Algae Floating Systems, Inc. (AFS) recently announced that it has commissioned a new 12,000 liter working demonstration unit in the San Francisco Bay Area. This improved generation 6 demonstration facility is a gateway for AFS to the next step of building a commercial-scale facility.
The following are parameters of the systems:
- annual production capacity – 10 million US gallons of algal oil and 100,000 tonnes of algal cake;
- capital cost – USD35 million;
- footprint – 500 acres;
- useful life – 12 years;
- volume – 500 million liters (water is continuously recycled);
- annual amount of sequestered carbon dioxide (CO2) – 250,000 tonnes;
- annual amount of produced and collected oxygen (O2) – over 100,000 tonnes.
Furthermore the system requires low operating expenses for harvesting and oil extraction, and algal oil production cost, which includes capital as well as operating expenses, on a commercial scale will be US$2 per gallon (US$80 per barrel or US$600 per tonne);
Mr. Vadim Krifuks from AFS during a brief telephone conversation went onto say that the initial costs of the innovative bioreactor is about the same price as building a pond. This of course would have important implications for developing countries.
Up to now I have always considered and thought that algae would be a wonderful option for energy production in developing countries (see entry on Carbon Trust), but have always considered open-pond systems due to the high costs of photo-bioreactors. However if AFS claim that their costs would be the same then of-course the options change. Photo-bioreactors are much more efficient, produce higher yields and are not as subject to contamination as are open pond systems.
About AFS:
Algae Floating Systems is the company that develops and deploys algae-based carbon capture and sequestration systems for power plants and industrial facilities that profitably convert CO2 and solar energy into renewable fuels and other valuable products. In the long term the company plans to deploy AFS Biofarms™ offshore to maximize the efficiency, cost and footprint of the systems.
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome-Italy
Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
