densely.

"We thought we had solved the major barrier to biofuel companies processing algae to use as fuel when we used microbubbles to grow the algae more densely," professor Zimmerman said.

"It turned out, however, that algae biofuels still couldn't be produced economically, because of the difficulty in harvesting and dewatering the algae. We had to develop a solution to this problem and once again, microbubbles provided a solution."

Algae-derived fuels are thought to be highly suitable for industries such as aviation, which is looking to lower its environmental impact with the advent of emissions trading in the EU.

Qantas and the US Navy are both experimenting with algae-based fuels, which according to advocates could produce the huge quantities needed to decarbonise aviation without affecting agricultural output.

Fuels produced from waste have also proved popular, with airlines including Lufthansa, British Airways, United and Virgin exploring the concept, while Etihad, national airline of the UAE, piloted the Gulf's first biofuels flight earlier this week.

he airline's newest Boeing 777-300ER landed in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday after a 14 hour flight from Seattle, during which it used a combination of traditional jet fuel and fuel derived from recycled vegetable cooking oil.

The fuel, produced by Dutch company SkyNRG, has been used by Boeing as a 'fly-away' fuel for every new delivery, a programme that was praised by James Hogan, Etihad Airways' president and chief executive.

"This flight marks a significant milestone in our efforts to support and drive the commercialisation of sustainable aviation fuel in Abu Dhabi, the region, and globally," Hogan said in a statement.

"However, the use of a presently available biofuel is just one part of a more comprehensive long-term biofuel strategy to ensure that we are able to use biofuels to decarbonise substantially an entire industry sector in the long term."

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Algae.Tec raises $5 million

Australian company Algae.Tec has raised AUS$5 million (€4 million) through Patersons Securities and the money will be used to fast-track the business’ commercial plans.

Recently Biofuels International reported that Algae.Tec formed a joint venture with Chinese company Shandong Kerui to build a 250-module algae biofuels facility in China.

Algae.Tec executive chairman, Roger Stroud, says the company was happy with the fundraising round: ‘This again demonstrates that sophisticated investors are aligned with the need for alternative transport fuel technologies such as the Algae.Tec enclosed algae to biofuels solution.

The market is also responding to the recent milestones and commercial deal announcements the company has signed with major companies in China, Sri Lanka and Europe.’

The technology used by Algae.Tec allows for algae to be grown at a high rate and uses a special harvesting technique called the McConchie-Stroud system.

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Cyprus wants to grow tiny algae and see if they are a good biofuels alternative to diesel

Cyprus Agricultural Research Institute, a non-profit branch of the Agriculture Ministry, wants to grow tiny algae and see if they are a good biofuels alternative to diesel reports Cyprus Mail.Biofuels are a renewable energy source and can be an answer to the global problems of increasing energy needs amid dwindling non-renewable resources and climate change.Organic material, such as soya, can be converted into burnable biofuels. But there’s a catch: arable land is in short supply and growing crops to use as fuels is in direct competition with growing crops to eat.And just growing enough of the stuff can be tricky, said the Agricultural Research Institute’s Polycarpos Polycarpou.“One of the main problems with biodiesel (a kind of biofuel) is having enough raw materials to make production possible. A solution seems to be growing microalgae - present in sea water,” said Polycarpou.Polycarpou is the co-ordinator of a three-year research project launched this week in collaboration with 12 organisations from six countries, which is 90 per cent funded by the European Union.

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Ready to enter commercial phase says Algae.Tec CEO on recent news

By Erin Voegele | January 30, 2012

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Algae.Tec Ltd. has made several important announcements over the past month. On Jan. 11 the company announced plans to nearly quadruple capacity at its algae development and manufacturing facility in Atlanta. A week later on Jan. 18, Algae.Tec announced it had signed a binding Memorandum of Understanding with Shandong Kerui Group Holding Ltd. to form a 50/50 joint venture in China for a commercial-scale algae production project. In addition, the company also announced a $5 million capital raising event with Patersons Securities Ltd.

According to Algae.Tec CEO Peter Hatfull, the cumulative impact of these announcements means that his company is making the transition from a development-stage company to a commercial entity. “We’ve reached a completely new level,” he told Biodiesel Magazine. “We are getting external validation of our technology and building commercial plants. It means that within two to two-and-a-half years we will have significant revenue coming in, and that, of course, is the basis for share price increases,” he said. “This is a game changer for Algae.Tec.”

Hatfull specifies that the $5 million being raised through Patersons Securities will be used for two purposes. First, it will be used to fulfill obligations Algae.Tec has made under partnerships with Lufthansa and the Sri Lanka subsidiary of Holcim. While the demonstration-scale project under development at the Holcim cement plant will eventually scale-up to commercial levels, it will initially feature a demonstration operation utilizing five of Algae.Tec’s algae production modules.

The capital will also be used to upgrade the Atlanta manufacturing center. “We will improve both our research and development [operations] there, and our production manufacturing capacity,” Hatfull said. Larger production capacity will be needed to fulfill the needs of the Chinese joint venture, which will require 250 algae production modules.

The joint venture project in China is expected to be fully operational within 12 to 18 months, Hatfull said. While the Atlanta facility will manufacture algae production modules for the project, Hatfull also noted that the actual cost of the China project will be subject to a separate capital raising event. He estimates that his company will need to raise approximately $20 million to finance its half of the project. According to Hatfull, he sees an enormous potential in the Chinese marketplace for algae biofuel technologies, and fully expects Algae.Tec to license its technology to other Chinese carbon dioxide producers in the future.

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Aurora Algae Appoints Paul Angelico as Chief Operating Officer

HAYWARD, Calif., Jan 26, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Aurora Algae today announced the appointment of Paul Angelico as Chief Operating Officer. Angelico will oversee operations at the Company's Hayward, Calif. headquarters, as well as its demonstration facility in Karratha, Western Australia. His responsibilities will also include leading the engineering, construction and operations of Aurora Algae's full-scale production facility in Maitland, Western Australia, which is scheduled to break ground in Q4 2012, while spearheading efforts to scale the facility to its maximum capacity. Angelico will play a key role in leading the drive to commercialize the company's algae-based platform for sustainable nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, aquaculture and renewable energy products.

"We are excited to add Paul to our growing executive team," said Greg Bafalis, CEO of Aurora Algae. "With our Australian demonstration facility hitting production goals and a major commercial plant in the works, Paul's extensive experience in the renewable chemicals, biofuels and food ingredients industries will prove extremely valuable as we scale to meet growing market demands for sustainable algae-based products."

Paul Angelico started his management career in 1978 as Operations Manager at a Procter & Gamble consumer goods manufacturing facility. In 1994, he cofounded Twin Rivers Technologies, which purchased the manufacturing facility from Procter & Gamble, and established an oleochemical refining business operating a 160 million pound refinery. As President and COO, he grew Twin Rivers Technologies in size, production capacity, and profit, serving the oleochemicals, renewable biofuels, and food ingredients markets. The company was sold in 2007 and Paul was retained as President until 2009. From 2009-2011, Angelico was a Principal at management consulting firm The Dover Group. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Angelico will be based in the Company's Hayward, Calif. headquarters, reporting directly to CEO Greg Bafalis. For more information, please contact info@aurorainc.com.

