Author: Carrie Cox

Carbon capture and utilization (CCU), the process of capturing carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and transforming it into useful products, was barely on the radar of elected officials at the end of last year. Despite the potential of algae (which consume huge quantities of CO2 as they grow) and other CCU technologies to play a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and provide a revenue stream for emitters as they clean up their processes, the idea of CCU was rarely included in policy proposals aimed at reforming how we use energy.

That is starting to change. The most significant milestone for CCU in 2015 was undoubtedly the provisions for the technology that were included in the EPA’s Clean Power Plan that will direct states on options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Countless innovators in the algae industry spoke up as the EPA formulated this rule, and now there is a good regulatory foundation for any state that wants to incent a power plant to use their CO2 to grow algae, or install similar technology.

But the CCU momentum continues to build.

This week Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) pressed U.S. negotiators to include CCU in any final agreement reached at the United Nations climate talks in Paris.

In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, Senators Heitkamp and Whitehouse encouraged negotiators to work with global partners and commit to proving out carbon capture utilization and storage.

This recommendation for global support of CCU comes a few months after the Senate included in its version of the energy bill a provision to increase R&D funding for CCU technologies.

This is the kind of R&D funding that comes with multiplying benefits. CCU has a unique potential to help us significantly reduce the CO2 waste gases we are currently pumping into the air. Instead of treating CO2 as a costly disposal problem, CCU offers an incentive to use greenhouse gases productively, taking them out of circulation with an economic incentive, rather than a regulatory cost.

ABO is grateful for the support of Senators Heitkamp, Whitehouse, and all those that have voted in favor of developing this important technology here in the United States, and the world.

The next workshop from the Algae Testbed Public-Private Partnership (ATP3) is right around the corner. Focused on Routine Measurement and Biochemical Analysis of Microalgal Cultures, the workshop will take place on February 15-19, 2016, at the ASU Polytechnic Campus in Mesa, AZ.

This laboratory-intensive workshop is designed to provide an introduction to the observation and measurement of microalgal cultures and common analytical methods for the evaluation of biomass content.

ATP3 offers superior formal and informal education and training in the use of microalgae as feedstock for biofuels and coproducts, through hands-on learning opportunities, workshops, and seminars held at ATP3 partner sites and selected public events.

To register or find out more information about this great opportunity, go here.

It’s not quite the Beastie Boys, but the University of Washington has made a remarkable breakthrough in the understanding of haptophytes, an ancient group of algae that lived in the world’s oceans millions of years ago.

UW Biology Professor Rose Ann Cattolico and Blake Hovde, then a graduate student in the UW Department of Genome Sciences and now a post doctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, were able to sequence the complete genome of the species Chrysochromulina tobin.

The research team set to find out more about this species of algae, whose growth is so prolific it can affect the weather, and accounts for 30 to 40 percent of all photosynthesis in the world’s oceans. One of their key learnings was that fat content gets high during the day and goes down during the night. Understanding – and being able to control algae fat content is key for to unlocking the potential of algae for important for nutrition, ecology and biofuel production.

“Haptophytes are really important in carbon dioxide management and they form a critical link in the aquatic foodchain,” said Cattolico. “This new genome shows us so much about this group.”

The research was published Sept. 23 in the online, open-access journal PLOS Genetics.

Giant kelp (aka macro algae) are among the most prolific producers of biomass, growing in enormous underwater forests up and down the west coast of North America. For years kelp have been eyed as a source of biofuels, and yesterday one San Diego company received an award from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to give their unique cultivation technology a run at producing biocrude from seaweed.

The $2.1 million dollar award to Marine BioEnergy, Inc. is part of ARPA-E’s OPEN 2015 Program – also issued in 2009 and 2012 – that serves as an open call to scientists and engineers for transformational technologies across the entire scope of ARPA-E’s energy mission.

Marine BioEnergy’s approach to kelp farming is far different from those in operation today. They won’t be farming near the coasts where kelp can find a place to anchor themselves to the seafloor and access much needed nutrients, but rather out in the open ocean.

Marine BioEnergy’s technology uses floating platforms far from the coasts that keep the kelp near the surface during the day, where they can access ample solar energy, and submerge themselves deeper during the night to give the kelp access to deep-water nutrients.

The kelp is then harvested and processed into biocrude using hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and catalytic hydrothermal gasification (CHG) processes.

The open ocean is big, really big. So finding a way to grow kelp out there has the potential to produce a lot of biomass.

Congratulations to Marine BioEnergy on their award and the chance to develop this exciting technology!

Check out ARPA-E’s press release on the award announcement. 

Green Car Congress also has a great article on MicroBio’s approach.

ABO recently published the seventh iteration of Industrial Algae Measurements (IAM 7.0), to update the common language industry professionals use to evaluate and compare algae operations that can sometimes vary quite widely in their use of technology, the products they market and the inputs used to cultivate difference strains of algae.

Over the last 7 years the Algae Biomass Organization, along with a team of 30 firms, universities, and national laboratories has labored to create the shared metrics and terminology that make up the IAM 7.0,  helping technology developers as they build on advances in this exciting industry.

This edition increases the depth and breadth of its predecessors covering; the assessment of cellular-level productivity, lifecycle analysis, policy and regulation, wastewater utilization and management, and appropriate metrics. IAM 7.0 also includes a new visual layout to help readers navigate.

Though algae processes can be extremely diverse, IAM 7.0 continues to “equally encompass autotrophic, heterotrophic, open pond, photobioreactor, and open water production, as well as harvest and conversion processes for microalgae, macroalgae and cyanobacteria… aimed at being process and pathway agnostic.”

In addition, the IAM’s  “green box” approach simultaneously assesses both economic and sustainability calculations. Regardless of inner workings, this approach functions using common inputs and outputs found in algae operations.

Industrial Algae Measurements (IAM 7.0) is available as a free download.

ABO extends enormous thanks to theABO Technical Standards Committee, led by Dr. Lieve M. L. Laurens at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, for their leadership and dedication.