Author: Carrie Cox

Avista investment to help Matrix strike oil in algae

Seattle-based Matrix Genetics is spinning out of Targeted Growth and launching its business of developing biofuels made from algae.

By: Karl Baker
Seattle Times business reporter

Roger Woodworth is confident in his company’s investment in Seattle biotech firm Matrix Genetics.

Woodworth, chief strategy officer at Spokane-based Avista, said the venture-capital arm of his energy company financed Matrix Genetics because it had an established list of patents and a reputable research team, one that is developing new strains of blue-green algae for use as a substitute to fossil fuels and petrochemicals.

“As much of a longshot as many think it is, there is some merit,” said Woodworth.

Although the companies declined to disclose the amount of the investment, which they will announce Wednesday, Matrix Chief Executive Margaret McCormick said it would allow her company to spin out from agricultural biotech firm Targeted Growth and continue research well into the next year.

“It gives us plenty of time to develop our story, to get the collaborations in place, to raise a large amount of financing in probably the next 12 to 18 months,” she said.

Although now a separate company, Targeted Growth is still the majority owner of Matrix Genetics, which has five employees and plans to add 10 more with these new funds.

Avista will earn a positive return on investment if Matrix Genetics can find enough customers to use algae derived using the patents it owns. This will happen as the industry develops, said McCormick.

“It’s a play on intellectual property,” said Woodworth.

The prospect of algae as a biofuel is gaining popularity because it is relatively simple to grow and, unlike corn and soy-based fuels, it doesn’t compete with consumer usage in the food market.

Robert Hebner, director of the Center for Electromechanics at the University of Texas, researches algae as a fuel source. He says the microorganism can produce 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of oil per acre per year. Corn, in contrast, produces approximately 400 to 450 gallons per acre per year.

Additionally, a report from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory last year said algae has the potential to replace 17 percent of the oil the U.S. imports, if grown in the hot humid climates of the Southeast and the Great Lakes region.

Matrix technology is trying to do even better. Senior director Mike Carleton said the company’s research involves manipulating algae genes in order to increase oil content. One way Carleton’s team does this is by replacing a sugar-producing gene with one that makes lipids.

McCormick said Matrix’s research is essentially reproducing what happens under the Earth’s surface in the creation of crude oil.

“We’re like a synthetic diamond,” she said.

Despite the large oil-output levels of algae, a major challenge is the cost of large-scale production. While the sector has grown sharply in the past five years to approximately 200 algae companies in the U.S., economic viability remains elusive.

“The challenge is to find a cost-effective way to find key elements and a cost-effective way to find water,” said Hebner. Expensive ingredients like phosphorus and nitrogen drive up the costs of production, he said.

To help this cost equation, McCormick said Congress should put algae production on a level playing field with cellulosic biofuels created from inedible plant materials. Producers of those fuels are eligible for a tax incentive of up to $1.01 per gallon, according to the Department of Energy.

The Senate Finance Committee this month approved a bill to extend this credit to algae fuels.

The algae industry has one particularly influential supporter promoting its cause: Boeing.

The company is “helping set the policy stage to make the case for these types of renewable feedstocks,” McCormick said. “They’ve put in place different aviation fuel users groups.”

Boeing officials are expected at Wednesday’s announcement to convey its interest in this type of fuel.

“What’s great about the biofuel industry is that you’ve got the customer base that’s helping to push the development of these technologies,” McCormick said.

Matrix Genetics Snags Investment from Avista for Algae Biofuel

Matrix Genetics is pursuing the dream of turning algae into the workhorses of oil production, and now it has gotten some financing to go after it.

The Seattle-based startup, led by Margaret McCormick, said today it has secured an investment from Avista Development, the venture arm of Spokane, WA-based energy company Avista (NYSE: AVA). The amount of the investment isn’t being disclosed, but it’s enough for Matrix to spin out of its parent company, Targeted Growth, and to find new labs in South Lake Union with room for about 15 employees. Seattle-based Targeted Growth remains the majority owner of Matrix Genetics, although it is in discussions about that stake with strategic partners and investors, says John Williams, a spokesman for Matrix.