About Aurora Algae

Aurora Algae is a producer of high-performance, premium algae-based products for the pharmaceutical, nutrition, aquaculture and fuels markets. The Company has developed the industry's first commercial-scale photosynthetic platform for sustainable, algae-based product development. Aurora Algae's proprietary algae strains and production process uses arid land, seawater and captured carbon pollution from industrial emitters, resulting in more capitally efficient and more environmentally sustainable algae farming. Aurora Algae enables its customers and partners to improve the diversity and sustainability of their product portfolios, while addressing consumer demand for natural products. For more information, please visit www.aurorainc.com .

SOURCE: Aurora Algae

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Seaweed is the new algae of biofuels

We've certainly been hearing a lot about algae as a biofuel feedstock. 



But now, a team of scientists from a privately-held lab in California have developed a breakthrough technology they claim will enable advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals to be manufactured from macroalgae—more commonly known as seaweed.



The process, developed by Berkeley-based Bio Architecture Lab (BAL), works by first transforming seaweed into a renewable chemical intermediate, and then producing chemicals or fuels through chemical synthesis or fermentation.

According to BAL, aqua-farmed seaweed is the "world's lowest cost, most scalable, and sustainable source of sugars for biofuels and renewable chemicals production." 



And, in truth, seaweed overcomes many of the challenges facing commercial production of advanced biofuels. For one, like algae, it has no lignin – the chemical compound that makes veggies, plants and wood firm – and is highly resistant to the enzymes necessary to unlock the sugars in cellulosic biomass. It also has high sugar content.

However, according to Biofuels Digest, algal biofuel production has its own challenges, which some think could be addressed by transitioning to seaweed as a feedstock. First, there is the issue of getting the algae out of the water it grows in—this is much trickier than removing seaweed from the water.

Second, after extracting the lipids from algae, biofuel producers are left with a ton of residual biomass, which must be disposed of somehow—often, by burning it, or feeding it to cows. Either way, the water and the waste must be transported. This fact leads some critics to argue that the amount of fossil fuels that go into producing biofuels from algae make it an unsustainable biofuel feedstock.

Like algae, seaweed also has the advantage of not requiring arable land to grow. However, unlike algae, seaweed does not require freshwater to grow, and it produces a lot less residual biomass. Further, we already know how to farm it. Commercial-scale production of seaweed is already underway in many parts of the world, including Chile, where BAL has four seaweed farms.

The company was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) to develop a process to convert sugars from seaweed into isobutanol. According to ARPA-E Program Director Dr. Jonathan Burbaum, "BAL's technology to ferment a seaweed feedstock to renewable fuels and chemicals has suggested an entirely new pathway for biofuels development," he said.

"When fully developed and deployed, large scale seaweed cultivation combined with BAL's technology promises to produce renewable fuels and chemicals without forcing a tradeoff with conventional food crops such as corn or sugarcane."

In addition to ARPA-E, BAL's technology is also supported by the Concurso Nacional Grant provided by InnovaChile CORFO, and the Norwegian oil giant Statoil. The technology was recently featured in the Jan. 20 issue of Science magazine.

Interestingly, researchers at Clemson University have also identified the alginate in seaweed as a promising substitute for the toxic compounds used to manufacture binder material for lithium-ion battery electrodes. They believe that using the alginate-based compound could also boost battery storage capacity.

Original post available here.

Important step forward to produce biofuel from algae

Some seaweeds have the potential to produce biofuels. (Photo: Bio Architecture Lab)

Researchers have devised a new system that can transform brown seaweed into biofuel. They believe the development opens the door to a new possible source of energy that could help replace fossil fuels.

They are using bacteria genetically engineered to break down a sugar in seaweed called alginate that until now was inaccessible.

The results are being published in the journal Science.

The researchers then generated ethanol, and they say the method has the potential to produce other biofuels too, Live Science reports.

Yasuo Yoshikuni, a study researcher and chief science officer and co-founder at Bio Architecture Lab in California, explained that the new system could be used to make various products, such as a source (also called a feedstock) for other biofuels, which could include butanol or chemicals used in biodiesel.

Fuel from Seaweed. ( Image: Bio Architecture Lab)

"It opens up a vast new potential for biofuel feedstocks," said Tom Richard, director of the Institutes of Energy and the Environment at Pennsylvania State University.

Still, scientists must find out if it is economically feasible to use seaweed to produce biofuel and whether it is environmentally attractive.

Seaweed is a better alternative than corn or sugar cane because seaweed is not a popular food crop and does not compete with farming. This time they used kombu.

"This is one of the great debates about biofuel: Is there sufficient agricultural land to produce the food we require in society and also produce significant amounts of biofuels", Richard said.

Although high in sugars and thus useful to make biofuels, seaweed appeared to have limited because alginate until now could not be broken down efficiently enough to produce biofuel on an industrial scale.

As marine microbes can already break down alginate, transport the products and metabolize them, Yoshikuni's team first investigated the details of this process. They then engineered a more industry-friendly microbe, E. coli, to do something similar and yield ethanol.

The last of the steps could be replaced to produce other biofuels or even chemicals such as plastics and polymer building blocks.

This system also exploits other sugars in the seaweed, mannitol and glucan, since the E. coli can break down mannitol and commericially available enzymes can easily break glucan down into glucose.

This system could be used in any brown seaweed.

Dan Trunfio, BAL's CEO, said harvesting seaweed along 3 per cent of the world's coastlines, where kelp already grows, could produce 60 billion gal of ethanol.

Richard and Somerville, however, acknowledged that producing ethanol this way may require more work to become cost-effective on an industrial scale.

BAL, which is now testing farming methods at four pilot seaweed farms off Chile, is working on commercializing the process to make ethanol and renewable chemicals, Trunfio said.

But the environmental question remains.

Seaweed needs nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus – which are lacking in the oceans, and fertilizing the ocean is harmful because it creates dead zones with low oxygen content. But he noted that since BAL's seaweed farms are located near salmon farms, the seaweed can use salmon waste as fertilizer.

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Algae.Tec: well supported by sophisticated investors with A$5m capital raising

Advanced renewable oil company Algae.Tec (ASX: AEB, FWB: GZA:GR, ALGXY: US) has recommenced trading this morning after the successful completion of a A$5 million placement to sophisticated investors through Patersons Securities.

The placement is comprised of 12.5 million shares at $0.40, with the issue also including attaching options of one for every two shares, which an exercise price of $0.75 in early 2014.

Roger Stroud, chairman, commented on the positive news and strong endorsement from the investment community:

"This again demonstrates that sophisticated investors are aligned with the need for alternative transport fuel technologies such as Algae.Tec enclosed algae to biofuels solution."

