Algal Biomass Organization

En route to zillions in algae? First, you have to get the water out of the algae or the algae out of the water.

Making Algenol’s ethanol-secreting microalgae a technology worth a special accommodation. Which Florida finally granted.

Last year, the US Government minted 8.2 billion coins, of which 4.9 billion were pennies. The vast majority of the pennies will fall between the couches, fill coin jars, or sit unloved in parking lots. It is estimated that as many as 150 billion pennies are floating around in circulation, with the vast majority sitting around in various states of disuse.

A billion dollars, lying around? Why’s that? Well, that’s the “making money from algae” problem, in a nutshell. If the average US worker makes $17 per hour, and it takes a minute to find and pick up a penny in a parking lot, you lose money hunting down and aggregating pennies – in fact, at those rates of productivity, it would cost you nearly thirty cents to find a penny.

Nothing wrong with pennies, it’s all in the harvesting. Same with gold or any other precious material. When the concentration rate is too low, it’s unviable. After all, there’s gold dissolved in seawater, too – $10 trillion of it, by one estimate. It’s just unaffordable to extract.

Plus, in the case of algae, and to stretch the analogy, there are a lot of penny-munching critters out there in micro algae ponds. Just when you get to the penny, you find some other critter has swiped it.

Getting algae out of the water

In the case of micro algae, the critters grow at concentrations of up to, say, 0.1-1 percent, and even after you have grown them, you either have to get the algae out of the water or the water out of the algae, and moving 1 ton of water to get to somewhere between 2 and 20 pounds of algae, containing less than a gallon of lipids – well, the economics could get upside down right quick.

Not to mention the nutrient costs, the construction costs, the extraction costs, and yada yada yada.

Which is one of the reasons that, among algal biofuels technologies, the solution offered up by Algenol was so compelling.

A remarkable path

The Florida-based company has a modified microalgae that, when placed inside low-cost plastic tubing filled with seawater, and overfed a diet of CO2, produced and secreted ethanol.  Not entirely different to sweating, and in the evenings when the sunlight faded, an ethanol-rich condensate would form and be collected for further concentration into ethanol fuel. 2 tons of industrial emission CO2 per day would produce 100,000 gallons of fuel ethanol per year.

Now, how much industrial CO2 is available from the average US power plant? Roughly 1.3 million tons – or enough CO2 to support a 180 million gallon ethanol project.

Very compelling as a path to ultra low-cost biofuels, and one of the reasons why Algenol projected it could produce algal biofuels for an operating cost of less than $1.00 per gallon, and a capital cost estimated by the company at $4- $6 per gallon, or another 33 to 50 cents per gallon for capex (amortized over 15 years). That offers a tidy profit potential, with RBOB gasoline trading at $3.18 per gallon, meaning that ethanol would be cost competitive (using the Brazilian 70% rule of thumb) on a cost-per-mile basis at $2.22 per gallon.

Not to mention the energy security and emissions benefits.

Can Algenol’s system work at scale?

Does the technology work at scale? That’s what the DOE would like to find out, and a 30-acre project is in development in Lee County, Florida to make the case that it can.

Thus, very strange when the state of Florida passed a Renewable Energy Act last month requiring “double jeopardy,” which is to say, appointing two different, unsynchronized state departments over the one permitting process for any algal farm over two acres, requiring Algenol to get a specific permit for growing algae from the state’s Department of Agriculture’s Division of Plant Industry. Since Algenol was the only company developing a facility of more than two acres, they can be forgiven for thinking that the provision was aimed at them.

Construction halted, there was talk of heading back to Maryland or another state which did not have such an odious regulatory regime. After all, Algenol’s technology had been reviewed and approved seven times by its primary Florida regulator – why was a new regulator necessary, and why was an anti-regulatory Republican administration and legislature forcing the provisions through?

Cooler heads prevail

Fortunately, cooler heads have prevailed. After consultations with authorities, it was agreed that Algenol’s new integrated algal biofuels site wouldn’t be required to seek the permit and would instead only be required to use best management practices to contain the algae in case of a leak.

