Can micro-algae and the waste from the fishing sector be part of the solution to the liquid fuel problem?

September 15, 2009

Link CampusRecently I was asked to write a paper on the subject of Aquatic Biofuels for my University’s internal Newspaper (Link Campus – University of Malta). I was then asked to re-write the paper in Italian as well. Therefore I have attached both for your ease and convenience. The paper talks a little about the origins of algae and why I feel there is so much potential in growing algae for fuel and energy. It also includes some news about fish waste for biodiesel and the integrated system, Integrated Aquaculture Energy System (IAES).

Aquatic Biofuels Link Campus article English Version
Aquatic Biofuels Link Campus article Italian Version

Your thoughts and comments are highly valued so please do not hesitate to contact me.

Tony Picclo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome – Italy

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Five key strategies for algae biofuels commercialization

June 18, 2009

Algae 2020What are the 5 most important strategies to look out for when wanting to commercialise algae biodiesel or biocrude?

Production needs to be faster, lipids and algae cells need to be fatter, the cost of production needs to be cheaper, the extraction process needs to be easier and better, and lastly but very important is that valuable co-products need to be produced.

According to a study done on algae biofuels/biomass market: Algae 2020 (460 pages, June 2009), these five key stratgies emerged as approaches to help producers to reduce costs and accelerate the commercialization of algae biodiesel.

1: Faster. As a first strategy for most algae biofuels producers is to identify algae species that have a high oil content, that will also grow quickly to produce biodiesel, biocrude and drop-in fuels. Growth of algae is tied to CO2 sequestration so the more CO2 can be sequestered from nearby emitters the faster the algae will grow.

2: Fatter. Algae are especially interested in utilizing algal species with a high triglyceride (TAG) oil content for biodiesel and biocrude production. Obviously the more oil content the more diesel can be produced.

3: Cheaper. Based on the examination of several algae business and economic models, the study finds the estimated costs to produce algae oils and algae biodiesel today range from $9 to $25 per gallon in ponds, and from $15 to $40 in photobioreactors (PBRs).

4: Easier/Better. The study has identified algae producers are now employing easier and better methods of producing algae for biodiesel, biocrude and drop-in fuels.

5: Co-Product Fraction Marketing Strategies. Even with algae species with up to 50% oil content, the additional 50% biomass remains. This biomass fraction contains valuable proteins for livestock, poultry and fish feed additives valued from $800 up to $2500 per ton. As fish-feed an interesting concept would be to feed the biomass to fish (tilapia for example) and then produce fish fillets, fish meal, and fish-oil from which another bio-diesel can be produced

Tony Picclo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome – Italy

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European Algae Biomass Association (EABA)

June 4, 2009

eaba-header

The 1st European Algae Biomass Association (EABA) Conference and General Assembly meeting of the Association was held in Florence, Italy, June 3-4th, 2009.

However the outlook was not as optimistic as one would like to think, or as optimistic as the US outlook. General indicative timeframes claim that it will take 10-15 years to commercilize algae, the Executive Director Mr. Raffaello Garofalo pointed out that this is in fact indicative and that there is still alot of research to be done, which part of EABA’s mandate. He also went on to say that at present, producing biodiesel from algae costs 10 to 30 times the cost of making biodiesel from traditional feedstocks. By-products it seems are going to be what makes algae oil production viable in the shorter term. Those highly valued products will make the price drop and make algae oil competitive with other feedstocks.

Mr. Garofalo also added that the new association has 54 members representing science and industry and aims to be a platform for creating full algae-based production chain, from biofuels to animal feed to nutrients.

This outlook strongly contrasts with the more positive scenario and assessment made by some US companies who claim they can commercialize in 3 to 4 years.

  • Sapphire Energy has projected that it will reach 1Mgy in production in 2011 and 100Mgy by 2018.
  • Solazyme has projected reaching 100 Mgy by 2012 or 2013.
  • Biofields has projected production in Mexico of 250 Mgy by 2013 based on the Algenol process.
  • PetroAlgae has indicated it expects to reach commercial scale production (below 100Mgy) in 2011.
  • Aurora Biofuels has projected the development of  “$1.30 at the gate” fuel by 2013

Which of the 2 scenarios do you think is more realistic? The US who have been working on algae to oil production since the 1970′s or the EU whose research is much more recent ?

The US have been speeding up their science and technology on algae for oil/biodiesel production and as the Algae Biofuels World Summit concluded in San Francisco on March of this year. The technology is now in place to commercialize algae as fuel it is the patent laws that are holding everything back. Certain companies have perfected certain branches of extraction, harvesting, CO2 sequestration etc, but have patented the technology and are not sharing their discoveries. This is slowing up the process, but within 4-5 years the US should be able to go commercial.

