The Greenest Green Fuel

Looking for a clean fuel that grows anywhere, needs only sunlight and water, and could produce enough oil to free the U.S. from its petroleum addiction? Here´s one start-up´s plan for converting oil from algae-yes, algae

By Elizabeth Svoboda Posted 07.01.2007 at 1:00 am 4 Comments

These issues, Sears says, can be addressed with computer systems that limit growth rates by precisely controlling the amount of nutrients that are added to the tank. But making such refinements adds to capital costs, which threatens the bare-bones economic philosophy that algae fuel companies must embrace to make a product competitive with petroleum-based diesel.

After the harvest, another conundrum presents itself: how to get the oil out. Algae isn´t fibrous enough to stand up to cold pressing, the standard way of extracting fat from plant matter. Processing the green slurry piped out of the bags by adding chemicals like methanol or hexane is the most obvious alternative-an efficient and relatively cheap means of removing oil. But some observers worry about the possible unintended consequences of the operation. â€There are different schemes that are likely to affect land and water use and, if anything gets loose, there´s a whole variety of possible impacts,â€ says Dan Kammen, the director of the University of California at Berkeley´s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory.

Sears also can´t account for the other variables that will help determine Solix´s fate. Will lawmakers see fit to subsidize algae fuel at the expense of other established alternatives, like ethanol? Will U.S. automakers ever manufacture cars that can run on biodiesel? â€The tests that have been done so far show there´s some promise,â€ Probst says, â€but it´s not at the stage yet where you want to get people´s expectations built up.â€ It´s a long way from a few drops at the bottom of a flask to powering America.

Hidden Casualties

Sears has learned firsthand how these challenges can affect more than the bottom line. Last November, Willson, Henston and a representative of investor Bohemian Investments, not wanting to be bound to the specifics of Sears´s original reactor design, voted Sears out as CEO. Henston assumed CEO status and control over the company´s future research plans, and Sears lost his sure grasp on building the baggie-and-roller reactor he had originally conceived.

â€Jim is a visionary,â€ Willson says, â€but I don´t have any emotional attachment to his plans.â€ The clear implication is that Sears might have blocked any changes to his original design, even if they were shown to improve the growing process. (Indeed, although Sears plans to maintain a working relationship with Solix, he is in the process of forming a separate company to pursue his original, unadulterated dream.) Later this year, Solix will test a new prototype design that will not include rollers-which pose the risk of wearing out the plastic bags-to agitate the algae; instead, bubbles percolating through the green slurry will ensure that the mixture is sufficiently stirred. Additionally, new multitiered, triangle-shaped compartments inside the bags will reflect the sun´s rays, illuminate the algae from multiple directions, and, ideally, bump up fuel yields.

It´s been a long year for Sears, but he knows that Solix´s future-like the future of algae biodiesel as a whole-depends on so much more than any one person can foresee. â€Who knows,â€ he says with characteristic equanimity, his ever-present smile playing around his lips. â€Me being thrown out as CEO may turn out to be a great thing for the company.â€

If Elizabeth Svoboda could join any band, she would join They Might Be Giants.
She would play the cowbell.

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4 Comments

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Gary Perkin

06/24/08 at 10:00 am

Hi,

This is quite interesting, but like most of these alternative fuels, there's just no take-up yet by the major players. How long will it be before we can use this? And it says in the article that it will be the same price as gasoline! Maybe when this was written, gas prices hadn't rocketed.

For an alternative solution, look at these articles:

How Does a Water Powered Car Work?

Run Your Car On Water

Gary.

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commandersprocket

from Felton, CA

07/14/08 at 11:18 pm

I applaud Shell and Chevron for their foresight in making investments in algae oil companies (they both have). While it's possible that there is a mindset in existing oil companies that they should concentrate on what they already do (delivering petroleum products) rather than exploring alternate fuel production methods (much like Kodak moved slowly into digital cameras). I think that they will (eventually) figure out how to make a cost effective oil substitute (algae oil, thermal depolymerization, enzyme hydrolysys etc.)
What concerns me here, is that the "invisible hand" of the market may lag in it's path to the most efficient system (and damage our country and economy in the process); high oil prices are beneficial to oil companies (they make their profits as a percentage of oil prices, supply and demand benefits markets with low supply) so they might drag their feet in implementing a cheaper form of oil.
However, after some (more) quick research, it looks like algae oil isn't quite ready to go to your neighborhood station, as of November 2007, algae oil still cost about $20 a gallon.

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LGem

11/13/08 at 3:26 am

Hi everyone,

My name is Sander Hazewinkel and currently my company is one of the largest "real" producers of marine algae in the world. We use state of the art closed systems that will outperform all the installations that I have seen on this website and that belong to the so called frontrunners. One of the things that really disturbs me,when I hear all these "pseudo" scientists claim enormous projected yields, is the energy cost that is involved in growing algae. I dare to state that it is impossible to gain a posititive energy balance with the production of algae. It's not the apparatus (toy) that you use to grow the algae that holds the solution to a positive energy balance. The problem is that the algae itself is not so efficient as some people want us to believe. I know from hands-on experience on a commercial production scale! But I also know and understand the math behind the problem. One of the people that describes a part of the math very much spot on is Krassen Dimitrov (google will find his article). If you are able to read some Dutch (google translate might be helpfull) you can read a presentation that I gave a couple of months ago for an organisation that is doing research on energy options for Afrika. www.fact-fuels.org/media_en/Presentation_Sander_Hazewinkel

It's not that i want to temper the enthusiasm for Algae, on the contrary! Algae are super as a nutrition (omega-3-fatty-acids, over 50% proteins, anti-oxidants and so on and on) all very important components for life and costing much more energy to produce otherwise than with algae.

So algae still hold a strong key to a more sustainable futere, but unfortunately not to a primairy source for energy!

I dare anyone to come-up with a complete lifecycle-anlysis on the production of algae that proves my point to be wrong and I dare to bet that nobody will come up with the whole (energy)cost figure because it is more sexy to talk about energyyields in stead of energy costs!

With kind regards,

Sander Hazewinkel

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Growler30

from Lewisville, Texas

03/13/09 at 3:36 pm

LGem, I think you are wrong, and just do not want them to find the answer here. If it were not possiable the testing process would not have come this far. And please do not try and say I do not know what I am talking about as I am former Sr. Site Manager for a biodiesel refinery, a 10 million gallon a year facility, that made the highest quality Biodiesel produced in North America. Weekly ASTM testing of our fuel proved that. And just because the technology is not quite there, does not mean it will not be someday soon. If they find a way to do this, it will very much negativly impact you company, and that is what you are afraid of. If the cost and balance of this goes down that will force the cost of your product to drop reducing your profit. I know your rebuttle will be, if the production cost drops you will make more money, but I do not believe that you want to lower the cost of your product or deal with the competition you will have if this happens.