The math on turning algae into fuel

Half Moon Bay, Calif--A number of companies have sketched out plans to convert algae into a feedstock for transportation fuel, but GreenFuel Technologies is farther along in bringing the concept to market than most.

And the Cambridge, Mass.-based company trotted out numbers at the Think Tomorrow Today conference sponsored by ThinkEquity Partners here (say that three times fast) to illuminate why the idea is getting so much attention.

First off, algae grows rapidly and grows constantly, which means that algae ponds can produce more oil per hectare in a year than traditional plant crops, said GreenFuel CFO Guillermo Espiga.

A hectare pond filled with algae can produce 15,000 to 80,000 liters of vegetable oil a year. Only about 6,000 liters of palm oil can be squeezed out of a hectare a year. Corn is only good for 120 hectares of oil a year, Espiga said.

Algae can also be converted into a variety of materials, insulating producers from changes in commodity prices to some degree. It can be turned into alcohol for ethanol, biomass that can be burned in a furnace, or animal feed (which can also be sold under the Soylent Green brand name in grocery stores). A single hectare can generate 8,000 gallons of oil, 2,400 gallons of ethanol a year and 2.6 tons of glycerin, a material bought by the cosmetics industry, he said.

But there's more. GreenFuel plans to produce algae in ponds next to coal-fired power plants. The carbon dioxide from the plants is captured and provides the food for growing the algae. At a 100 megawatt coal-burning power plant, 100 acres of algae ponds, optimized with species that grow well in that particular environment, will consume 90 percent of the CO2 from the plant.

Thus, power plants that deploy the technology will generate revenue from carbon credits as well as make money from selling feedstocks. Espiga estimates that there are 1,750 power plants in the U.S. that sit next to spare real estate that could accommodate some of GreenFuel's algae ponds. The standard size of the algae facilities will be around 250 acres, he said.

So far, GreenFuel has only opened demonstration plant but expects to open a full fledged power plant in Arizona this year. By 2012, the company hopes to hit revenues of $100 million. It will license the technology as well as build its own power plant/algae facilities.

[dscottbuch]

How can you trust this article

Quote - <br /><br />A hectare pond filled with algae can produce 15,000 to 80,000 <br />liters of vegetable oil a year. Only about 6,000 liters of palm oil <br />can be squeezed out of an acre a year. Corn is only good for 120 <br />acres of oil a year.<br /><br />- end quote<br /><br />A hectare is 100 acres so according to this quote 100 acres of <br />palm oil would produce 600,000 liters of palm oil vs 'only' <br />80,000 max from alge???? So why use alge. Then the <br />comparison to core is nonsensical!!!! <br /><br />What happened to editors in journalism???????

[Sparky672]

You can't trust it.

There's no critical thinking anymore at C/Net.<br /><br />You caught the problem but your numbers are off. I agree with <br />your point which is still totally valid.<br /><br />One hectare = 2.47 acres = 10,000 sq meters = 0.01 sq <br />kilometers.

[Sparky672]

This was corrected?!

C/Net tried to correct this...<br /><br />[b]Quoting:[/b] [i]"... A hectare pond filled with algae can <br />produce 15,000 to 80,000 liters of vegetable oil a year. Only <br />about 6,000 liters of palm oil can be squeezed out of a hectare a <br />year. [u]Corn is only good for 120 hectares of oil[/u] a year, <br />Espiga said. ..." [/i]<br /><br />Ok, so C/Net just changed it from [i]"120 acres of oil"[/i] to <br />[i]"120 hectares of oil"[/i].<br /><br />Do they realize acres and hectares are only used to measure [b]<br />area[/b]? Liquids like oil are generally measured by [b]volume[/<br />b].... gallons, liters, barrels, etc.<br /><br />So tell me C/Net, just what is [i]"120 hectares of oil"[/i] <br />supposed to mean?

[billmosby]

Come again?

