Category: News

Washington, DC —Two Department of Energy (DOE)-supported programs are helping the Crow Tribe in Montana produce energy with minimal environmental impact, educate future generations, and prepare its community for future jobs in energy fields.

At the heart of the Work Readiness Program and the Cultivation and Characterization of Oil Producing Algae Internship are 6-week intensive courses of study that teach real-world skills and provide opportunities for academic and industrial advancement in science, math, and energy.

The programs are supported in part by the Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), as well as the Many Stars Project, Accelergy Inc., the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Research Center, Little Big Horn College, and Montana State University. Ultimately, the two programs are helping the Crow Tribe take steps toward preserving local resources and jobs, and ultimately improving their reservation.

The Work Readiness Program teaches students classroom basics as well as specific job skills and how to apply these skills in a professional work setting. Students learn the basics of carpentry, welding, electrical work, rigging, reading blueprints, equipment operations, and safety standards. Students graduating from the program are well-positioned to help improve the quality of life within the reservation. For example, Fernando Long Soldier, a Crow Tribe member and program alumnus, is applying electrical skills learned in the program to infrastructure projects on the reservation, where he currently holds a supervisory position.

Members of the sponsoring organizations serve as teachers and mentors for the Work Readiness Program, but qualified Crow Tribe members are also encouraged to become instructors and contribute to the learning process. Robert Stewart, a Crow Tribe member and core education instructor for the program, helped design practical hands-on experiences, including an assigned task of building a 16-foot flatbed trailer. “When the class was finished building the trailer, they were so proud of themselves that they had actually built it and it worked,” said Stewart. “They were telling each other they are going to start building and selling their own trailers. That’s what I wanted to hear!”

The Cultivation and Characterization of Oil Producing Algae Internship places students in a laboratory alongside established researchers to study local algae samples and evaluate their possible use in energy applications. The project focuses on Accelergy’s integrated coal-to-liquid (ICTL) technology, which reforms local Montana bituminous coal and indigenous biomass feeds, like algae, into a liquid that is economical to transport and use as fuel. The student interns are involved in every aspect of the research. During last summer’s program, students collected algae at two different pond sites outside of the reservation, built bioreactors to grow the algae, harvested the algae, and then freeze-dried their samples to check the algae for oil quantities that could be useful to the ICTL technology.

Crow Tribe member Amanda Not Afraid, who completed the algae internship, said her experiences taught her “to see all the opportunities that lie outside of the reservation and what skills it would take to succeed there.” Since graduating from the program, Amanda has enrolled as a freshman at Little Big Horn College and is pursuing a degree in pre-medicine.

Acceptance into the two programs is competitive. Similar to applying for college, students are required to submit a packet of personal information, essays, and letters of recommendation which are reviewed by a board of four members. Of the 70 applicants in 2011, 45 were chosen and 38 graduated. The students who successfully completed the internship program are now in the workforce or attending one of the sponsoring institutions.

Because of the programs’ success, DOE has awarded additional funding to the algae internship, and outside funding was granted to Work Readiness Program, ensuring that both will be available to a new wave of students in summer 2012.

Launching today – and stretching into early Fall – the Algae Biomass Organization is coordinating a series of events billed as “The “Summer of Algae II” to raise awareness about the promise of the algae industry to create jobs, domestic fuels, and other food and feed products.

Through open-house style events, local and national officials will experience the research, products and jobs being created by some of the algae industry’s leading companies and research institutions. – with events already scheduled in Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio and Tennessee.

Campaign events range from small briefings with local officials to larger tours of laboratories and commercial facilities that include panel discussions among several regional algae companies and research groups to announcements about new technologies.

What is it all about? Well, algae aren’t much different from you and I in one vital respect. Give them a seat at too many buffets and they overeat, get fat, and eventually need liposuction. In our case, we might alarmingly gain a few pounds over Christmas – algae can double their mass, in ideal circumstances, within hours.

They have now been bred to grow fast enough that the algae industry is expected to sustainably provide — when systems reach industrial scale — cattle feed supplements that offset the impact of drought, as well as producing biofuels and chemicals for the sectors traditionally served with petroleum. Bringing down the capital costs of the systems, extracting the algae from the water, and keeping ponds producing over the long term – these are issues which the industry is tackling now.

For example, El Dorado Biofuels is successfully producing algae in the small rural town of Jal, where it reaches 116 degrees in summer. The algae grown in Jal, which the company calls “Jalgae,” is thriving in dirty, saline water that El Dorado has pumped from a nearby oil-and-gas well. El Dorado will sell Jalgae for biofuels, and as a feed supplement for cattle, but the company will also offer petroleum companies a new, inexpensive way to dispose of industrial water.Here are some events already scheduled.