Another positve for Algae.Tec is that the market continues to respond to the company's recent milestones including the signing of major deals with companies in China, Sri Lanka and Europe.

Stroud added, "Algae.Tec also offers a profitable solution for carbon emitting companies and industries seeking carbon dioxide reduction technologies."


Milestone signed with Shandong Kerui Group Holding

Highlighting how quickly Algae.Tec is on the move, and by the way the company was one of the best performing IPO's on the ASX during 2011, just last week a deal was signed with Shandong Kerui Group Holding to build the first biofuels and carbon capture facility in China.

The memorandum of understanding is for a 50:50 equity joint venture, which shows very strong commitment from the group, as China moves towards reducing pollution and carbon as part of its current five year plan from 2011-2015, with a pledge to reduce the amount of carbon emitted per unit of gross domestic product by 40% by 2020.

The 250-module biofuels facility will be built in Dongying, in Shandong Province, and will produce about 33 million litres of algae derived transport oil and 33,000 tonnes of biomass per annum at a combined value of over $40 million. It will capture 137,000 tonnes of waste carbon dioxide.

The joint venture will also look to secure funding, following completion of the 250-module plant to build new projects exceeding 1,000 modules and engage with carbon dioxide emitters in the greater China region.


Stroud outlines the forward plans for Algae.Tec

Recently Stroud told Proactive Investors how Agae.Tec continues to look for, and enter into, global alliances:

“We intend to continue to talk to groups about offtake agreements, about supply and obviously more joint venture arrangements of a country-wide nature,” he said.

“In other words, with China, this joint venture (Shandong Kerui Group Holding) is with the group for the whole of China. So we will want to do the same thing in the U.S., the same thing in Australia and the same thing in Brazil.”


Milestone signed with Lufthansa

Last month Algae.Tec signed a biofuels memorandum of understanding with the European airline Lufthansa, and announced a biofuels production and carbon capture deal with the Sri Lanka subsidiary of industrial giant Holcim.

The Algae.Tec solution is less than one tenth the land footprint of pond growth options, while its enclosed module system is designed to produce algae biomass in virtually any environment.

The system is designed to deliver the highest yield of algae per hectare and, importantly, does not require the use of food producing land for biofuel production.

Original post available here.

Local biofuels company gets welcome support from province

Scarborough company working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industry

Local biofuels company gets welcome support from province. Pond Biofuels CEO Steve Martin, left, displays oil created by algae to Scarborough Centre MPP and Minister of Economic Development and Innovation Brad Duguid and Scarborough-Guildwood MPP and Minister of Consumer Services Margarett Best at the company's east Scarborough location. Staff photo/DANIELLE MILLEY

A Scarborough company working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industry received some welcome support from the province Thursday.

Minister of Economic Development and Innovation Brad Duguid paid a visit to Pond Biofuels Thursday, Jan. 19, morning for a tour and to announce an investment of $1.9 million.

"That's the least we can do ... This is 10 new jobs here in Scarborough, which is wonderful. That is today, this new technology has the potential to create hundreds of jobs," Duguid said.

Scarborough-Guildwood MPP Margarett Best was also on hand for the tour in her riding.

Pond Biofuels has been piloting a new, high-tech carbon dioxide absorption system at St. Marys Cement in southwestern Ontario. The new system will reduce GHG emissions (a major cause of climate change) by absorbing raw smokestack emissions to grow algae, which can be converted into biodiesel fuel and pellets that act as a renewable coal substitute.

Steven Martin, the company's CEO, said the government investment will be used to take the project to the next level at the St. Marys facility.

"We're going to increase the scale and output of the facility to that more closely aligned with a commercial facility," he said.

Company staff split their time between the office and lab in Scarborough, and the facility in St. Marys, so the investment directly creates local jobs. Duguid said the support aligns with the province's vision of making Ontario a hub for research and innovation.

"It's an incredible piece of innovation that has the potential to have ground breaking importance both on reducing pollution, and building a healthy future and economic opportunity," he said.

The company was founded by Martin and president Max Kolesnik four and a half years ago. Much of the research around producing energy from algae was done in the United States as part of the Aquatic Species Program, which was cancelled in the late 1990s.

Martin said the difference was they took the information and set to work right away using untreated smokestack gas to feed the algae, which has worked very well. The partnership with St. Marys made that possible.

"There was a critical confluences of events," Martin said. "We were lucky."

Martin Vroegh, the environmental manager, at St. Marys Cement was already trying to find a way to reduce the environmental impact of the company before he met with Pond so it was a natural fit.

"These guys said the magic words, 'we can get rid of your CO2 and it won't cost you anything'," he said.

The cement industry is one of the biggest GHG emitters. For every tonne of cement produced, three quarters of a ton of CO2 is released.

"When our second most manufactured product is deemed to be undesirable it starts to become an extremely problematic thing, not just from an environmental prospective, but also a triple bottom line perspective," Vroegh said.

The company not only turned over its St. Mary's plant for the pilot project, but it's also invested in Pond.

Pond has attached 1,000 feet of stainless steel pipe to the smokestack at St. Marys Cement that leads to the algae containment area where all of the CO2 used in production comes from the smokestack (the algae also consume the nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide produced at the plant). Algae grows quickly and can consume almost twice its weight in carbon dioxide.

Not only does the technology allow for carbon to be captured, but the resulting algae biomass can be used for energy production in the form of biodiesel or a coal replacement.

The algae produced is 11 per cent oil, of which Pond's technology can extract 90 per cent. One full-scale project at St. Marys could create 250,000 tonnes of algae, which could produce 29 million litres of biodiesel fuel.

"We're on the cusp of producing the fuel," Martin said.

Pond anticipates progressing to a full-scale commercial facility at St. Marys by 2014; Martin said they're also in discussion with steel plants.

Original post available here.

Algae.Tec accelerates expansion, to build first biofuels facility in China

Algae.Tec (ASX: AEB) has signed a binding memorandum of understanding for a 50:50 equity joint venture in China with Shandong Kerui Group Holding to build the first biofuels and carbon capture facility in China.

Algae.Tec executive chairman Roger Stroud said, importantly, Shandong would be putting half the equity into the project, which shows very strong commitment to the project on their part.

“China is a country focused on a ‘blue skies’ policy. This JV has been formed to help China move towards this important goal,” he said.

“The Algae.Tec technology will reduce unwanted emissions and will convert them into locally produced transport fuels which will add to fuel independence.”

China is targeting pollution and carbon as part of its current five year plan from 2011-2015 with a pledge to reduce the amount of carbon emitted per unit of gross domestic product by 40% by 2020.

The 250-module biofuels facility will be built in Dongying, in Shandong Province, and will produce about 33 million litres of algae derived transport oil and 33,000 tonnes of biomass per annum at a combined value of over $40 million.

It will capture 137,000 tonnes of waste carbon dioxide.

Stroud said this facility will be the first of many. The joint venture will accelerate the Algae.Tec project expansion and roll-out throughout China, targeting corporations and environmental authorities.

