I’ve been cultivating a growing love affair with algae ever since I began searching for superior biofuels feedstocks. Emboldened by figures stating properly engineered algal systems could produce between 2000-20,000 gallons of biodiesel-worthy vegetable oil per acre (an acre of soy yields 40-60 gallons), algae stands as the great green hope of the appropriate biofuels revolution.
Recent announcements from Diversified Energy + XL Renewables and Originoil push algal oil further into the ever-diversifying biofuels toolkit. It is my hope that these pioneering technologies will be integrated and improved upon by the likes of Solix, Greenfuel Technologies Corp, Solazyme, Live Fuels and all of the other algae entrepreneurs in the cleantech space.
First, Diversified / XL’s Simgae announcement:
According to the companies, the new technology, called Simgae™, uses common agriculture and irrigation components to produce algae at a reduced cost. The system uses unique thin walled polyethylene tubing, called Algae Biotape®, similar to conventional drip irrigation tubes.
The patent pending biotape is laid out in parallel across a field. Under pressure, water containing the necessary nutrients and a small fraction of algae are slowly introduced into the biotape. Carbon dioxide is injected periodically and after roughly 24 hours the flow leaves the Algae Biotape with a markedly greater concentration of algae than was started.
All the supporting hardware components and processes involved in Simgae are direct applications from the agriculture industry. Re-use of these practices avoids the need for expensive and complex hardware and costly installation and maintenance.
The design is expected to provide an annual algae yield of 100 – 200 dry tons per acre. Capital costs are expected to be approximately $45k – $60k and profitable oil production costs are estimated at only $0.08 – $0.12/pound. These oil costs compare to recent market prices of feedstock oils anywhere from $0.25 – $0.44/pound.
Additionally, Originoil filed a patent for some some interesting ultrasound tech:
Quantum Fracturing, as OriginOil calls it, works at the microscopic level for its algae oil cultivation. Nutrients are “fractured” and put into growing microalgae during the growth stage to get maximum benefits without impacting the algae cells. When extraction time comes more fracturing is done to create an “ultrasound effect” which breaks the outer layer of the algae in an energy-efficient manner, allowing for quicker harvesting of oils.
Finally, it seems, algal-based biofuels are coming into the fore. The applications seem limitless for a robust, closed-loop algae oil system. Besides producing abundant liquid fuel and biomass, these systems could be used to produce oxygen and purify water, as well as filter stack emissions, livestock wastes and agricultural run-off. Now you’re talking about externalities! — Curtiss Martin