Matrix, which I first profiled here in May 2011, had a goal at that time of raising $10 million to $15 million, according to McCormick. The company is focusing on cyanobacteria, a simple and abundant form of algae that can use energy from the sun to turn carbon dioxide into oils. The hope is that fast-dividing algae like these will make for a more efficient source of fuel than corn-based ethanol or other plant-based raw materials. This quest puts Matrix in competition with some well-financed competitors like Synthetic Genomics and Sapphire Energy.

“We appreciate the need to find alternatives to petroleum for a sustainable future, and we are excited by the progress and the promise of Matrix’s approach,” said Roger Woodworth, vice president and chief strategy officer at Avista, in a statement.

For more on the company, see a story in today’s Seattle Times.

Sapphire Energy Commercial Demonstration Algae-to-Energy Facility Now Operational

Initial Phase of World’s First Green Crude Farm Completed On Time and On Budget
 
COLUMBUS, NM, (August 27, 2012) – Sapphire Energy, Inc., one of the world leaders in algae-based green crude oil production, today announced the first phase of its Green Crude Farm, the world’s first commercial demonstration algae-to-energy facility, is now operational. Construction of this first phase, which began on June 1, 2011, was completed on time and on budget.   When completed, the facility will produce 1.5 million gallons per year of crude oil and consist of approximately 300 acres of algae cultivation ponds and processing facilities.  By reaching this key milestone, Sapphire Energy is on target to make algae-based Green Crude a viable alternative fuel solution capable of significantly reducing the nation’s need for foreign crude oil, which will serve as the blueprint for scalable algae biofuel facilities globally.
 
The Green Crude Farm, also known as an Integrated Algal Bio-Refinery, was funded with both private and public funds, including $85 million in private investment from Sapphire Energy backed by a USDA loan guarantee and a $50 million grant from the US DOE.  Today, the cultivation area consists of some of the largest algae ponds ever built with groupings of 1.1 acre and 2.2 acre ponds which are 1/8 of a mile long. The initial phase also includes all the necessary mechanical and processing equipment needed to harvest and extract algae and recycle water for the 300 acre Green Crude Farm.
In March, the first seeding of ponds with algae, otherwise known as inoculation, took place and a series of “shakedown” tests began to ensure that all systems are working as planned.  Today, the farming operations are exceeding Sapphire Energy’s internal productivity goals in terms of biomass yield, demonstrating that large scale cultivation is possible and much larger cultivation systems can be implemented with the proper agronomic processes in place.  The company harvested its first crop in June without any system difficulties and has since harvested 21 million gallons of algae biomass totaling 81 tons.  Next, the Green Crude Farm is preparing to transition its operations to a winter variety of algae while continuous cultivation, harvest and extraction activities continue. 
 
“Bringing our Green Crude Farm online is not only an important accomplishment for Sapphire Energy, but a critical step toward a viable alternative energy future,” says Cynthia ‘CJ’ Warner, CEO and chairman of Sapphire Energy.  “What was once a concept is now becoming a reality and model for growing algae to make a renewable crude oil for energy. We look forward to sharing our progress as the Green Crude Farm moves to its next stage.”
 
Sapphire Energy partnered with AMEC Project Engineering, who coordinated with 16 New Mexico based contractors, to complete the first phase of the Green Crude Farm during 12 months of active construction.  As of today, Phase One of the project has reached the following milestones:
  • Construction: Completed on time and on budget
  • Unit Operations: Conducting all united operations, including cultivation, harvest and extraction in a continuous process
  • Cultivation: biomass productivity exceeding the company’s goals
  • Harvest: Successfully harvested 81 tons of biomass
In building the Green Crude Farm:
  • 634 full-time equivalent employees were hired throughout the entire construction phase
  • $16 million was directly invested with local New Mexico contractors
Sapphire Energy will continue to conduct “shakedown” testing, as well as operate and expand farming operations over the winter, as the facility is commissioned into 2013.  By the end of 2014, the Green Crude Farm will produce 100 barrels of Green Crude per day.  The commercial demonstration project is expected to prove “commercial” techno-economics, and Sapphire’s commercial scale Green Crude facility.

