Alternative for Improving Water Quality

Algae, already being eyed for biofuel production, could be put to use right away to remove nitrogen and phosphorus in livestock manure runoff, according to an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist. That could give resource managers a new eco-friendly option for reducing the level of agricultural pollutants that contaminate water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.

Microbiologist Walter Mulbry works at the ARS Environmental Management and Byproduct Utilization Research Unit in Beltsville, Md., which is located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In 2003, Mulbry set up four algal turf scrubber (ATS) raceways outside dairy barns in Beltsville. The shallow 100-foot raceways were covered with nylon netting that created a scaffold where the algae could grow.

For the next three years, from April until December, a submerged water pump at one end of the raceways circulated a mix of fresh water and raw or anaerobically digested dairy manure effluent over the algae. Within two to three weeks after the ATS system was started up every spring, the raceways supported thriving colonies of green filamentous algae.

Algae productivity was highest in the spring and declined during the summer, in part because of higher water temperatures and also because the raceways provided snails and midge larvae ample opportunity to graze on the algae.

Mulbry and his partners harvested wet algae every four to 12 days, dried it, and then analyzed the dried biomass for nitrogen and phosphorus levels. His results indicate that the ATS system recovered 60 to 90 percent of the nitrogen and 70 to 100 percent of the phosphorus from the manure effluents. They also calculated that the cost for this capture was comparable to other manure management practices--around $5 to $6 for each pound of nitrogen that was recovered and around $25 for each pound of phosphorus that was recovered.

Results from this research were published in Bioresource Technology.

W Mulbry, S Kondrad, C Pizarro, E Kebedewesthead. Treatment of dairy manure effluent using freshwater algae: Algal productivity and recovery of manure nutrients using pilot-scale algal turf scrubbers. Bioresource Technology, 2008; 99 (17): 8137 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2008.03.073

Innovative method to convert Algae Into a Better Biofuel

Heating and squishing microalgae in a pressure-cooker can fast-forward the crude-oil-making process from millennia to minutes.

University of Michigan professors are working to understand and improve this procedure in an effort to speed up development of affordable biofuels that could replace fossil fuels and power today's engines.
They are also examining the possibility of other new fuel sources such as E. coli bacteria that would feed on waste products from previous bio-oil batches.
"The vision is that nothing would leave the refinery except oil. Everything would get reused. That's one of the things that makes this project novel. It's an integrated process. We're combining hydrothermal, catalytic and biological approaches," said Phillip Savage, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the U-M Department of Chemical Engineering and principal investigator on the $2-million National Science Foundation grant that supports this project. The grant is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
"This research could play a major role in the nation's transition toward energy independence and reduced carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector," Savage said.
Microalgae are microscopic species of algae: simple, floating plants that don't have leaves, roots or stems. They break down more easily than other potential biofuel source plants because they don't have tough cell walls, Savage said.
Unlike fossil fuels, algae-based biofuels are carbon-neutral. The algae feed on carbon dioxide in the air, and this gets released when the biofuel is burned. Fossil fuel combustion puffs additional carbon into the air without ever taking any back.
The pressure-cooker method the U-M researchers are studying bucks the trend in algae-to-fuel processing. The conventional technique involves cultivating special, oily types of algae, drying the algae and then extracting its oil.
The hydrothermal process this project employs allows researchers to start with less-oily types of algae. The process also eliminates the need to dry it, overcoming two major barriers to large-scale conversion of microalgae to liquid fuels.
"We make an algae soup," Savage said. "We heat it to about 300 degrees and keep the water at high enough pressure to keep it liquid as opposed to steam. We cook it for 30 minutes to an hour and we get a crude bio-oil."
The high temperature and pressure allows the algae to react with the water and break down. Not only does the native oil get released, but proteins and carbohydrates also decompose and add to the fuel yield.
"We're trying to do what nature does when it creates oil, but we don't want to wait millions of years," Savage said. "The hard part is taking the tar that comes out of the pressure cooker and turning it into something you could put in your car, changing the properties so it can flow more easily, and doing it in a way that's affordable."
Savage and his colleagues are taking a broad and deep look at this process. They are investigating ways to use catalysts to bump up the energy density of the resulting bio-oil, thin it into a flowing material and also clean it up by reducing its sulfur and nitrogen content.
Furthermore, they're examining the process from a life-cycle perspective, seeking to recycle waste products to grow new source material for future fuel batches. This doesn't have to be algae, Savage said. It could be any "wet biomass." They are working on growing in their experiments' waste products E. coli that they could potentially use along with algae.
Other collaborators are: Gregory Keoleian, professor of sustainable systems in the School of Natural Resources and Environment and in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Adam Matzger professor in the Department of Chemistry; Suljo Linic, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering; Nina Lin, assistant professor in the departments of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering; Nancy Love, professor and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and Henry Wang, professor in the departments of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering.