The quote was "corn is only good for 120 hectares a year". Quite <br />useless, but not as wrong as your figure of 100 acres to the <br />hectare.<br /><br />If you google "hectare acre conversion", you get, among others, <br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.metric-conversions.org/," target="_newWindow">http://www.metric-conversions.org/,</a> which gives 2.471 acres <br />per hectare.<br /><br />But even that is beside the point, since all his production figures <br />were for hectare units. He did quote actual production sites in <br />acres, though.<br /><br />A cursory search on the web seems to show a corn ethanol <br />production rate of around 300 gallons per acre, or about 740 <br />gallons per hectare, or roughly 3000 liters per hectare.<br /><br />So from the article we have one hectare per year producing from <br />algae,<br />15000 to 80000 liters of veg oil, plus about 10000 liters of <br />ethanol, plus the glycerin.<br /><br />From palm, 6000 liters of oil.<br /><br />From corn, according to random web sources, 3000 liters of <br />ethanol.<br /><br />Algae sounds a lot better to me. Of course, one must ask if the <br />"optimized species" have been found or bred yet, and field <br />tested.

[Sparky672]

Check your math C/Net...

[b]Quoting[/b] [i]"... A hectare pond filled with algae can <br />produce 15,000 to 80,000 liters of vegetable oil a year. Only <br />about 6,000 liters of palm oil can be squeezed out of an acre a <br />year. ..."[/i]<br /><br />Hello, C/Net?? Hectares and Acres are two different sizes!!<br /><br />1 hectare = 2.47105381 acres<br /><br />So 6,000 liters [b]per acre[/b] equals 14,826 liters [b]per hectare<br />[/b].<br /><br />Now compare that palm oil to algae again.

[michael_schmitz]

Corn is only good for 120 acres of oil a year.

Is that "An acre of corn is only good for 120 liters of oil a year?"

[Sparky672]

LOL

The C/Net technology editor must be on vacation.<br /><br />Heck, what do I know, I'm living on 30,000 liters of land per <br />minute.

[IrishBrewer]

C'mon guys, get with it!

This is the new math - not the old math you grew up learning. <br /><br />Someone has found a new way to apply math without the pesky need to use consistent or logical units.<br /><br />One of the main benefits of this new system is that it makes it quite easy to prove just about anything with no more than three simple calculations.

[Sparky672]

Soylent Green is People!!!

[b]Quoting:[/b] [i]"... It can be turned into alcohol for ethanol, <br />biomass that can be burned in a furnace, or animal feed (which <br />can also be sold under the [u]Soylent Green brand name[/u] in <br />grocery stores). ... "[/i]<br /><br />***?! Is this story for real?<br /><br />What reputable company is going to name their brand after a <br />movie about a futuristic foodstuff made from dead people?<br /><br />Thanks for the laughs, C/Net!!

[maddoghall]

Does Algae grow in the winter?

I will assume that the algae does not grow well in the winter if the pond is frozen and covered with snow. It might grow if the Algae ponds were heated and kept free of ice.<br /><br />I wonder how many of those power plants are built in places that do not get cold enough to freeze?

[buffalojpb]

Check your reading comprehension

This article is from 'news.blog' not cnet.<br /><br />some folks blaming Cnet for crappy editing need to look in the mirror before they start casting stones at an innocent party.<br /><br />Jeesh, the reading comprehension of some folks on this thread has declined to retard levels.

[Sparky672]

news.blog = C/Net

[b]Quoting:[/b] [i]"Jeesh, the [u]reading comprehension[/u] of <br />some folks on this thread has declined to retard levels."[/i]<br /><br />You're hilarious! Thanks for the comedy!<br /><br />This [u]entire[/u] site is run by C/Net including news.blog<br /><br />Perhaps you just missed the red C/Net logo in the upper left <br />corner of your window. Yeah, the one right there to the left of <br />the words 'News.com'<br /><br />Then maybe you also missed the C/Net copyright notice at the <br />bottom of the screen.<br /><br />[i]Copyright ©2007 [b]CNET[/b] Networks, Inc. All rights <br />reserved.[/i]