The joint venture will also look to secure funding, following completion of the 250-module plant to build new projects exceeding 1,000 modules and engage with carbon dioxide emitters in the greater China region.


Capital Raising

Patersons Securities will aim to place 12.5 million shares at A$0.40 each to sophisticated and professional investors to raise $5 million. This will fund the fast tracking of Algae.Tec's recently announced commercial projects.

The raising is expected to be completed in three days.

The company will also issue attaching options on the basis of one option for every two shares subscribed. The options will be American options with an exercise price of $0.75 and a maturity date of 31 January 2014.

Last week Algae.Tec announced the four-fold expansion of its Atlanta, Georgia-based Algae Development and Manufacturing Centre to 70,000 square feet to scale up production line capability for existing and upcoming commercial projects.


Forward Plans

Stroud told Proactive Investors today Agae.Tec is looking into entering global alliances.

“We intend to continue to talk to groups about offtake agreements, about supply and obviously more joint venture arrangements of a country-wide nature,” he said.

“In other words, with China, this joint venture is with the group for the whole of China. So we will want to do the same thing in the U.S., the same thing in Australia and the same thing in Brazil.”

Last month Algae.Tec signed a biofuels memorandum of understanding with the European airline Lufthansa, and announced a biofuels production and carbon capture deal with the Sri Lanka subsidiary of industrial giant Holcim.

The Algae.Tec solution is less than one tenth the land footprint of pond growth options, while its enclosed module system is designed to produce algae biomass in virtually any environment.

The system is designed to deliver the highest yield of algae per hectare and, importantly, does not require the use of food producing land for biofuel production.

Original article available here.

OriginOil and DOE Join Forces to Move Algae Crude into Commercial Marketplace

Over the past two months OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL) has strengthened its relationship with U.S. federal government in multiple ways. The most recent of which is an announcement of a new partnership with the Department of Energy, which will see the company work together with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to develop an integrated system capable of directly converting raw algae into renewable crude oil.

The goal of the project is to have a technology which can enable algal crude oil to be produced at commercial levels and used at existing oil refineries. The partners have named the developing technology the Biocrude System.

The Biocrude System will combine OriginOil's algae harvesting system with state-of-the-art biomass processing technology that is being developed by OriginOil and INL under a different research agreement.

Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil CEO, says by helping algae growers not only harvest large amounts of oil but also enabling them to make a crude oil replacement right on site will move algal fuel from a small, niche market into a large-scale commercial operation: "That's an instant upgrade from what is now a niche market, to the immediate 86 million barrel per day global crude oil market."

Dr. Deborah Newby, Project Manager at DOE's Idaho National Laboratory said this project has the potential to support the U.S. Department of Defense's strategic fuels diversification program in a serious way. The U.S. military is currently exploring multiple technologies which might be able to ease its massive oil demand, much of which comes from foreign sources such as the Middle East or Canada.

In December, OriginOil formed a joint venture to develop biorefineries serving the U.S. and NATO military requirements for alternative fuels.

Original post available here.

Algae.Tec granted a trading halt pending capital raising announcement

Algae.Tec (ASX: AEB) was one of the best performing IPO's on the ASX during 2011 as investors embraced the company's advanced renewable oil strategy.

Algae.Tec has today been granted a trading halt by the ASX pending an announcement surrounding a capital raising program, with the company's shares placed in pre-open.

The company is currently in a very interesting position, and earlier in the month expanded its Algae Development & Manufacturing Centre in the United States to accommodate commercial production programs.

The facility, in Atlanta, Georgia, has increased almost fourfold to 6,500 square metres, which will ensure capacity for Algae.Tec’s existing and upcoming commercial projects.

The halt will last until the earlier of an announcement being made to the market, or the opening of trade on Friday 20 January.

Original post available here.

Algae Biofuels Dealt a Blow by BP funded EBI

The Energy Biosciences Institute -- funded by a $500 million grant from oil giant BP -- has released a "technoeconomic" report meant to cast a discouraging pall over the future of algal biofuels, chemicals, and plastics production. It is easy to see why BP might want to hold off the coming deluge of algal fuels -- at least for another few decades. There are still a lot of profits to be made in the old-fashioned crude oil business, once the lords of energy starvation are finally removed from office.

It is also true -- as the report states -- that growing pure algal monocultures for oil extraction is a difficult and costly enterprise, likely to require several more breakthroughs before becoming profitable and capable of scaling to industrial size. But did the report actually address the relevant and likely timeline for the early and middle evolution of algal energy, fuels, plastics, and chemicals? It does not appear that the authors of the report even came close to a realistic assessment of the likely evolution of algae for energy, fuel, plastic, or chemicals. Here's one look at EBI's report:

A new report from the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) in Berkeley projects that development of cost-competitive algae biofuel production will require much more long-term research, development and demonstration. In the meantime, several non-fuel applications of algae could serve to advance the nascent industry.

'Even with relatively favourable and forward-looking process assumptions (from cultivation to harvesting to processing), algae oil production with microalgae cultures will be expensive and, at least in the near-to-mid-term, will require additional income streams to be economically viable,' write authors Nigel Quinn and Tryg Lundquist of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), which is a partner in the BP-funded institute.

Their conclusions stem from a detailed techno-economic analysis of algal biofuels production. The project is one of the over 70 studies on bioenergy now being pursued by the EBI and its scientists at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and Berkeley Lab.

... Four key resources (suitable climate, water, flat land and carbon dioxide) must all be available in one location for optimal algal biomass production. The authors state that despite the need for all four resources, algal oil production technology has the potential to produce several billion gallons annually of renewable fuel in the U.S. However, achieving this goal, particularly at competitive capital and operating costs, will require further research and development.

The EBI report focuses on algal biofuels produced in conjunction with wastewater treatment as a promising cost-effective strategy to fast-track development of a practical production process. Besides providing the needed water and nutrients, use of wastewater in algae production provides the potential for income from the treatment service provided.

The areas the study identified as essential for R and D are in both the biology and engineering fields. The ability to cultivate stable cultures under outdoor conditions, while achieving both high productivities and oil content, is still to be developed. Despite the well-known rapid growth rate of algae, increasing the volume of algae oil produced per unit of surface area per year is a crucial goal. Oil-rich algae strains that are biologically competitive with contaminating wild species and that consistently grow well in various climates are needed. Other key steps to be improved are low-cost harvesting of microscopic algae cells and the extraction of their oil content, as well as dealing with the biomass residue remaining after oil extraction. _Source

The study suggests that it will take 10 years just to conclude their studies on the viability of large scale algal fuels. How convenient! 10 years is the time period for BP's funding grant to EBI. ;-)

But seriously, just a quick glance at a summary such as the one linked above shows a number of glaring deficiencies in EBI's analysis.

1. Near and mid-term successful utilisation for algal energy and fuels will depend upon algal biomass -- not algal oils. It will indeed take 10 years to develop economic and scalable means of algal oil extraction and diesel production from algal oil.

