Algae, the future of biofuels?
Posted June 30, 2009 at 11:23 am 
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Will algae give ethanol another chance to prove itself? Algenol Biofuels, a startup based in Bonita Springs, FL, says it has the technology to make ethanol without the use of food-based feedstock, harvesting, arable land, fresh water, or fossil fuel. Algenol is not the first to venture an enterprise exploring the application of algae as an alternative fuel source. Other companies, Amyris, Petrosun, Solazyme, and Sapphire Energy, like Algenol, are focusing their technology to include carbon dioxide as a feedstock in the process of extracting ethanol.
With Algenol’s technology, in principle, algae mixed in sea water and carbon dioxide is exposed to sunlight to generate ethanol and oxygen. The two streams of products can be applied separately. Ethanol, for example, can be fed and further processed to form plastic or be useful when coupled with other chemical based factories, while oxygen can be fed into the combustion chamber of a coal burning plant. Coal burns cleaner and hotter in a pure oxygen environment, with carbon dioxide as the only gas emission, which would be injected back into the algae feedstock. The science sounds right, but there is room to be skeptical about the combined efforts with coal plants, as nowhere has the oxygen-injection scheme been tested and its economic feasibility weighted. The technology being developed in China only feeds the carbon dioxide emitted from coal plants to the algae plant in a one-way reaction, and nothing is being said about oxygen produced by the algae plant as a feedstock for coal plants.
Often what seems too good to be true has its downsides. There is little information about the logistics of harvesting and managing the algae farm, except for the assertion that Algenol is capable of producing 6,000 gallons per acre per year using desert land and marginal land. This figure seems plausible when compared to the statistics offered by corn, which produces 400 gallons per acre per year; however, the cost structure and efficiency is still indeterminate. The bigger challenge, though, may be the limitations of ethanol produced with this process. Algenol produces an alcohol based ethanol, as opposed to the hydrocarbon fuel, which is corrosive and cannot be transported with existing gasoline pipelines. This will not alleviate our dependence on petroleum, of which 70 percent attributes to transportation use. Furthermore, ethanol has the property of being water soluble, so regular pipelines that normally accumulate water may cause ethanol to be unusable.
Algenol Biofuel is collaborating with Dow Chemical Company, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Georgia Institute of Technology and Membrane Technology & Research, Inc in looking for prospects for algae. Dow is interested in developing advanced materials using the algae initiatives, and is willing to lease land for the pilot plant and lend its expertise on the water treatment process. The partnership between Algenol and Dow is an appropriate marriage, considering the derived benefits for the chemical industry. Nevertheless, Algenol will have to address the issue of transportation applications if the company intends to scale up the project to bring a significant step forward for alternative fuels.
Should we be as optimistic as the Chinese are about the future of algae plants? In China, 247 acres will be devoted to farm algae in the next three years under the initiative of ENN, a Chinese company, to retrofit the algae facilities with China’s coal plants that are multiplying at an incredible rate. Similar research is also being conducted at the University of Ohio and at sea farms in Japan.
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