Now, Algenol has restarted construction at its first commercial-scale facility in Fort Meyers that will have 3,000 photobioreactors installed in the completed project. It’s a good ending for the Sunshine State, which has a ton of promise in bio-based energy because of the state’s ample supply of heat and sunshine. Now, they have some perspective to go with all that biomass. Good news for Florida and Algenol – good news for the consumer, bringing the prospect of ultra-low cost microalgae making the projects of algal biofuels at scale ever closer.

Read more at Biofuels Digest

A group of researchers from Argonne National Laboratory’s Center for Transportation Research recently published a scientific paper that identifies key parameters for algal biofuel production using the GREET model, which models greenhouse gas emissions, regulated emissions and energy use for transportation fuels. The paper, titled “Methane and nitrous oxide emissions affect the life-cycle analysis of algal biofuels,” was published in a recent edition of Environmental Research Letters.

In the report, the researchers also described several goals they had with this analysis. First, they aimed to establish a framework that could be used to facilitate comparisons among algae scenarios and with other transportation fuels. Second, the research team wanted to identify which parameters produce the most significant impact to life-cycle analysis. As part of this, the paper noted that the team paid a great deal of attention to the amount of energy present within lipid-extracted algae. For example, this includes the energy potential associated with processing lipid-extracted algae in an anaerobic digestion system. The researchers also considered the impact of fugitive methane emissions, the fate of unrecovered nitrogen, as well as the potential for nitrous oxide (N2O).

According to information contained in the study, the baseline scenario considered by the researchers produced 55,400 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent (g CO2/e) per 1 million Btu of biodiesel, compared to 101,000 g CO2/e for low-sulfur diesel. The paper stated that the baseline scenario for algae biodiesel features the use of anaerobic digestion for energy and nutrient recovery from lipid-extracted algae. Alternatively, a reduced emissions scenario featured the use of catalytic hydrothermal gasification rather than anaerobic digestion.

On a full life cycle, or “well-to-wheels” basis, the modeling showed that algae biodiesel reduced the total amount of fossil energy use and petroleum used when compared the amount of these inputs required to make petroleum-based diesel. This was true even though the production of algae-based fuel consumed more energy during the production stage. The high energy use associated with the algae-biofuel production was attributed primarily to electricity use and fertilizer production. In addition, the total greenhouse gas emissions per million Btu of algae-biodiesel were less than those associated with petroleum diesel. The research paper largely attributed this to the substantial CO2 credit that results from the reuse of carbon contained within flue gas emissions exiting a power plant.

As a result of the analysis, the research team concluded that while algae biofuel production is energy intensive, substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of 45 to 60 percent are still achieved when compared to conventional diesel fuel. According to the paper, most of the energy use was associated with circulating the algae culture and moving the culture to and from the first dewatering step.

Read more at Biodiesel Magazine

Below the Surface’s “Driving Innovation” Team established the first official algae-fueled motorcycle speed records during The Texas Mile land speed event on March 24th, 2012. Team leader Kristian Gustavson reached 94.6 mph using a 50/50 blend of biodiesel derived from algae and cooking oil waste from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). Fellow team member, Devin Chatterjie, reached 96.2 MPH on 100% algae-derived Green Crude diesel fuel supplied by Sapphire Energy Inc., one of the world’s leaders in algae-based oil crude production. Together, they established the fastest and only known records to date for an algae-fueled motorcycle.

The Driving Innovation Team rode a unique turbo-charged, 800cc diesel powered Track Motorcycle manufactured in Holland. The bike was shipped from Holland to the US last fall courtesy of FedEx Express in a show of support for the project. They rode five times, registering 94.6, 95.1, 95.2, 95.6, and 96.2 MPH. Their next official speed trial will be in El Mirage, Calif., on May 19th.

“The Texas Mile organizers, racers, and spectators were extremely supportive of our team during the speed trials and I would really like to thank them for the warm welcome and opportunity to put algae fuel to the test. I am excited to work with them more in the future,” said Gustavson.