2. Algal monocultures are not necessary for rapid production of algal biomass. In fact, multiple synergistic cultures are apt to produce higher quantities of mass more quickly.

3. There is no shortage of seawater and relatively flat coastal plains for production of synergistic algal symbiots for rapid algal biomass production.

4. There is no shortage of CO2, when algal biomass is the object -- rather than algal oil -- of algal energy, fuels, plastics, and chemical production. CO2 is a byproduct of the entire operation.

5. Algal species bloom wildly under a range of climates -- depending upon the species combinations and the chemical and biological environment within these species happen to be growing. Different regions will naturally utilise different groupings of algal species and wastewater influent to suit the climate.

6. The topic of algal growth factors which trigger algal blooms has not been exhausted by any means. While simple chemicals such as phosphorus and CO2 act to stimulate algal growth, no doubt a large number of other less bulky and more subtle growth stimulants remain to be discovered.

A number of other problems hidden within the author's assumptions and methods will need to be teased out and analysed. But clearly the issue takes on an entirely different light when looking at algal feedstock as a hardy and prolific biomass rather than as an oil grown from fragile monocultures.

Original post available here.

Algae.Tec, Shandong Kerui for algal biofuels JV in China

In China, Australia’s Algae.Tec has signed a binding MOU for a 50/50 equity joint venture (JV) in China with Chinese company the Shandong Kerui Group Holding Ltd.

The first project under the JV will be for the construction of a 250-module algae biofuels facility in China to be equally funded by both parties.

At the same time, the company is seeking A$5 million through the sale of 12.5 million shares at 40 cents each.
Algae.Tec Executive Chairman, Roger Stroud, said the facility will be the first of its size and type in the world, being purely focused on algae for the production of transport fuels.

“The equally funded 250-module biofuels facility to be built in Dongying, in Shandong Province, will produce approximately 33 million litres of algae derived transport oil and approximately 33,000 tonnes of biomass per annum at a combined value of over $40million, and capture 137,000 tonnes of waste carbon dioxide. And this should be the first of many,” said Stroud.

The JV will accelerate the Algae.Tec project expansion and roll-out throughout China, targeting corporations and environmental administration authorities.

Algae.Tec will provide the technology – the McConchie-Stroud biofuels production system – and the Kerui Group will provide knowledge and expertise to accelerate business development and the identification of viable project sites. They will also advise on dealing with relevant authorities to secure the required approvals.

Last week Algae.Tec announced the four-fold expansion of its Atlanta, Georgia based Algae Development & Manufacturing Centre to 70,000 sq ft to scale-up production line capability for existing and upcoming commercial projects.

Original post available here.

Algal Biofuels - Time for Grand Scale Production?

Though there is much mention of the promise of algal biofuels and word of their commercial development, it seems timely to view what precisely has been achieved in terms of significant algal biofuel production rather than laboratory-based research, which has been going on for about 50 years. The U.S. Navy has fuelled a destroyer ship using 20,000 gallons of algae-based biofuel for a 20-hour trip, and is its largest alternative fuel experiment to date.

Thus a decommissioned destroyer made a successful journey from San Diego to Port Hueneme, in California. In terms of air-transport, United/Continental Airlines have made a second successful test flight powered by algal fuel, flying from Houston to Chicago. In 2011, over 100,000 gallons of algae-based biofuel was purchased to fuel the Navy's "Great Green Fleet" in addition to a number of separate tests of algae-derived fuels on various aircraft and boats. It is thought that by the end of 2012, the fleet will be fully operational, making the Navy an algal biofuel leader.

Privately funded efforts have been made to inaugurate commercial-scale algae farms on open-land, inside commercial buildings and in shipping containers, all of which has aided the National Algae Association to enhance its base of knowledge, research, collaboration and deployment opportunities. Clearly, there is a pivotal role for collaboration between universities, colleges, community colleges and the algae production companies to provide algal fuel on a significant scale.

Economically this year is unlikely to be any better than 2011, and so issues of expense, practical difficulty and that far more research is necessary before any serious production can be accomplished might act to militate against a significant development of algal biofuel. In view of the likely imminent arrival time of the supply-demand gap for conventional crude oil, it would make sense to spend more money on grand-scale algae production than on basic research alone.

By. Professor Chris Rhodes

Original post available here.

Algal Biofuels - Time for Grand Scale Production?

Though there is much mention of the promise of algal biofuels and word of their commercial development, it seems timely to view what precisely has been achieved in terms of significant algal biofuel production rather than laboratory-based research, which has been going on for about 50 years. The U.S. Navy has fuelled a destroyer ship using 20,000 gallons of algae-based biofuel for a 20-hour trip, and is its largest alternative fuel experiment to date.

Thus a decommissioned destroyer made a successful journey from San Diego to Port Hueneme, in California. In terms of air-transport, United/Continental Airlines have made a second successful test flight powered by algal fuel, flying from Houston to Chicago. In 2011, over 100,000 gallons of algae-based biofuel was purchased to fuel the Navy's "Great Green Fleet" in addition to a number of separate tests of algae-derived fuels on various aircraft and boats. It is thought that by the end of 2012, the fleet will be fully operational, making the Navy an algal biofuel leader.

Privately funded efforts have been made to inaugurate commercial-scale algae farms on open-land, inside commercial buildings and in shipping containers, all of which has aided the National Algae Association to enhance its base of knowledge, research, collaboration and deployment opportunities. Clearly, there is a pivotal role for collaboration between universities, colleges, community colleges and the algae production companies to provide algal fuel on a significant scale.

Economically this year is unlikely to be any better than 2011, and so issues of expense, practical difficulty and that far more research is necessary before any serious production can be accomplished might act to militate against a significant development of algal biofuel. In view of the likely imminent arrival time of the supply-demand gap for conventional crude oil, it would make sense to spend more money on grand-scale algae production than on basic research alone.

By. Professor Chris Rhodes

Original post available here.

U.S. Energy Department backs plan to produce algae crude oil Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2012/01/16/US-Energy-Depart

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Raw algae can be converted into a crude oil that can be processed at existing petroleum refineries before distribution as a substitute for gasoline and other processed fuels, new research has found.

The innovative use of algae, including the common seaweed, for large-scale renewable fuel production takes the quest for economically feasible environmentally friendly fuel a few steps further, easing pressure on agricultural alternatives that are often criticized as a potential threat to global food resources.

Algae comprise from one cell to many cells, as in giant kelp, and are seen as a potential solution to global energy needs.

The U.S. Department of Energy and OriginOil Inc. of California plan to work together to develop the idea to a point where algae growers can be enabled to grow their businesses and enter the renewable crude market.

Brazil has been leading research into alternative sources for renewable fuel in South America but has faced criticism that some of the renewable fuels produced from feedstock and various grains threaten to undermine agriculture for food.