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 or
Twitter: @sapphireenergy

Sapphire Energy Fires Up World’s First Green Crude Farm

Workers extract algae from a storage tank
Concentrated algae ready for extraction, being poured from a storage tank.

The commercialization of algae biomass for fuel production took a giant leap today with the announcement that Sapphire Energy’s Green Crude Farm, the world’s first commercial demonstration algae-to-energy facility, is now operational in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The first phase of Sapphire’s large outdoor production facility, which includes harvesting and extraction equipment along with the racetrack-shaped ponds, has produced 21 million gallons of algae biomass since June. Algae biomass contains oils, proteins and carbohydrates that can be processed into fuels, feed, fertilizers and many other products.

The enormous production potential of this first phase of the project is only the beginning. By the end of 2014, the facility will produce 100 barrels of Green Crude per day.

Sapphire’s announcement notes that the demonstration is on-budget and that construction and production milestones are being met on schedule. In the coming weeks operators will be switching the strain of algae in the ponds to one that is better suited to growing in winter months. The switch will show that year-long growth cycles can keep a steady flow of biomass supplied to the market.

Successful demonstrations like this are going to play a key role in deploying algae technologies into the marketplace. Today’s announcement is one more example that when it comes to making fuels from algae, a new industry can provide the kind of  jobs and domestically produced fuels we need. Sapphire’s press release about this one project hints at some of the potential:

  • 634 full-time equivalent employees were hired throughout the entire construction phase
  • $16 million was directly invested with local New Mexico contractors

Most industry insiders believe that once commercial facilities like this come online, it will only be a matter of time before they become the model for hundreds of algae farms and fuel production facilities across the United States.

With Sapphire Energy’s impressive production schedule, and so many other companies aggressively pursuing their own algae technologies, the day we are all putting algae-derived fuels into our tanks is approaching very quickly.

Sapphire Energy's Green Crude farm in Las Cruces, NM
An aerial view of Sapphire Energy’s Green Crude Farm in Columbus, NM. There are currently 100 acres of ponds developed and the site is approximately one mile long by one-quarter of a mile wide.

San Diego’s Concentrated Algae

The first event of the Summer of Algae II campaign was Monday in the country’s most dense center of algae research and commercialization: San Diego.

The San Diego Daily Transcript describes just how far along the industry is in California and more about the Summer of Algae campaign. Participants at Monday’s event hailed from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SD-CAB), Synthetic Genomics, General Atomics, Cellana and Sapphire Energy.

Jason Anderson, Vice President of CleanTECH San Diego, a non-profit that is working to position the region as a global leader in the cleantech economy, was also one of the speakers at the San Diego tour. In a blog post yesterday he adds some concrete examples of how regional collaborations can foster an industry as well as the local economy:

“Through a close collaboration, we have designed programs that not only support the biofuels and industrial biotech industry today, but will continue to evolve to meet industry needs as it matures.  To date, we have trained more than 300 workers and over one-third of those trained are now employed in the industry.  Just as the region’s research institutions and private sector companies continue to gain momentum and investment for their advances, EDGE’s cutting edge curricula and training programs are being considered for adoption by institutions all over the world.”

The example of San Diego shows how regional initiatives can help communities benefit from new and growing industries. The challenges that algae can address around fuel supplies, food production and water usage make it particularly attractive. Other states are already reacting to the impressive milestones that algae companies are achieving on a regular basis. Ohio and Arizona easily passed bi-partisan legislation that puts algae on equal footing with other agriculture, for example, and others are likely to follow.