Category: Blog

For the first time ever you can fill your tank with algae-derived biofuel. Today in Redwood City Propel Fuels announced they were offering algal biodiesel from Solazyme, a renewable oil and bioproducts company, at retail pumps for consumer purchase.

Moving the algae industry from laboratories and demonstrations to real world roads is a major milestone for the future of renewable fuels.

Solazyme’s Soladiesel®BD is made by fermenting sugars with algae, and will be available in a month-long pilot program at Propel’s Bay Area network of retail renewable fuel locations.

Some of the early news stories are in the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, NBC News,  GigaOM, and Biofuels Digest.

Solazyme’s high quality algae-based SoladieselBD meets or exceeds ASTM quality specifications and has shown performance enhancements including cold temperature operating performance. The fuel is compatible with existing diesel engines and the fuel’s performance is guaranteed by Propel. The fuel will be sold at the same price as conventional diesel fuels and will be available exclusively at Propel’s Clean Fuel Points in Redwood City, San Jose (N. First St.), Berkeley, and Oakland.

“Propel is committed to providing our customers with access to the highest quality, most sustainable, domestically produced fuels, so we’re proud to introduce the next generation of fuels to the retail market,” said Matt Horton, CEO of Propel Fuels. “Propel’s growing station network provides the critical link between these future fuels and today’s consumer fuel tanks, giving our customers a chance to make history.”

Solazyme’s technology platform converts plant sugars into oils by feeding the sugars to microalgae in standard industrial fermentation equipment. The algae consume the sugars and convert them into oils rapidly and efficiently. While it takes millennia to make petroleum, Solazyme’s process takes merely a few days. Testing undertaken by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) shows that, in a 20% blend, SoladieselBD significantly outperforms ultra-low sulfur diesel in total hydrocarbons (THC), carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter tailpipe emissions. This includes an approximate 30% reduction in particulates, a 20% reduction in CO and an approximate 10% reduction in THC.

“Solazyme’s revolutionary algae-based technology platform has supplied our development partners and customers with advanced biofuels that meet or exceed some of the world’s most stringent fuels specifications and requirements,” said Bob Ames, VP of Fuels, Solazyme. “We’ve successfully demonstrated our land-based fuels in fleet vehicles and corporate busses, and are excited about this pilot program with Propel because it enables us to make these fuels available to the public.”

Jim Lane’s Biofuels Digest is out with this year’s list of the 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy and algae companies are all over it, including 5 of the Top 15, and the number 1 hottest company – Solazyme.

In the past 12 months there has been a rush of new algal products, demonstrations and technology milestones that is making algae difficult to ignore, and we are glad to see so much recognition in the bioenergy community.

Every year bioenergy companies active in advanced biofuels production compete for a coveted spot on the list, which was revealed Monday at the Advanced Biofuels Markets (ABM) conference in San Francisco.

And special thanks go to Jim Lane and the team at Biofuels Digest for coordinating the list and for the team at GreenPower Conferences for what is becoming a must-attend annual event. The competition and attendance of CEOs from across the industry at ABM is evidence of how important Biofuels Digest’s list has become, and every year the buzz around which companies have made the list fills the hallways and echos in the blogosphere.

Algae companies and ABO members on the 2012-2012 list include:

#1. Solazyme
#8. Sapphire Energy
#9. Joule Unlimited
#11. Honeywell’s UOP
#13. LS9
#35. Algenol
#40. Boeing
#41. OriginOil

We hope to see all of these, and more, on the list next year.

 

The record- breaking algae-fueled motorcycle from Below The Surface (BTS) – Driving Innovation’s racing team will be joined by a hydrogen-fueled desert truck in the Baja 1000 off-road race next month. This will be the first such racing team operating entirely on renewable fuels and we are glad to see them using algae-derived biofuels to get the job done.

The Baja 1000 covers some of the toughest racing conditions available, making this year’s event a thorough demonstration of the reliability of these renewable fuels.

And if you are in the San Diego area tomorrow (Nov 1) you will have a chance to check out both vehicles. They will be on display at the HALO Counter-Terrorism Summit at the Paradise Point Resort & Spa.

We wish them luck!

Good news for the practice of using algae to produce fuel and other products. A report released today by the National Research Council examines the key sustainability issues related to scaling the algae industry.

The NRC correctly examined issues such as water, land-use, greenhouse gases and other concerns around sustainability and concluded: “The committee does not consider any one of these sustainability concerns a definitive barrier to sustainable development of algal biofuels because mitigation strategies for each of those concerns have been proposed and are being developed.”

The Algae Biomass Organization has issued a statement supporting this conclusion and detailing how the industry is already meeting the sustainability concerns raised in the NRC report.

The algae industry has a unique relationship to these sustainability issues because they are inexorably linked to the economic issues that will make an algae business successful. To make a algal fuels price-competitive with petroleum, algae producers must use the lowest cost inputs, and recycle them as much as possible. This means using saline or wastewater, recycling their fertilizers, and placing operations on lands that aren’t valued for other uses.

In short, the lowest cost algal fuels will also be the most sustainable.

ABO recognizes the NRC for its work to bring these issues to light, and hopes that the report sends a signal that algae-based fuels can, and will, be sustainable.

Those that attended the 2012 Algae Biomass Summit in Denver last month may have seen the great photos of European algae projects underway in almost every OECD country (including Iceland!) and come away thinking U.S. efforts shouldn’t  be complacent in light of so much activity overseas.

Last week the European Commission stepped up its game even more and announced a new proposal to allow algae biofuels to count quadruple toward EU biofuel and greenhouse gas reduction targets, according to a statement (PDF) by the European Algae Biomass Association.

There is a 10% EU target for renewable fuels in transport, and by counting four times the energy content of algae biofuels toward that target the policy will be a dramatic incentive for growth in the emerging European algae sector. Adding pressure is another controversial change that would limit how much biofuels made from food crops could count toward the target.

The policy even has a provision that adds long-term certainty to investors that might otherwise be shy about early-stage production operations. The proposal highlights that algae will be among the few raw materials for biofuels production for which European and public support will be ensured well beyond 2020.

Governments around the world are recognizing that algae can put a significant dent in energy security concerns while simultaneously providing economic and environmental benefits. In Europe, we may soon see significantly accelerated algae investments.