Algae biofuel has the potential to meet the world's growing energy demand, an OriginOil spokesman said. "Due to its high productivity, algae represents a sustainable pathway for helping to reduce capital and operating costs of algae production, due to its high productivity, sequestration of CO2, and broad co-product portfolio."

OriginOil says algae has the potential to yield greater volumes of biofuel than other biofuel sources. Algal biomass has been recognized as a promising alternative source of raw material for continuous renewable biofuel.

The company will launch an algae production workshop Jan. 30 at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and has begun a partnership with Idaho National Laboratory to support algae growers' entry into the oil market.

Both sides will work toward developing an integrated system for direct conversion of raw algae into a renewable crude oil.

"We believe this is a major breakthrough for OriginOil and a major step forward for the algae industry," OriginOil Chief Executive Officer Riggs Eckelberry said.

"We already lead the industry with our chemical-free, low-energy, continuous high-flow harvesting system," he added.

"From there it's a natural step to helping algae growers make a direct crude oil replacement right on site, giving them direct access to the existing world market for transportation fuels, including jet fuel. That's an instant upgrade from what is now a niche market, to the immediate 86 million-barrel-per-day global crude oil market."

OriginOil says its planned Biocrude System will integrate its own harvesting system with state-of-the-art biomass processing technology that is developed to convert raw algae into barrels of renewable crude oil.

The company said obtaining the renewal crude oil will be a much cleaner alternative to hydrocarbons. Renewable algae crude could also be blended with other biomass sources to improve their performance, OriginOil said.

"Algae is a high energy biomass and can function as a force multiplier to blend in other biomass waste such as from forestry and agriculture into a uniform renewable crude oil substitute," Deborah T. Newby, project manager at the Department of Energy Idaho National Laboratory said. "This may well support the U.S. military's strategic fuels diversification program."

INL has been researching sustainable energy and strategically important alternatives to conventional energy sources since 1949.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2012/01/16/US-Energy-Department-backs-plan-to-produce-algae-crude-oil/UPI-61091326752182/#ixzz1jqUPPXHe

ALGAE.TEC EXPANDS USA COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION FACILITY FOR ASIA AND EU PROJECTS

Perth, Western Australia/Atlanta, Georgia - 11 January 2012 - Algae.Tec Limited (ASX:AEB, FWB:GZA:GR, ALGXY:US) an advanced algae to biofuels company with a high-yield enclosed algae growth and harvesting system announced today the expansion of its Algae Development & Manufacturing Centre in Atlanta, Georgia to accommodate commercial production programs.

The Atlanta facility has now increased almost four fold from 18,000 sq ft to 70,000 sq ft to scale-up production line capability for existing and upcoming commercial projects.

The centre is the Company's algae-to-transport fuel development and manufacturing hub for the USA, Asia and Europe.

Last month Algae.Tec signed a biofuels MOU with the European airline Lufthansa, and announced a biofuels production and carbon capture deal with the Sri Lanka subsidiary of industrial giant Holcim, the world's largest cement and building materials company.

Algae.Tec Executive Chairman Roger Stroud said the Algae Development & Manufacturing Centre teamhad recently shipped its first algae bioreactors to the Australian Shoalhaven One biofuels production and carbon capture facility south of Sydney.

"Algae.Tec is the only advanced biofuels company specifically focussed on the global transport fuel industry, using an industrial-scale enclosed, modular and engineered algae growth technology to produce biofuels that replace predominantly imported fossil fuels," said Stroud.

"Algae.Tec also offers a profitable solution for carbon emitting companies and industries seeking carbon dioxide reduction technologies."

The Algae.Tec solution is less than one tenth the land footprint of pond growth options, while its enclosed module system is designed to deliver the highest yield of algae per hectare, and solves the problem of food-producing land being turned over for biofuel production.

Algae.Tec, founded in 2007, is a publicly listed advanced renewable oil from algae company that has developed a high-yield enclosed algae growth and harvesting system, the McConchie-Stroud System. The company has offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Perth, Western Australia.

The Algae.Tec enclosed modular engineered technology is designed to grow algae on an industrial scale and produce biofuels that replace predominantly imported fossil fuels.

The technology has demonstrated exceptional performance in productivity, product yield, carbon dioxide sequestration, and production unit footprint requirements versus agricultural crops and other competitive algae processes in the industry.

Original post available here.

Has Algae.Tec Cracked Algae's Biofuel Pricing Ability To Compete With A Barrel Of Oil?

Amidst the relentless promotion of renewable biofuel alternatives to traditional fossil fuel hydrocarbons, the three leading contenders are jatpropha, camelina and algae.

But among the many barriers holding back industrial production of biofuels is that no company up to now has yet figured out how to produce a gallon of biofuel at a price that can compete with gasoline.

Apparently until now, if press releases by Algae.Tec are anything to go by. The company, founded only three years ago, has offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Perth, Western Australia.

Algae.Tec founders, Earl McConchie and Roger Stroud, have been involved in the biofuel industry since 1999 and have developed a high-yield enclosed algae growth and harvesting system, they labeled the McConchie-Stroud System, which uses low-maintenance technologies and an efficient solar system to produce algae in one-tenth of the land surface as compared to the current pond methods for producing algae. The McConchie-Stroud System photo-bioreactors produce oils which can be refined into biodiesel, sugar carbohydrates that can be used in the production of ethanol, proteins that can be used as feedstock for farm animals, and protein and carbohydrate biomass that can be combined to produce jet fuel.

Beating the PR drum for his company Stroud said, "Algae technology developed by the company has demonstrated exceptional performance, providing step-change improvements in productivity, product yield, carbon dioxide…

Original post available here.

Grants go toward algae biofuels research in US, Japan

A better understanding of how algae can be used to make biofuels is the aim of a new joint project between the University of California (UC) at Davis and the University of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of four new grants, jointly funded by the US National Science Foundation and the Japan Science and Technology Agency, to develop environment-friendly fuels and reduce pesticide use.

The four grants, totaling USD 12 million, will be divided between the Japanese and US laboratories. UC Davis’ share will be about USD 1.5 million over three years, with the possibility of renewal for another two years.

All four projects are based on metabolomics, an approach that uses high-tech analysis to understand all the chemicals involved in a living cell’s metabolism.

“We want to understand all the metabolic pathways, which are used under which conditions, and understand the traffic through the cell”, said Oliver Fiehn, professor at the UC Davis Genome Centre and Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, who will lead the UC Davis project with Masanori Arita of the University of Tokyo.

Currently, scientists can identify only a small fraction of the 10,000 to 15,000 chemical metabolites that exist in any given plant. The ability to identify and characterize these compounds could lead to entirely new and potentially breakthrough approaches for increasing biofuel production and reducing pesticide use.

Many compounds made by algae have potential for making biofuels. For example, glucose from the cell wall could be used to feed yeast to make ethanol, Fiehn said. Lipids or oils might have potential as biofuels in their own right.

The team will separate the complex mixtures of sugars, other carbohydrates, fats and oils made by the algae. Then they will develop software to identify the thousands of compounds and put them into a database run by Arita’s research group in Japan.