In a project entitled One Barrel for Baja, Gustavson led a team of UCSD students to make a portion of the biofuel themselves under the supervision of Dr. B. Greg Mitchell’s Scripps Photobiology Group, with assistance from the San Diego Center for Algal Biotechnology. The students grew and harvested algae using a sponsored Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) unit supplied by World Water Works from ponds at the Carbon Capture Corporation’s facility near the Salton Sea and at a greenhouse facility on the university’s campus.

After the algae harvest, its biomass was isolated and sent to Dr. Skip Pomeroy’s Laboratory at UCSD. In the laboratory, the lipids and fats were then extracted and further converted into usable diesel fuel by the Biofuels Action and Awareness Network.

Gustavson, a recent graduate of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation’s MAS Program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is a co-founder of Below the Surface, a nonprofit organization dedicated to exploring waterways and educating the public about issues pertaining to water. He started the One Barrel for Baja Project in order to synthesize enough algal biodiesel to compete in various speed trials and the grueling Baja 1000 race this fall (http://algae.ucsd.edu/Blog1/Blog-1-Baja.html). Below the Surface is committed to finding solutions to pollution and believes that biofuels from algae can help reduce run-off going into America’s waterways.

The Driving Innovation team is supported by: Dr. B. Greg Mitchell and his team from the Scripps Photobiology Group, Phitec, FedEx, Sapphire Energy, RED i Nation, Fun Bike Center, Clif Bar, Earth Protect, World Water Works, Carbon Capture Corporation, the BIOCOM Institute, Goal Zero, Screwed Industries, Dockers, New Leaf Biofuels, SD-CAB, BAAN, and the UCSD Student Veterans Organization.

Read more at www.algaeindustrymagazine.com

Sapphire Energy, Inc., one of the world leaders in algae-based green crude oil production, today announced it has secured the final tranche of a $144 million Series C investment funding. The Series C backers include Arrowpoint Partners, Monsanto, and other undisclosed investors.  All major Series B investors have participated. With this investment round, Sapphire Energy’s total funding from private and public sources substantially exceeds $300 million.

This round of funding is being used to directly support Sapphire Energy’s active and on-schedule commercial demonstration in Luna County, New Mexico. The Green Crude Farm, also known as the Integrated Algal BioRefinery (IABR), is the world’s first commercial demonstration scale algae-to-energy facility, integrating the entire value chain of algae-based fuel, from cultivation to production to extraction of ready-to-refine Green Crude.  Some proceeds from previous closes of the Series C financing already have been invested in Sapphire Energy’s continuing operations.

“The ongoing support from the private investment community speaks to how strongly they believe in the development of Green Crude as an alternative fuel resource, especially Sapphire Energy’s ability to commercialize it,” says Cynthia J. Warner, president and chairman of Sapphire Energy.  “It is increasingly important to find domestically produced crude oil alternatives to improve the country’s energy security, meet global energy demands, and provide jobs. Continued private investment is a critical step in achieving these goals.”

“It’s amazing to see that what started from an idea scribbled on the back of a napkin is now a leading force in support of the goal to improve energy security for the country,” explains Jason Pyle, CEO of Sapphire Energy. “Today, Sapphire Energy has a widely admired technology platform, outstanding leadership team, and significant ongoing support from the investment community, making it well positioned to achieve the goal of bringing domestically produced Green Crude oil to commercial scale.”

This announcement follows several recent partnerships and deals supporting Sapphire Energy’s continued expansion in Green Crude production. Last month, Sapphire announced it will integrate Earthrise Nutritionals’ spirulina strain into its growing inventory of cyanobacteria and algae strains to expand resources for algae-to-energy production. In May 2011, Sapphire announced a multi-year agreement with The Linde Group to co-develop a low-cost system to deliver CO2 to commercial-scale, open-pond, algae-to-fuel cultivation systems, now underway at the Green Crude Farm. In March 2011, Sapphire and Monsanto entered into a multi-year collaboration on algae-based research projects. Sapphire also was awarded a $50 million grant from the Department of Energy and a $54.4 million dollar loan guarantee from the Department of Agriculture, providing security for a privately funded loan.