So will it take 2 to 3,  4 to 5 or 10 to 15 to commercialize algae oil?.

What do you think? Please write your views and opinions below, or contact me directly via e-mail by clicking here

Tony Picclo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome – Italy

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2008 the year of algae investments

December 5, 2008

Worldwide investments in algae have surpassed the $300 million dollar mark in 2008, with Sapphire Energy taking the lead with a $100 million dollar investment in R&D from Bill Gates.

The investements have been catacorised in 3 sections.

The first is public-private partnerships (PPPs), these are mainly investments between governments, universities, research labs and private companies, (DARPA, NREL, Carbon Trust). Other investments in the sector are

  • Chevron partnered with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
  • BP and the University of Berkeley and Arizona State University
  • The US Department of Energy invested $2.3 in algae projects.
  • Shell has invested with Cellana in a joint venture with the Hawaiian Natural Energy Laboratory and HR Biopetroleum.
  • UK’s Carbon Trust announced the world’s largest algae challenge ($40 million).

The second wave of investments has been in direct investment in private algeae companies, this has mainly been the invstment made by Bill Gates’ Cascade Investments (Rockefeller Foundation)l, Chevron, BP, to Sapphire Energy.

Thirdly, investments in the third phase are in the nature of investing in the first stage of commercialization of algae for fuel. Algae for fuel, although has not yet proven to be totally commercially viable, the price of the final product has dropped dramatically from:

  • $3000 per gallon in 2006
  • $250 in 2007 to
  • $10-20 in 2008

It has to be made clear however that these estimates are for now only based on small scale commercial pilot plants.

Other important investments include:

  • GreenFuels recently signed a $92 million contract with Aurantia in Spain to scale up production, and capture 10% of Aurantia’s CO2 emissions from cement factories.
  • Arizona’s Petrosun recently signed a contract for $40 million in China in a 50/50 venture with Shanghai Jun Ya Yan Technology. China will build an algae farm system using Petrosun’s technology.
    Table courtesy of Biofuels International

    Table courtesy of Biofuels International

    Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuel Specialist, Rome

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Algae to be grown and harvested in shrimp farm

October 31, 2008

Gary Wood founder and owner of Destersweetshrimp has been farming shrimp (Penaeus Vannamei) for decades in his 160 hectare plantation in the small town of Gila Bend in the middle of the Arizona desert between Phoenix and San Diego.

 

Gary is proud of his shrimp, he talks about it with immense passion and he is acclaimed to harvest the sweetest shrimp ever produced. The sweet shrimp are grown in open ponds and several years ago due to the high demand for his shrimp he decided to expand the business and build more ponds to harvest more produce. Little did he know at that stage that the Chinese and Asian market with its competitive prices, was going to almost take over the entire shrimp US market leaving little room for his idea to expand into a bigger producer.

 

He now faced a dilemma, what to do with the newly built ponds (roughly 30) which were going to produce the extra shrimp? He began to explore options and became interested in algae as a possible option for his extra ponds, after all he had all the right catalysts for algae to grow:

 

  • Lots of direct sun
  • H2O (water)
  • CO2 (carbon dioxide) coming from an emitting plant about 3.2km away.

 

Algae was decided! It was going to grow in the newly built 30 ponds. Algae which will provide oil about 20% of the biomass produced , (however this percentage will increase as does technology and science) biomass + other bio-products in a fully integrated sustainable system.

 

Shrimp and algae are Gary’s produce and he talks just as proudly of one as he does about the other.

Please visit Desertsweetbiofuels for more details.

 

Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuel Specialist, (Gila Bend, Arizona)

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Algae Biomass Summit – Algae the fuel of the future, but so much more…..

October 24, 2008

This years Algae Biomass Summit (ABS) was indeed a success. Over 700 people from micro- biologists to

Algae Biomass Summit

engineers, journalists, managers, and students glued to the stage to hear and watch the latest developments in algae technology and biology.

Over 50 speakers gave their perspectives on which technology was the better one (open pond or photo bio-reactor) and it is apparent that there is still some work to be done on improving the technologies and enhancing the yields of oils and lipids and the biomass quantities. It seems high oil yields can be obtained but at the cost of quantity and high quantity can be obtained with a lower oil yield. Over all the summit was a great success and hopefully industry and science can continue to work together to find the best strains and the best technology to really make algae the oil of the future.

Another important aspect which resulted from the summit and one which is of particular interest to me is algae as food or feedstock for animals. Micro-algae are rich in Omega3 which can be fed to livestock or fish to enhance their nutritional value, the algae oil would still be produced and it would be one of many resources that can be extracted from algae.

An integrated farming system approach is the way I see this to happen.

