Algae start-up signs contract for biodiesel
Solazyme, which wants to turn algae into transportation fuel, has signed a contract to supply oils to Imperium Renewables, a growing biodiesel refiner.
Under the deal, Solazyme will deliver algae oil to Imperium, which will then turn it into biodiesel. Imperium makes biodiesel from a number of plant oils. Solazyme is currently only delivering "pilot scale" amounts of oil, said Solazyme president Jonathan Wolfson, but the production is real.
"We will be delivering agreed upon quantities to Imperium over 2007," he said. "In addition, we are producing algal oil today and have been for some time."
Biodiesel works in regular diesel cars, but it's made of plant or animal oil, which pollutes less than the regular, fossil fuel kind. Right now, biodiesel constitutes a percent of a percent of the world's diesel supply.
Algae, say advocates, is one greasy organism. The single-celled plants produce quite a bit of oil for their size. The North Sea oil fields, some assert, were not created from the bones of dead dinosaurs or palm trees. Instead, it is the prehistoric remnant of a massive algal bloom.
Algae grows rapidly, leading to more crops in a year, and can grow in sparsely populated and unused land in the desert. 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 liters per hectares of oil a year, said Tony Espiga, CFO of GreenFuel Technologies earlier this year.
GreenFuel plans to capture carbon dioxide from power plants and use the gas to grow algae in bioreactors, i.e. contained ponds. It's carbon sequestration and transportation fuel all in one. GreenFuel has a demo plant and hopes to open a full-fledged power plant in Arizona this year.
It's also not a major source of food for humans.
But here's the catch. No one is making algae fuel on a massive industrial scale at the moment. Separating the water from algae to leave just oil is also not easy, says Ron Stoltz, government relations manager for Sandia National Labs.
Sandia has performed some of the pioneering work on algae fuel and is working with several start-ups, including LiveFuels, and licensing its technology. LiveFuels has said it doesn't plan to sell algae fuel feedstock until around 2010.
Is this a typo? It compares a year's production in terms of liters per hectare of algae and palm oils. Is corn 120 liters per hectare?
The tin-foil hat types will tell you that it's a conspiracy by ADM, but the reality is that despite ridiculously low net-engery/acre, corn-to-ethanol is was we now know how to do in production amounts. The thinking is, any net-energy from renewables is better than none.
thinking in terms of oil and water, I guess. Maybe the algae acts as
some sort of sponge that keeps the water and oil together. There's
always a catch, eh! Otherwise, the yields sound fantastic.
a simple "press" can get 70%. That seems like a "duh" -- squish it and the oil will float up and out. The issue seems to be getting > 70% -- which given the yeild benefits vs. corn -- seems like an odd thing to be hung up about. Stick in a simple press now, and you're beating corn by 10x today.
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How it the oil extracted?
Oil extraction from algae is a hotly debated topic currently because this phase is one of the more costly processes when determining the sustainability of algae-based biofuels. There are three primary methods used to extract the oil:
Expeller/press: oil is pressed out of dried algae with an oil press. This is a simple process but can extract 70-75% of the oil from algae.
Hexane solvent extraction: the chemical cyclohexane is mixed with the remaining pulp after the expeller process. The oil dissolves in the cyclohexane, and the pulp is filtered out from the solution through distillation. These two stages (cold press & hexane solvent) together will be able to derive more than 95% of the total oil present in the algae.
Supercritical fluid extraction: this can extract almost 100% of the oils, however it requires special equipment for containment and pressure. In the supercritical fluid/CO2 extraction, CO2 is liquefied under pressure and heated to the point that it has the properties of both a liquid and gas. This liquefied fluid then acts as the solvent in extracting the oil.
Other less well-known extraction methods exist such as enzymatic extraction,
osmotic shock and ultrasonic-assisted extraction.
- by nustaff January 16, 2009 10:54 AM PST
- I have been working with oil extraction of both conventional and unconventional oilseeds for over 35 years and pressing is not that simple operation. I doubt algae processing might be that simple either.
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(6 Comments)Much research still has to be done before working conditions are established favoring good yields.
Paulo Cesar Gonçalves