Other UC Davis investigators on the project are: Jean VanderGheynst, professor of biological and agricultural engineering; John Labavitch, professor of plant sciences; and Tobias Kind and William Wikoff, both project scientists at the UC Davis Genome Center.

Fiehn and Arita’s team will also collaborate with another grant funded under the joint program, led by Lloyd Sumner of the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and Kazuki Saito of the RIKEN Plant Science Centre, Japan, studying biomass and oil production in plants.

Original post available here.

OriginOil, INL ink pact for algae-to-renewable crude R&D effort

In California, the DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory has teamed with OriginOil to co-develop an integrated system for direct conversion of raw algae into a renewable crude oil that can be used by existing petroleum refineries. OriginOil’s planned Biocrude System™ will integrate its own harvesting system with state-of-the-art biomass processing technology being developed under the recently-announced research agreement with INL, to convert raw algae into barrels of renewable crude oil.

This much cleaner replacement for conventional petroleum will be designed to be compatible with conventional petroleum refineries. Renewable algae crude could also be blended with other biomass sources to improve their performance.

Original post available here.

OriginOil, DOE work on algae conversion

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- OriginOil says it will partner with the Idaho National Laboratory to develop an improved process for converting algae into biomass fuel.

The Los Angeles company, which extracts oil from algae and converts it into a renewable fuel usable by petroleum refineries, will work with the U.S. Department of Energy's research facility to create better biofuels to supplement the country's reliance on crude oil. Development of the system could help the algae-growing industry to enter the global crude oil market.

The agreement, announced Friday, will integrate OriginOil's algae harvesting system with state-of-the-art biomass processing technology to convert raw algae into biofuel.

Algae biomass has the potential to be a promising alternative source of raw material for renewable biofuel, a company spokesman said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2012/01/15/OriginOil-DOE-work-on-algae-conversion/UPI-28721326631370/#ixzz1jeP4YQvQ

Israeli algae researcher says NAABB’s head spreading “distortions and misinformation.”

From Stefan Leu, scientific administrator of GIAVAP, and the AquaFuels Microalgal Biotechnology Laboratories at Ben Gurion University in Israel, we received the following:

“Being in the Algae field in Israel and partner of several recent and current European and Israeli algae projects, I am extremely disturbed by the level of disinformation provided by Dr. Jose Olivares in his interview on your site, which does in no way reflect the true state of affairs in European nor Israeli algal biofuels and biotechnology research

It is this kind of distortions and misinformation that lead to misconceptions and misunderstandings flooding the algae community.”

Dr. Leu has not yet responded to requests for details on specific examples of disinformation. While we await those, the first newsletter of project GIAVAP is available for free download and review, here.

Original post available here.

Aurora Algae: Making it happen in the Never-Never

How did Aurora Algae get so far down the road, so fast?

Word has been sneaking back to the United States from Australia that Aurora Algae is well into a $100 million capital raise from a combination of existing and new investors, and is aiming at an IPO later in the year to fund its growth from a 6-acre demonstration unit to a small commercial facility of 250 acres, and then potentially to thousands of acres in its next iteration. All as soon as this half of the 2010s.

All of the above, in a town called Karratha, in the back western reaches of the land known, in Australian parlance, as the Never-Never.

Now that’s a company on the move.

Especially given the naysaying that generally surrounds industrial biotech companies, and most especially companies using algae as a platform. And supremely especially those taking the open pond cultivation route.

We get it, we’ve heard the algae naysayer’s rap:

Algae and the Never-Never

It won’t happen until the 2020s if ever.
It will use too much land, or too many inputs, forever.

The CO2 will never be affordable, The ponds will crash.
No VC will ever put up enough cash.

There will never be enough available lipids,
You’ll never affordably get the algae out of all that liquid

You’ll never make it cheaply enough,
you’ll never be able to move all that stuff,

It costs too much to move the water,
You couldn’t do this with Harry Potter.

To all of the above, Aurora Algae is something of an embarrassment. What temerity, to tackle and solve all those problems?

Aurora’s origins

It weren’t always so. Aurora Algae wasn’t actually started as a company that would eventually settle on producing algae as a feedstock for nutrition first, feed later, and fuels down the line.

The company was founded as Aurora Biofuels – solely to do biofuels. As time went on, and the company came closer to realizing its performance targets, it discovered that its algae could sell at a much higher price point into other markets.

Before it was focused on biofuels, it was focused on more purely scientific goals. The original science team was studying how genes get turned on and off, and thereby studying the science of strain improvement. It aimed at developing a system whereby the team could ask specific questions – if, over expressed, would one specific gene increase the production of C16 molecules.

Back in the day, no algal systems had this capability. Strain optimization was based on random improvement. A lot of algal work was based on discovery – scoop out a bucket of water, and look for high-performing strains.

Now, strain optimization is different from genetic modification. In GMO, DNA from a foreign organism is introduced. For example, so tomatoes could better withstand freezing, some DNA from arctic fish were introduced, DNA that had never existed in a tomato. DNA that had no idea what we were trying to accomplish.

Strain optimization is quite different. Inside the genetic structure of algae, there are zillions of cells and thousands of genes, some switched on, many off. In switching on genes, the phycologist is discovering something that, eventually (albeit, in a Monkey typing Shakespeare time-scale) the organism would switch on by itself. It is a form of accelerating evolution.

The company pivots, accelerates

Now, what caused Aurora to accelerate? It was a commercial form of accelerated evolution. Which is to say, a pair of happy accidents. One, the discovery of some high-value markets that would open to the company, and make even a 250-acre demonstration plant financially profitable.

Second, the discovery that Western Australia – specifically, the town of Karratha, had some existing ponds, stable temperatures, plenty of seawater and aggregated, affordable CO2, and the strain of algae that Aurora uses, nannocholoropsis, was native to Australia. Massively simplifying the path from pilot to scale.

Muradel is among the other companies that has been exploring those same opportunities that Karratha offers, as that company embarks on its own capital-raising activities to head for demonstration scale.

Australians are pretty excited. The country is typically understood as, basically, “a dig it up and ship it out” country when it comes to commodities. To cultivate its own material for its own supplement and nutrition industry — and Australian omega 3 intake is very high. Well, they get it.

But its far from an omega 3 niche venture that gets to $80M or so in sales, or maybe 10X of that, before stalling. Not that it’s a bad business, at all. The current demand is set to double, or more, by 2050. Probably more – because companies are just beginning to explore the full value that could be realized from these fatty acids, in a market where the material is far more affordable than today.

The product line-up

The products? There are three. The omega 3 fatty acids (EPA). The fuel component – similar to a palm based biodiesel. Protein for fish (and later, cattle).