FISHFARMS: Within an already pre-existing aquaculture fish farm you could build algae ponds or photo bio-reactors (depending on the climate zone), give the algae nutrients from the fish excretions, “feed” it CO2 from a nearby CO2 emitting plant or cement making facilities, grow the algae (at very quick rates), extract the oil, use the feedstock to give back to the fish as food (rich in Omega3).

AGRICULTURE FARMS: The same concept would be used for traditional farms wheras instead of the fish excretions livestock excretions could be used as nutrients.

Green Algae Strategy - by Mark Edwards

Green Algae Strategy - Mark Edwards

There is still work to be done to turn this green slimy plant into a variety of viable resources for the future. Algae can fulfil many needs of present day society from food, to oil and from fertilizer to perhaps even famine and disaster relief as well as foreign aid.

This has been highlighted in a book titled “Green Algae Strategy; End Oil imports and Engineer Sustainable Food and Fuel” by Mark Edwards (www.greenindependence.org), who points out that algae can offer solutions to an array of the most difficult challenges of the 21st century:

• Freedom from foreign oil imports
• Sustainable and affordable food in spite of climate change
• Low cost, clean, high energy for liquid transportation
• Low cost systemic CO2 capture

Please share your thoughts on algae by commenting on this post.

Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuel Specialist, October 24, Seattle

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UK – £26m to produce fuel from algae

October 24, 2008

The worlds largest publically funded algae farm will be built by Carbon Trust in most likey developing countries, says Dr. Ben Graziano from Carbon Trust. The first phase of the project will involve spending £6m to enhance research in the UK in order for companies to develop strains and increase the potential of this single celled organism. Right now, says Robert Trezona, R&D director at the Carbon Trust, there are companies that can produce high oil content algae and other companies that are capable of producing lots of algae, no-one can yet do both. Other problems include the design of the technology.

The second phase will scale up the project and build multi hectare farms to grow algae in large quantities. Once the highest yielding quantity and the high yielding strains have been identified, then algae can grow on the field in larger “real” usable quantities.

Carbon Trust claims it will be producing commercial algae oil by 2020 and has decided to use the open pond system which is the most suited for the temperate climates they wish to establish their farms in. Although these countries were not revieled, one country could be Egypt or any of sahel countries in the North African desert, which include: Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan.

Sahel Belt (Africa) image from wikipedia.org
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuel Specialist, October 24, Seattle

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Bill Gates to fund algae fuel production

October 12, 2008

After the failed attempt at investments into Sapphire Energy for Pacific Ethanol, Mr. Gates is once again putting money where his mouth is and investing once again with algae oil producers Sapphire Energy this time for algae fuel.

It all began in 2007 when Sapphire Energy stated they were able to obtain a successful product “Green Crude” from algae. Processing this green crude could yield chemical gasoline equivalents, diesel and even jet fuel.

The investments received by Sapphire will help them reach thier daily target of 10.000 barrels of algae fuel and smoothen commercial scale production by 2011-2012. No information was given on what the technology will be used, whether it will be photo bio-reactors but judging by what the large coroprate companies are investing in it will most likely be photo bio-reactors as opposed to open pond biofixation process, that yes do require major invesments but do give higher yields.

Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuel Specialist, October 12, Rome

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Portland GE + Columbia Energy = Algae oil, ethanol and livestock feed.

October 12, 2008

Portland General Electric and Columbia Energy have joined forces to set up a pilot project of algae fuel in Oregon. The project will sequester the CO2 from the nearby GE and “feed” it to the algae farm. The pilot project has taken 2 years to set up and has resulted in the purchase of 6 photo bio-reactors. The company said they would wait for results before signing up a long-term development agreement.

The plant would use up about 60 percent of GE’s 5 million tons of coal-based CO2 emissions, and produce up to 20 Mgy (Millions of gallon per year) of biodiesel. Recently the GE plant has come under attack due to the large CO2, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions. The pilot project will relieve some of that pressure.

Other by-products produced from the process include ethanol from the left over residue and livestock feed.

Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuel Specialist, October 12, Rome

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Algae fuel Joint Venture USA-China

October 12, 2008

Looks like we’re set to go!!! PetroSun (Arizona) and Shanghai Jun Ya Yan (China) have set up a joint venture to produce alage fuel at commercial scale in China. The chinese company will invest $40 million for constructing the facility and take a 50% stake in the project. The technology used will be photo bio-reactors. While Petrosun have not yet stated where their Chinese algae farm will be located back in Arizona they are building a 1,000 acres of ponds in its Rio Hondo location. The farm will produce 4.4 million gallons of algae oil and 110 million pounds of biomass per year.

We hope that both Shanghai Jun Ya Yan and Petrosun are cautious and do not build their farm on food production areas, a problem which is becoming felt particularly in Asia countries where agricultural farmland is being torn making way for fuel crops.

Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuel Specialist, October 12, Rome

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