University of Michigan (2010, April 26). Pressure-cooking algae into a better biofuel. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/04/100422153943.htm

Genetic Mapping of Algae Biofuel Species Groundwork Done

Using green algae to produce hydrocarbon oil for biofuel production is nothing new; nature has been doing so for hundreds of millions of years, according a Texas AgriLife Research scientist.

"Oils from the green algae Botryococcus braunii can be readily detected in petroleum deposits and coal deposits suggesting that B. braunii has been a contributor to developing these deposits and may be the major contributor," said Dr. Timothy Devarenne, AgriLife Research scientist with the Texas A&M University department of biochemistry and biophysics. "This means that we are already using these oils to produce gasoline from petroleum."

It's not just a gee-whiz science trivia, Devarenne said. B. braunii is a prime candidate for biofuel production because some races of the green algae typically "accumulate hydrocarbons from to 30 percent to 40 percent of their dry weight, and are capable of obtaining hydrocarbon contents up to 86 percent of their dry weight.

"As a group, algae may be the only photosynthetic organism capable of producing enough biofuel to meet transportation fuel demands."

Devarenne is part of a team comprised of other scientists with AgriLife Research, the University of Kentucky and the University of Tokyo trying to understand more about B. braunii, including its genetic sequence and its family history.

"Without understanding how the cellular machinery of a given algae works on the molecular level, it won't be possible to improve characteristics such as oil production, faster growth rates or increased photosynthesis," Devarenne said.

Like most green algae, B. braunii is capable of producing great amounts of hydrocarbon oils in a very small land area.

B. braunii algae show particular promise not just because of their high production of oil but also because of the type of oil they produce, Devarenne said. While many high-oil-producing algae create vegetable-type oils, the oil from B. braunii, known as botryococcenes, are similar to petroleum.

"The fuels derived from B. braunii hydrocarbons are chemically identical to gasoline, diesel and kerosene," Devarenne said. "Thus, we do not call them biodiesel or bio-gasoline; they are simply diesel and gasoline. To produce these fuels from B. braunii, the hydrocarbons are processed exactly the same as petroleum is processed and thus generates the exact same fuels. Remember, these B. braunii hydrocarbons are a main constituent of petroleum. So there is no difference other than the millions of years petroleum spent underground."

But, a shortcoming of B. braunii is its relatively slow growth rate. While the algae that produce 'vegetable-type' oils may double their growth every six to 12 hours, B. braunii's doubling rate is about four days, he said.

"Thus, getting large amounts of oil from B. braunii is more time consuming and thus more costly," Devarenne said. "So, by knowing the genome sequence we can possibly identify genes involved in cell division and manipulate them to reduce the doubling rate."

Despite these characteristics and economic potential of algae, only six species of algae have had their genomes fully sequenced and annotated, Devarenne said. And B. braunii is not one of the six.

Devarenne and his colleagues have done some of the groundwork in better understanding B. braunii and sequencing its genome.

They are working the Berkeley strain of the B race of B. braunii, so named because it was first isolated at the University of California at Berkeley. The team has determined the genome size and an estimate of the B race's guanine-cytosine content, both of which are essential to mapping the full genome, he said. There are also races A and L of B. braunii, but they were not looked at by the team.