Monday August 20

The Summer of Algae kicks off in San Diego, with a joint event hosted by some of the biggest leaders in algae research and commercialization: The San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology at UC San Diego, Sapphire Energy, General Atomics, Synthetic Genomics, Cellana, and CleanTECH San Diego.

The day’s activities include a panel discussion at each hosting organization, followed by a tour of the UC San Diego algae greenhouses and laboratories, and visits to their facilities in other locations.

Tuesday, August 21st

In Colorado, algae production systems provider Solix BioSystems, Inc. and the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels will host a tour and presentation of the latest algae industry developments in that state for local and national officials.

In Minnesota, St. Cloud State University and Algaedyne will show off some of the Midwest’s latest algae research and commercialization efforts. University and company representatives will discuss technical approaches and emerging business-academic partnerships, followed by a tour of the St. Cloud State’s Fluid Dynamics Lab.

Monday, August 27th

The second week of the campaign begins at Algenol’s facilities in Bonita Springs, Florida. This tour promises to be one of the largest Summer of Algae events. In addition to local and national officials’ chance to see the company’s latest in using algae to produce ethanol, the company will also be hosting 50 local science teachers to tour the facility as part of its commitment to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) education.

Thursday, August 30

In Seattle, Washington, Matrix Genetics will be making an exciting announcement while they give officials a first-hand look at its groundbreaking research focused on producing renewable fuel and specialty chemicals derived from cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). Aircraft manufacturer Boeing will also be on hand to discuss the importance of algae biofuels to the aviation industry, and the potential for a robust algae industry presence in the Northwest.

Future events

Bookmark this link for future events:

The latest and greatest technologies

Evodos’s Type 10 algae extraction system

Here’s a cool YouTube video showcasing the Evodos Type 10 algae extraction technology. This is the entry model, with a 750 liter/hour feed pump used to extract water from the algae. According to Evodos, it is frequently used by universities and research centres all over the world.

The first thermoformed sample of ALGIX’s algae-plastic

In Illinois, Dordan will be introducing the first-ever thermoformed sample of ALGIX’s algae-plastic in its 3rd Annual Bio Resin Show N Tell. Derived from up to 70% of its feedstock from aquatic biomass obtained from nitrogen and phosphorus-rich waste-water and blended with various concentrations of PE, PP, EVA, PLA, TPS, PHA etc., this bioresin is unique in that it allows industries, such as textile, agriculture, aquaculture, municipal, and others, the opportunity to capture their lowest-value waste product.

Solix’s Lumian Algae Growth System

These algae production photo-bioreactors – currently ranging from 260 to 58,000 liters – are constructed using the company’s proprietary Lumian panels, which maximize light penetration and efficient mixing of CO2 for optimized algae growth. Solix’s demonstration plant in Colorado, USA, has been producing multi-ton quantities of algae since 2009.

The product is separated into oil and solid biomass. The oil is converted into both low-value products such as biodiesel, green diesel, bio jet-fuels but also high-quality natural Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids, including Omega 3, Beta-Carotene and the high-value pigment Astaxanthin. Solids meanwhile are used in aquaculture, food and animal feed ingredients due to their high protein and carbohydrate content.

Algae around the world

India: Nalco’s initial wastewater-to-algae system

In India, the National Aluminum Company (Nalco) is planning to invest $174,275 in an algae biodiesel facility that will grow algae from its wastewater treatment plant in an 18-acre shallow pond co-located at an aluminum manufacturing plant in Odisha.

Australia: Algae.Tec, Marine Innovations, VG Energy and Uniquest

In Australia earlier this month, Algae.Tec’s advanced algae to biofuels showcase facility Shoalhaven One was officially commissioned in Nowra by New South Wales Minister for Resources and Energy, Chris Hartcher. The company’s high-yield, scaleable algae growth and harvesting system is connected to a waste carbon dioxide output from the Manildra Group’s adjacent plant, increasing growth and oil content of the algae without the additional expense and environmental risks of carbon dioxide injection.

Also Down Under, last month researchers from Marine Innovations SA, part of the South Australian Research and Development Institute, have come across a “super strain” of native microalgae after six years of “bioprospecting” that could be the foundation of a local biofuels industry.