About Sapphire Energy
San Diego-based Sapphire Energy is pioneering an entirely new industry – Green Crude – production with the potential to profoundly change America’s energy and petrochemical landscape for the better. Sapphire’s products and processes in this category differ significantly from other forms of biofuel because they are made solely from photosynthetic microorganisms (algae and cyanobacteria), using sunlight and CO2 as their feedstock; are not dependent on food crops or valuable farmland; do not use potable water; do not result in biodiesel or ethanol; enhance and replace petroleum-based products; are compatible with existing infrastructure; and are low carbon, renewable and scalable. Sapphire has an R&D facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and is currently building the first Integrated Algal BioRefinery in Columbus, New Mexico. For more information, visit www.sapphireenergy.com.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has signed HB 276 into law. The legislation amends state law to include algaculture, meaning the farming of algae, in the law governing agriculture, including those addressing county and township zoning, and current agriculture use valuation. Specifically, the legislation revises the definitions of “agriculture,” “agricultural purposes,” “agricultural production,” and “land devoted exclusively to agricultural use” found in state agricultural statutes and some other state statutes to include algaculture.

“We applaud the commitment of Ohio’s leadership for their vision and support of the emerging algae industry for both business and agriculture,” said Ross Youngs, CEO and founder of Ohio-based Algaeventure Systems. “HB 276 provides the right regulatory framework to properly cultivate the growing algal industry, attract investment dollars into the state of Ohio, and provide regulatory clarity. Defining Algaculture as agriculture in the Ohio Revised Code places Ohio in a leadership position while making a powerful statement that Ohio is open for business and welcomes investment in this emerging industry.”

According to a legislative summary published by the state, the act also revises the definition of “land devoted exclusively to agricultural use” for purposes of the statutes that govern current agricultural use validation of real property for real property tax assessment. The new definition includes land devoted exclusively to biodiesel production, biomass energy production, electric or heat energy production, and some biologically derived methane. In addition, the legislation states that country and township zoning laws do not grant authority to prohibit the use of land for these types of biorefining operations.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jim Buchy and former Rep., now Sen. Lou Gentile. The legislation received strong bipartisan support, and was passed unanimously in both the Ohio House of Representatives and Senate.

A full copy of the legislation can be viewed on the Ohio General Assembly website.

Just like everyone else, I have always dreamed about visiting Minneapolis, Minnesota during the beginning of winter to learn all about algae. I and about 799 other lucky individuals had the opportunity to realize that dream at the ABO Algae Biomass Summit on October 24 through October 27.

Let me first say that Minneapolis is a great town. The Vikings were playing the Packers at home when we arrived on Sunday. Our hotel had a lovely gym, which was perfect because our colleague, Jim Duffy, was kind enough to introduce me to the most divine steak I’ve ever tasted at the Capital Grille. But it’s so cold. It is so cold.

Fortunately, the atmosphere in the Hyatt Regency was a lot warmer. Our CEO, Craig Stanley, and our manager of Business Development in Puerto Rico, George Economou, were among the participants at the first-ever Algae Biomass Summit Finance Symposium. Todd Taylor of Fredrikson & Byron, and Bill Lese of Braemar Energy were the co-chairs for the finance symposium in which the CBO team presented to investment-related professionals in the algae industry.

At other times, our group of three was busy at our booth in the exhibition and poster hall, and we attended the plenary sessions as well as the commercial, biology and engineering tracks. We also enjoyed hearing conference speaker, U.S. Senator Al Franken, trying to pronounce the word “algal”.

Some of the most notable presentations included Biomat’s plan to produce an algae system that can be contained within the metal shipping containers, and Jaap van Hal’s presentation, “Seaweed Biorefinery—The Other Algal Biomass” along with his Sea-Combine harvesting concept.