Guanine-cytosine bonds are one of base pairs composing DNA structure. Adenine-thymine is the other possible base pair.

"Genomes with high guanine-cytosine content can be difficult to sequence and knowing the guanine-cytosine content can help to assess the amount of resources needed for genome sequencing," Devarenne said.

The team determined B. braunii's genome size to be 166.2 ± 2.2 million base pairs, Devarenne said. The size of the human genome is about 3.1 billion base pairs. That of the house mouse is also about 3 billion base pairs. But the B. brauniigenome size is larger than any of the other six previously sequenced green algae genomes.

The team also looked at the phylogenetic placement of B. braunii -- where it belongs in the family tree of similar algae species. Though they knew from the work of other scientists that the B race of B. braunii was distinct from other races of B. braunii, there was some question that the genetic samples of the B race used in a previous study by other scientists might be contaminated by another algal species.

To check this, they used a process called reverse transcription to isolate genes from a pure culture of the B race of B. braunii, and then mapped those genes to confirm the relationship of the B race to other races of B. braunii.

"Our results support the original Berkeley DNA sequence used for phylogenetic placement was from a contaminating algae," Devarenne said. "And our study places the B race of B. brauniiin the correct location on the 'algal family tree'."

The actual genome sequencing and mapping will be performed by DOE's Joint Genome Institute.

"We've submitted genomic DNA from B. braunii for JGI to use in sequencing, but that hasn't begun yet," he said.

Devarenne's research partners include: graduate student Taylor L. Weiss, Texas A&M department of biochemistry and biophysics; Dr. J. Spencer Johnston, Texas A&M department of entomology; Joe Chappell, University of Kentucky department of plant and soil sciences; and Shigeru Okada, the University of Tokyo graduate school of agricultural and life sciences.

The results and methods of their study will be published online in the Journal of Phycology, an international journal of algae research, this summer.

NASA develops algae to fuel system, tests in Tampa Bay

As a clean energy alternative, NASA invented an algae photo-bioreactor that grows algae in municipal wastewater to produce biofuel and a variety of other products. The NASA bioreactor is an Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae (OMEGA), which won't compete with agriculture for land, fertilizer, or freshwater.

NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., licensed the patent pending algae photo-bioreactor to Algae Systems, LLC, Carson City, Nev., which plans to develop and pilot the technology in Tampa Bay, Florida. The company plans to refine and integrate the NASA technology into biorefineries to produce renewable energy products, including diesel and jet fuel.

"NASA has a long history of developing very successful energy conversion devices and novel life support systems," said Lisa Lockyer, deputy director of the New Ventures and Communication Directorate at NASA Ames. "NASA is excited to support the commercialization of an algae bioreactor with potential for providing renewable energy here on Earth."

The OMEGA system consists of large plastic bags with inserts of forward-osmosis membranes that grow freshwater algae in processed wastewater by photosynthesis. Using energy from the sun, the algae absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and nutrients from the wastewater to produce biomass and oxygen. As the algae grow, the nutrients are contained in the enclosures, while the cleansed freshwater is released into the surrounding ocean through the forward-osmosis membranes.

"The OMEGA technology has transformational powers. It can convert sewage and carbon dioxide into abundant and inexpensive fuels," said Matthew Atwood, president and founder of Algae Systems. "The technology is simple and scalable enough to create an inexpensive, local energy supply that also creates jobs to sustain it."

When deployed in contaminated and "dead zone" coastal areas, this system may help remediate these zones by removing and utilizing the nutrients that cause them. The forward-osmosis membranes use relatively small amounts of external energy compared to the conventional methods of harvesting algae, which have an energy intensive de-watering process.

Potential benefits include oil production from the harvested algae, and conversion of municipal wastewater into clean water before it is released into the ocean. After the oil is extracted from the algae, the algal remains can be used to make fertilizer, animal feed, cosmetics, or other valuable products.

This successful spinoff of NASA-derived technology will help support the commercial development of a new algae-based biofuels industry and wastewater treatment.