Similarly, VG Energy, the majority-owned subsidiary of Viral Genetics, has entered into an agreement with UniQuest, the commercialization arm of the University of Queensland, Australia, to optimize the use of Metabolic Disruption Technology compounds in algae lipid production.

Brazil: Making algae from sugarcane ethanol CO2

In Brazil, a plant run by SAT will be producing biofuels from seaweed at industrial scale for the first time and is expected to be built by late 2013. The factory will be located on a sugar cane plantation in Pernambuco and will produce 1.2 million liters of algae-based biofuel annually.

Rafael Bianchini, head of SAT’s Brazilian group, said that the goal was to “convert the CO2 from a passive to an active” state. “For each ethanol liter produced, one kilogram of CO2 is released in the atmosphere. We are going to take this CO2 to feed our plant,” he added.

Similarly, SEE ALGAE Technology signed an agreement in June to supply and install a 1 hectare “dual-use” algae production plant for Recife, Brazil-based Grupo JB, one of the leading bioethanol producers in Brazil.

France: OriginOil’s urban-sized algae harvester

In France, OriginOil is getting ready to test its urban-sized algae harvester, the Model 4 Algae Appliance, at the La Défense complex near Paris in collaboration with Ennesys, a local wastewater-to-energy company.

Switzerland: Bioseutica and BioProcess Algae to produce Omega-3 oils

In Switzerland, Bioseutica, a producer of highly purified pharmaceutical-grade Omega-3 fatty acids, and BioProcess Algae, a Rhode Island based algal feedstocks company have entered into a commercial supply agreement for the production of EPA-rich Omega-3 oils for use in concentrated EPA products for nutritional and/or pharmaceutical applications.

Canada: Pond Biofuels, feds take cold-weather algae production gambit

In Canada, the federal government announced a $1 million investment in Ontario-based Pond Biofuels, which uses cement manufacturing off-gases to provide CO2 and process heat for algae production in cold, northern regions.

Thailand: Bangchak Petroleum, Loxley partner for pilot project

In Thailand, Loxley announced a memorandum of understanding with Bangchak Petroleum, Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding and the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency, for a $1.9 million algal biofuels pilot plant. Construction of the pilot, which is planned for the Ratchaburi Electricity Generating plant in Ratchaburi province, will commence in late 2012. MBD Energy has been selected to supply the algal harvest, wastewater treatment, harvesting and extraction systems, and Loxley indicated that a $25 million project for a commercial-scale facility could begin as soon as 2014.

Algae biofuels could bloom into a $1.6 billion industry by 2015, according to a recent report by energy research firm SBI.

As pondscum fuels make the jump from test tube to tanker trucks, the growing industry is lobbying Congress to make sure it has a level playing field when it arrives at commercial scale.

The Algae Biomass Organization (ABO) is celebrating a small victory earlier this month, when the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill that would extend a cellulosic biofuel tax credit to include algae fuels.

“When you start putting language into tax code legislation, it really legitimizes the feedstock and it legitimizes the technology,” said Mary Rosenthal, ABO’s executive director.

Congress created the $1.01 per gallon production tax credit for cellulosic biofuels in 2005, when algae biofuels were still in a “very nascent stage,” Rosenthal said. The ABO has been lobbying Congress for the past few years to extend the credit to include algae.

“Our position is for legislation to be written so that it’s technology-neutral and feedstock-agnostic,” she said.

Algae’s exclusion from the original bill hasn’t hurt the algae industry yet because it hasn’t reached the stage of commercial-scale production. But researchers are getting closer. Rosenthal estimated that up to 200 companies would benefit from the expanded tax credit.

The Senate isn’t expected to take up the bill until it reconvenes next month, and with election-year politics in play, it’s anyone’s guess whether the full Senate or House will back the provision. Rosenthal said the White House supports it.

Even if it doesn’t become law this year, it’s passage in the Senate committee is still an important milestone that sends a positive signal to the financial world, Rosenthal said.

The SBI report, issued July 30, said algae biofuel investment is shifting from government grants to private investment, with major companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and Dow Chemical backing algae projects or research.

Thomas Byrne, CEO and president of Algaedyne in Preston, Minnesota, said the bill’s potential impact on investor attitude will probably outweigh the tax benefit for his company.

“If the government comes and shows its support long-term for it, it’s easier for us to get investors,” Byrne said. Algaedyne is on track to commercialize its product in about a year, he said.

Algaedyne is working closely with St. Cloud State University, which will host an ABO event today as part of the trade group’s “Summer of Algae” campaign.

