Algae Biofuels Ready for Market?

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Algae Biofuels Ready for Market?

The State of R&D So Far. 4 NAABB Advances Have Brought the Cost of Algae Biofuels Down to $7.50 Per Gallon

In our two-part series, we look first at the breakthroughs that have radically changed the costs and outlook. In Part II, we look at where the opportunities lie to reach $2.00 per gallon algae biocrude oil.

If you have been looking for a good survey of algae's progress towards markets like astaxanthin or omega-3 fatty acids, this isn't going to be one of them. Here, we look at the prospects for algae biofuels — the roadblocks and the potential pathways forward.

The DOE had studied algae intensively from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s, closing down the Aquatic Species Program in 1996 when oil prices dipped below $20/barrel and it seemed like algae biofuels were too far away to continue the R&D effort.

By 2009, as oil prices reached $100 per barrel, amid rising concerns about domestic energy security and greenhouse gas emissions, the DOE re-embarked in a major way on a voyage in algae biofuels, and issued a "Development of Algal/Advanced Biofuels Consortia" funding opportunity. Eventually, DOE awarded $48.6 million to a consortium of organizations who formed the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and BioProducts, the NAABB, with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center as lead institution and Los Alamos' Jose Olivares as principal investigator. The partners contributed $19.1 million in private funds.

They had a three year mission in developing the following pathways: Feedstock Supply-Strain development and cultivation; Feedstock Logistics-Harvesting and extraction; and Conversion/Production-Accumulation of intermediates and synthesis of fuels and co-products.

As a National Research Council report stated in 2012, "sustainable development of algal biofuels would require research, development, and demonstration" in five key areas:

1. Algal strains with enhanced growth characteristics and biofuel productivity;

2. An energy return on investment (EROI) that is comparable to other transportation fuels or at least improving and approaching the EROIs of other transportation fuels;

3. Reactor strategies that use either wastewater for cultivating algae for fuels or recycled water from harvesting systems, particularly if freshwater algae are used;

4. Recycling of nutrients in algal biofuel pathways that require harvesting, unless coproducts are produced that meet an equivalent nutrient need; and

5. A national assessment of land requirements for algae cultivation to inform the potential amount of algal biofuels that could be produced economically in the United States. That assessment must take into account climatic conditions; freshwater, inland and coastal saline water, and wastewater resources; sources of CO2; and land prices.

The NAABB consortium represented an extensiveline-up of institutions and enterprises

National Laboratories included the Los Alamos National Laboratory; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Idaho National Laboratory; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and the USDA's Agricultural Research Service

Universities included Brooklyn College, Clarkson University, Colorado State, Iowa State, Michigan State, New Mexico State, North Carolina State, Texas AgriLife Research / Texas A&M, University of Arizona, UCLA, UC-Riverside, UC-San Diego, Penn, University of Texas, University of Washington, Washington State and Washington University.

Industry partners included Albemarle Catilin, Diversified Energy, Eldorado Biofuels, Genifuel, Cellana, Inventure, Kai BioEnergy, Palmer Labs, Phycal, Reliance Industries, Pan Pacific, Solix Biosystems, Targeted Growth, Terrabon, UOP, Honeywell's UOP and Valicor.

When NAABB got underway, it established a starting baseline cost of $240 per gallon (for algae biocrude) based on the production, harvest, extraction and upgrade technologies developed to that point. Everyone agreed that the baseline could be radically improved — but how much, how fast.

In a close-out report released this past summer, NAABB noted that the consortium reached a $7.50 per gallon cost for algae biocrude, or an improvement of two orders of magnitude, in its three-years of existence.

The R&D effort was organized into seven areas: "(1) the development of new strains, (2) cultivation processes with these new strains, (3) harvest processing of the algal biomass, (4) extraction processing for crude lipids and LEA, (5) LEA conversion and LEA product trials, (6) direct conversion processes of algal biomass to biocrude, and (7) upgrading lipids and biocrudes to fuels."

Let's look today at the 4 major breakthroughs — and the three major challenges going forward. As NAABB reported, its breakthroughs were:

  1. New strain development —Discovery of a new platform production strain, Chlorella sp. DOE1412, which has the robust ability to produce good oil yield under a variety of conditions. When combined with genetically modified (GMO) versions of the strain the cost of algal biocrude would be reduced by 85%.

  2. Improved cultivation —Development of a new open pond cultivation system, the Aquaculture Raceway Integrated Design (ARID), which uses little energy, extends the growing period, improves productivity, and provides a 16% cost reduction.

  3. Low energy harvesting technology —Demonstrated use of an electrocoagulation (EC) harvesting technology, which is a low-energy, primary harvesting approach using commercially available equipment that provides a 14% cost reduction.

  4. High-yield extraction-conversion technology —Creation of a unique hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) system that combines extraction and conversion to provide high biocrude yield without the need for extraction solvents, resulting in an 86% cost reduction.

Source: BiofuelDigest

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