By: Michael Wynne, 21st Secretary, U.S. Air Force
The president gets it. It is refreshing to see. Although I was Secretary of the U.S. Air Force under the Bush administration, Obama and I see eye-to-eye. As a very early, and sometimes lonely advocate for alternative fuels for the military and the rest of America, I am emboldened by his portfolio approach to the future of energy. Continue reading Alternative Energy: Why the President’s Portfolio Approach Will Make us Leaders
By: Jim Lane, Biofuels Digest
In Mexico, the Mexican government has announced its “Manhattan Project” with an initial goal of producing 1 percent of its jet fuel from algae by 2015, and OriginOil has agreed to participate in a pilot scale algae project funded by the Mexican government. Continue reading Algae keep on rockin’ in the free world
By Kris Bevill, Ethanol Producer Magazine
BioProcess Algae LLC has begun operating commercial-scale algae bioreactors at Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc.’s 65 MMgy ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa. The project is a joint venture among GPRE, BioProcessH20 LLC, a division of Tennessee-based water filtration company Clarcor Inc., and international renewable energy investment group NTR plc. Continue reading Algae project advances at GPRE plant
By: Jim Lane, Biofuels Digest
One week ago, the RAND organization published a report assaying and critiquing the military efforts to develop advanced biofuels – in particular focusing on Fisher-Tropsch renewable fuels, fuels from algae and fuels from oilseed crops. Continue reading RAND Van Winkle: an inside look at RAND’s controversial survey of military alternative fuels
Mary Rosenthal, Executive Director, Algal Biomass Organization
Today, the RAND Corporation published a study and accompanying press release calling into question the effectiveness of renewable fuels for military use.
The report can be found here:http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2011/RAND_MG969.pdf
A copy of the press release can be found here:http://www.rand.org/news/press/2011/01/25.html
It is our understanding that researchers at RAND did not reach out to any of the leading algae companies. Given that most of the cutting edge algae-fuels research is taking place today in the private sector where companies rightly protect their intellectual property, and given that the industry has made significant progress in the past three years, we believe the report is likely based on outdated information. In our opinion, basing sweeping policy recommendations on such data is misguided if not reckless.
The positioning of the entire US algae industry as a “research topic” is patently false. We have more than 100 companies, academic institutions and national laboratories working to develop the algae-to-fuels industry. Algae-derived fuels have already been tested and/or used in motor vehicles and commercial aircraft, and last fall’s successful test of a Navy Riverine Command boat showed that algae fuels are ready for use. It is unclear to us whether or not any actual “green” CTL fuels have been produced or tested.
We believe algae commercialization is far closer than RAND suggests. A 2010 report by Greentech Media Research projected annual US production of 6 billion gallons of algae fuel by 2022. On the contrary, the RAND report calls the potential for commercial production of CTL fuels over the next decade “very limited.”
We will continue to work on behalf of the US algae industry to inform policymakers of the true potential of algae-based fuels as a long term, viable source of renewable fuels for the military.