We were fortunate to see Brian Goodall for the second time in a week; he represents SRS, an algae oil extraction company. What really sets SRS apart from other companies is that they claim to know how to speak the language of both the algal farmers and the end-product users to make those relationships lucrative. I also had the chance to meet Emily Chad of Frederikson & Byron. While we both kept tabs on our booths, she schooled me on the goings on in Minneapolis.

The lunches were … interesting … but gratis with our conference fees so we ate with the rest of the 797 attendees. We met wonderful folks like Iain with Amec; they were giving out lovely bags at their booth and threw a smashing bash under the guise of networking at The Local. Plus, I always enjoying seeing Algea2Omega’s Geronimos and Jason, and I learned more than I ever thought I could know about Greek cooking and fireworks.

I was lucky enough to escape the conference’s culinary misadventures and have lunch on Wednesday with Algenol Biofuels and its funny and entertaining CEO, Paul Woods. We all listened intently as the president of Sapphire Energy, C.J. Warner, spoke for nearly an hour. C.J. brought great insights and related a very large amount of highly technical information to a huge group in a way that was clear and thought provoking. She was incredibly likeable and inspiring.

All in all, it was a great, well-organized conference. It had every element a conference needs to deliver: interesting people, great speakers, informative classes, mixers with good food and drink, and the opportunity to meet professionals with whom we hope to work. Next year the conference is in Denver, and my goal is to talk to attendees about CBO’s algae projects and how many more we plan to build!

Cori Cheairs, CBO Financial Director of Development

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science recently published a Funding Opportunity Announcement.  It seeks pre-applications from parties interested in microbial systems design for biofuels as well as plant systems design for bioenergy.  The pre-application deadline is February 13, 2012.  $20 million total will be available for multiple awards in 2012.  DOE expects that the awardees will receive multiple year funding (up to 5 years) with expected annual funding levels between $1 million and $5 million per project.

Below is a brief summary of the FOA from DOE.  The full FOA can be found here.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) hereby announces interest in receiving applications for research that supports the Genomics Science Program and addresses DOE’s missions in energy and the environment in the following research areas:

a) Microbial systems design for biofuels, from computer modeling to experimental validation: To develop modeling algorithms and innovative biosystems design technologies to define, build, and apply functional biological modules for the generation of novel biological systems that advance toward the production of biofuels; and

b) Plant systems design for bioenergy: To develop novel technologies to re-design bioenergy crops that can grow in marginal environments while producing high yield of biomass that can be easily converted to biofuels. Applications should also address potential societal implications of engineered organisms.

From June 14 to 16, 2012, the first edition of the Young Algaeneers Symposium will be organised in Wageningen, the Netherlands, to gather young scientists (PhD students and postdocs in their first 4 years), working in the field of algae biotechnology.

Participants of the symposium, who are all in the frontlines of algae biotechnology research, will either give an oral presentation or present a poster on topics ranging from genetic engineering and metabolic flux analysis, to photosynthesis, life cycle analysis, cultivation and photo bioreactor design. In addition, participants will visit AlgaePARC (Algae Production And Research Centre), which is the first research centre that compares different outdoor photobioreactor designs at an industrial scale worldwide (www.algaePARC.nl). Learn More

By Erin Voegele, Biorefining Magazine

Calif.-based Sapphire Energy Inc. recently announced that its white paper has been published by Nucleic Acids Research Journal, a scientific publication. The white paper, titled, “An exogenous chloroplast genome for complex sequence manipulation in algae,” outlines the methodology for the design, construction, modification and cellular introduction of the chloroplast genome from the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.Chloroplasts, found in plants and algae, are responsible for producing organic molecules from atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Learn More

By Clayton R. Norman, Inside Tucson Business

In a laboratory in Gilbert they’re turning vats of green slime into jet fuel. And food additives and vitamins and animal feed.

These acts of alchemy are happening at a place called Heliae Development. Company CEO Dan Simon thinks algae growing and processing could mean big bucks for Arizona. Learn More