This workshop covers the fundamentals of managing microalgae cultures, culturing techniques, measuring biomass, high-value natural products, harvesting and processing technologies, as well as life cycle analysis and operation at the commercial scale. Topics presented are relevant to those interested in obtaining a broad overview on the biology, growth and commercialization of microalgae.
For more information this and other workshops visit: www.atp3.org.
Raceway algae ponds at Cellana's facility in Hawaii.
Using crops to produce biofuels always raises questions about how much land will be required, and if there will be a significant displacement of land used for food crops. A new study from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) finds that the United States has ample land to grow algae for biofuels—and interference with food crops may not be required.
Ian Brenam has the story at Scientific American, and leads with PNNL’s finding that 14 percent of U.S. land could support algae cultivation. Given algae’s high yields that’s more than enough to replace a significant portion of the petroleum fuels we use each year.
One relevant excerpt cites Dr. Stephen Mayfield, the director of the University of California, San Diego’s Algae Center for Biotechnology on why much of the land used for algae cultivation likely won’t interfere with traditional agriculture:
“Mayfield said there is tons of agricultural land sitting idle because it has been “salted out” of production. These unproductive lands would be more valuable holding algae facilities, and Mayfield cites California’s Imperial Valley as a good site for algae ponds since its only current use is storing agricultural runoff, and algae can grow in both ocean and wastewater.”
California may not have the cheapest real estate, but PNNL identified plenty of regions with the right climate, geography and economy that would give algae cultivators an advantage.
As for the challenge of building the infrastructure necessary to support large scale algae farming, Brenam includes this quote from Dr. Mayfield that should diminish any misgivings:
“There was no petroleum industry in 1900,” said Mayfield, “we needed energy, so we built it.”
Sapphire Energy’s Green Crude Farm in Columbus, N.M. There are currently 100 acres of ponds developed and the site is approximately one mile long by one-quarter of a mile wide.
What do you get with continuous cultivation of algae and breakthrough processing technology? From Sapphire Energy you get renewable Green Crude oil. Sapphire has been among the companies leading the charge to coax algae into renewable biofuel production and today they announced a deal with Tesoro, a major refiner and marketer of petroleum products. Tesoro has agreed to purchase Green Crude from Sapphire’s algae farm in Columbus, NM—one of the first deals of its kind.
The goal of filling our tanks with renewable oil is another step closer.
Sapphire’s Green Crude can be refined into a range of products you can also get from petroleum. Gasoline, jet fuel, diesel; they are all possible from renewable algae grown in ponds that never run dry—unlike wells drilled into the ground.
More details about the deal, and Sapphire’s innovative wet extraction method for processing algae into crude oil, can be found at Biodiesel Magazine.
Harvesting algae for processing into Green Crude at Sapphire Energy
This isn’t the first time a young scientist’s algae research has attracted attention. Just last October the Algae Biomass Organization announced the first Young Algae Research Awards at the annual Algae Biomass Summit in Denver.
Capturing carbon dioxide from these sources is one of the most expensive aspects of technologies that could help fight climate change by preventing CO2 from entering the atmosphere in the first place. In some cases it has been estimated to add 20% or more to the cost of producing power if it were used in coal or natural gas fired facilities.
A leap in making carbon capture more efficient could also help the algae industry leap forward. Since algae are voracious consumers of CO2 the gas can quickly become one of the largest cost centers for algae producers. Instead of diverting the CO2 into underground formations the gas could be used by large-scale algae farms to produce renewable fuels, fertilizers, plastics, feeds…the list of algae-derived products goes on and on. And they all have substantial market value.
That might be good news for these researchers when you consider their next steps: determining how their new material can be manufactured and applied at a large scale. Perhaps the can find room to grow with one of the companies deploying algae technology to large-scales.