So, fuels? Once the company has proven itself at the 250-acre scale, well, you can head about a 100 miles east from Karratha before you run into just about anything. About 2,000 miles before you run into anything approaching a city-sized barrier to growth. Ultimately, the at-scale systems are just repetitions of the 250-acre small commercial executions, there is really not much extra engineering to do beyond site prep. And there’s not much all that different from the 6-acre demonstration, to the 250-acre scale, either.

At full commercial scale, Aurora plans to participate in the same markets that, day, palm-based biodiesel can participate in. For example, the 20 billion gallons of advanced biofuels required by the US Renewable Fuel Standard. At 3000 gallons per acre, that would require 6.6 million acres of algal biofuels.

The opportunity for scale.

The Great Sandy Desert, which extends east of Karratha, has 70 million acres. The adjacent Tanami Desert has another 45 million acres. Heading south, the Great Victoria Desert has another 86 million acres. Scads of CO2 from mining interests. Sunlight a-go-go. Seawater, well, you can hardly measure it all. So, you get the idea.

It’s an outpost where just 20-30 people are at work at the demonstration facility – a collection of pond operators, field engineers, chemists and biologists, electricians, pipe fitters, maintenance people and groundskeepers. But as they say, an output of interest.

It’s the Never-Never becoming the Maybe-Mightbe, and quite possibly a Success-at-Scale. Exciting to see.

Original article available here.

OriginOil has a Green Algae Biofuel Alternative to Keystone XL Pipeline Jobs

U.S. company OriginOil has just announced that its signature algae biofuel product will be developed as a drop-in renewable crude oil feedstock that can be processed by existing petroleum refineries. That, alone, is big news because it brings renewable biofuel closer to the mass market and closer to cost-competitiveness with petroleum products. The even bigger news, though, is the impact on sustainable U.S. job creation in the energy sector.

Rather than depending on high-risk energy infrastructure projects such as the notorious Keystone XL Pipeline, OriginOil’s new algae biofuel venture could pave the way for preserving jobs in the refinery sector even as the U.S. transitions out of petroleum fuels – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to creating permanent new jobs related to algae growing, algae farming operations could also double as carbon capture systems at coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities. Try that with a pile of tar sand!

Algae, Keystone, Jobs, and Politics

Before we get into the nitty gritty of OriginOil’s refinery-ready algae oil, let’s take a brief look at the timing of the announcement. OriginOil released the news on January 13, smack in the middle of a sixty-day deadline under which the Obama administration must decide whether or not to approve the Keystone project (the pipeline is owned by the Canadian company, TransCanada, to bring crude oil from the Alberta tar sands down through the Midwestern U.S. and on to Gulf Coast refineries for export).

Though initially touted as a job creator by its supporters, upon closer examination, the fact-based estimate on job creation from the pipeline has dwindled to an insignificant few. That didn’t stop Republican Senator John Hoeven from repeating the now-discredited job creation estimate in the Republican weekly address on January 14, which adds more fuel to the Keystone fire in advance of the 2012 presidential election.

Green Refinery Jobs from Algae Biofuel

In this context, the OriginOil announcement is something of a bombshell. The availability of a new drop-in replacement for crude oil means that the Keystone pipeline is not needed as a job creator in the energy sector. It would only put jobs in other sectors at risk, since it runs right through the nation’s agricultural heartland and a massive aquifer. With algae oil feedstock at the ready, U.S. refineries could keep on humming along even as the supply of petroleum feedstock stagnates or even dwindles. Rather than having to pipe crude thousands of miles from one source, algae farming also raises the potential for a network of local sources, which cuts the risk of pipeline leaks, spills and accidents to a bare minimum. It also raises the potential for diverting more fuel to the domestic market, which is consistent with the Obama Administration’s strategy for transitioning the U.S. military to utilize more secure, locally sourced forms of energy (just ask the U.S. Navy, for one).

Renewable Algae Biofuel Helps Industry, Too

In addition to boosting the diversity of the U.S. energy landscape, algae biofuel offers a means to enable sustainable industrial growth without a consequent increase in carbon dioxide emissions. As a form of plant life, algae thrive on carbon dioxide, and OriginOil is already developing a system for capturing carbon from power plants. Aside from cutting down on emissions, the captured carbon would boost the productivity of algae farms, so it’s a win-win. This year, the company has partnered with MBD Energy of Australia in a pilot carbon capture project at one of the three largest coal-fired power plants in the country, which is expected to trim the power plant’s carbon dioxide emissions by more than half.

The Road to Renewable Algae Biofuel – and More Jobs

OriginOil’s drop-in algae biofuel project is a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy, through the Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. OriginOil’s CEO Riggs Eckelberry envisions a system in which algae growers can process their own algae oil into drop-in crude “right on site,” rather than having to send it elsewhere. That local job creation potential is consistent with President Obama’s biofuel initiative, which is focused on building economic sustainability into chronically underserved rural communities, by creating new jobs in the biofuel industry. This decentralized, community-oriented approach to domestic job creation is a far cry from the alternative presented by the Keystone project, which would contribute virtually nothing to the communities along its path. If there were no other alternatives, legislators like Senator Hoeven could make a better case for approving this project, but it looks like OriginOil is pulling the rug out from under their feet.

Original post available here.

Algae-based fuels may soon gush from the desert

Algae ponds are starting to color New Mexico’s desert landscape green.

Sapphire Energy Inc., which uses a proprietary process to turn algae oil into renewable gasoline to replace fossil fuels at the pump, broke ground last June on a 300-acre commercial demonstration facility in Columbus.

Courtesy Sapphire

This is the first of three 100-acre ponds that Sapphire Energy is constructing in Columbus. Each 100-acre site is about one mile long. The other two ponds will be constructed later this year and in 2013.

In Hobbs, in the heart of southeast New Mexico’s oil patch, Massachusetts-based Joule Unlimited Inc. broke ground this fall on a five-acre site that will use concentrating-solar biorefineries to extract ethanol and diesel from bacteria in salt-water mixed with carbon dioxide.

For more on that project, see "Joule extracts fuels from bacteria."

But while those two projects are under construction, a third company is already growing algae to produce oil and other products at a one-acre site in Jal, in Lea County.

Eldorado Biofuels LLC constructed four ponds, or raceways, where it grows algae with produced water from oil and gas production on land owned by Gregg Fulfer of the Fulfer Oil and Cattle Co. in Jal, said Eldorado President and CEO Paul Laur. Eldorado has developed a proprietary process to treat produced water for use in algae cultivation.

“We’ve been growing algae since June and harvesting it since July,” Laur said. “We’ve been stockpiling it to build up inventory and send samples to prospective companies who want to test their own technology to extract oil, and to refineries to turn it into fuels. We’re on track now to scale up and make some headway with sales and marketing.”

The company will add four more raceway ponds this month, building the project out to 1.5 acres.

“We’ll start selling product in the next week or so,” Laur told the Business Weekly on Jan. 6.

Eldorado will sell three products: algae paste for use by other companies to extract oil, as well as oil that Eldorado extracts itself and sends to refineries, and protein-rich, lipid-extracted algae as livestock feed.

Original post available here.