En route to zillions in algae? First, you have to get the water out of the algae or the algae out of the water.

Making Algenol’s ethanol-secreting microalgae a technology worth a special accommodation. Which Florida finally granted.

Last year, the US Government minted 8.2 billion coins, of which 4.9 billion were pennies. The vast majority of the pennies will fall between the couches, fill coin jars, or sit unloved in parking lots. It is estimated that as many as 150 billion pennies are floating around in circulation, with the vast majority sitting around in various states of disuse.

A billion dollars, lying around? Why’s that? Well, that’s the “making money from algae” problem, in a nutshell. If the average US worker makes $17 per hour, and it takes a minute to find and pick up a penny in a parking lot, you lose money hunting down and aggregating pennies – in fact, at those rates of productivity, it would cost you nearly thirty cents to find a penny.

Nothing wrong with pennies, it’s all in the harvesting. Same with gold or any other precious material. When the concentration rate is too low, it’s unviable. After all, there’s gold dissolved in seawater, too – $10 trillion of it, by one estimate. It’s just unaffordable to extract.

Plus, in the case of algae, and to stretch the analogy, there are a lot of penny-munching critters out there in micro algae ponds. Just when you get to the penny, you find some other critter has swiped it.

Getting algae out of the water

In the case of micro algae, the critters grow at concentrations of up to, say, 0.1-1 percent, and even after you have grown them, you either have to get the algae out of the water or the water out of the algae, and moving 1 ton of water to get to somewhere between 2 and 20 pounds of algae, containing less than a gallon of lipids – well, the economics could get upside down right quick.

Not to mention the nutrient costs, the construction costs, the extraction costs, and yada yada yada.

Which is one of the reasons that, among algal biofuels technologies, the solution offered up by Algenol was so compelling.

A remarkable path

The Florida-based company has a modified microalgae that, when placed inside low-cost plastic tubing filled with seawater, and overfed a diet of CO2, produced and secreted ethanol.  Not entirely different to sweating, and in the evenings when the sunlight faded, an ethanol-rich condensate would form and be collected for further concentration into ethanol fuel. 2 tons of industrial emission CO2 per day would produce 100,000 gallons of fuel ethanol per year.

Now, how much industrial CO2 is available from the average US power plant? Roughly 1.3 million tons – or enough CO2 to support a 180 million gallon ethanol project.

Very compelling as a path to ultra low-cost biofuels, and one of the reasons why Algenol projected it could produce algal biofuels for an operating cost of less than $1.00 per gallon, and a capital cost estimated by the company at $4- $6 per gallon, or another 33 to 50 cents per gallon for capex (amortized over 15 years). That offers a tidy profit potential, with RBOB gasoline trading at $3.18 per gallon, meaning that ethanol would be cost competitive (using the Brazilian 70% rule of thumb) on a cost-per-mile basis at $2.22 per gallon.

Not to mention the energy security and emissions benefits.

Can Algenol’s system work at scale?

Does the technology work at scale? That’s what the DOE would like to find out, and a 30-acre project is in development in Lee County, Florida to make the case that it can.

Thus, very strange when the state of Florida passed a Renewable Energy Act last month requiring “double jeopardy,” which is to say, appointing two different, unsynchronized state departments over the one permitting process for any algal farm over two acres, requiring Algenol to get a specific permit for growing algae from the state’s Department of Agriculture’s Division of Plant Industry. Since Algenol was the only company developing a facility of more than two acres, they can be forgiven for thinking that the provision was aimed at them.

Construction halted, there was talk of heading back to Maryland or another state which did not have such an odious regulatory regime. After all, Algenol’s technology had been reviewed and approved seven times by its primary Florida regulator – why was a new regulator necessary, and why was an anti-regulatory Republican administration and legislature forcing the provisions through?

Cooler heads prevail

Fortunately, cooler heads have prevailed. After consultations with authorities, it was agreed that Algenol’s new integrated algal biofuels site wouldn’t be required to seek the permit and would instead only be required to use best management practices to contain the algae in case of a leak.

Now, Algenol has restarted construction at its first commercial-scale facility in Fort Meyers that will have 3,000 photobioreactors installed in the completed project. It’s a good ending for the Sunshine State, which has a ton of promise in bio-based energy because of the state’s ample supply of heat and sunshine. Now, they have some perspective to go with all that biomass. Good news for Florida and Algenol – good news for the consumer, bringing the prospect of ultra-low cost microalgae making the projects of algal biofuels at scale ever closer.

Read more at Biofuels Digest