For more information about NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program, and NASA technology infusion activities, visit:

http://ipp.nasa.gov

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

For information about Algae Systems, visit:
http://www.algaesystems.com

Biofuel Production Could Undercut Efforts To Shrink Gulf 'Dead Zone'

Scientists in Pennsylvania report that boosting production of crops used to make biofuels could make a difficult task to shrink a vast, oxygen-depleted "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico more difficult. The zone, which reached the size of Massachusetts in 2008, forms in summer and threatens marine life and jobs in the region.Their study is scheduled for the Oct. 1 issue of ACS' semi-monthly journal Environmental Science & Technology.Christine Costello and W. Michael Griffin and colleagues explain that the zone forms when fertilizers wash off farm fields throughout the Mississippi River basin and into the Gulf of Mexico. The fertilizers cause the growth of algae, which eventually depletes oxygen in the water and kills marine life. Government officials hope to reduce fertilizer runoff and shrink the zone to the size of Delaware by 2015. But that goal could be more difficult to reach due to federally-mandated efforts to increase annual biofuel production to 36 billion gallons by 2022, the study says.The scientists studied the potential effects of increased biofuel production on the "dead zone," with a life-cycle analysis of nitrate fertilizer use on biofuel crops such as corn, soy, switch grass and stover (corn stems and leaves). They conclude that meeting the biofuel production goals will likely increase the depletion of oxygen compared to current levels in the Gulf due to more nutrient runoff.

'Shrimp Shell Cocktail' To Fuel Cars And Trucks

Call it a "shrimp cocktail" for your fuel tank. Scientists in China are reporting development of a catalyst made from shrimp shells that could transform production of biodiesel fuel into a faster, less expensive, and more environmentally friendly process.

Xinsheng Zheng and colleagues note that an energy-hungry world, concerned about global warming, increasingly puts its future fuel hopes on renewable fuels like biodiesel. Today's biodiesel production processes, however, require catalysts to speed up the chemical reactions that transform soybean, canola, and other plant oils into diesel fuel. Traditional catalysts cannot be reused and must be neutralized with large amounts of water — another increasingly scarce resource — leaving behind large amounts of polluted wastewater.
The researchers describe development of a new catalyst produced from shrimp shells. In laboratory tests, the shrimp shell catalysts converted canola oil to biodiesel (89 percent conversion in three hours) faster and more efficiently than some conventional catalysts. The new catalysts also can be reused and the process minimizes waste production and pollution, the scientists note.
Journal reference:
Linguo Yang, Aiqing Zhang and Xinsheng Zheng. Shrimp Shell Catalyst for Biodiesel Production. Energy & Fuels, Online July 13, 2009 [link]
Adapted from materials provided by American Chemical Society, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Biofuel Development Shifting From Soil To Sea, Specifically To Marine Algae

Bell-bottoms… Designer jeans… Disco… Big hair… Gas shortages. Some icons of the 1970s are emblazoned in the memories of those old enough to remember. A few styles, to the dismay of many, have come back in vogue—oil-related crises among them. Broad anxiety over fuel manifested again in 2008, illuminating the dark side of the nation’s continued oil addiction.

Out of the ‘70s oil crisis came U.S. government funding for research evaluating the prospects of new fuel sources derived from terrestrial plants such as corn and soybeans, as well as algae. But when oil prices plummeted in the late 1980s and ‘90s, interest in such biofuel programs waned and support dried up. Now 21st century gas prices—which bolted upward to $4.50 a gallon in California earlier this year—have sparked a renaissance in the search for new biologically based energy solutions.
Today, the most fervent attention in biofuel development has shifted from soil to the sea, and specifically to marine algae. Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, along with researchers at UCSD’s Division of Biological Sciences, are part of an emerging algal biofuel consortium that includes academic collaborators, CleanTECH San Diego, regional industry representatives, and public and private partners.
Scripps scientists see algae as a “green bullet,” science and society’s best hope for a clean bioenergy source that will help loosen broad dependence on fossil fuel, counteract climate warming, and power the vehicles of the future.
As far back as he can recall, Scripps biologist Greg Mitchell has been fascinated by plants and photosynthesis. His interest lies in Earth’s basic energy patterns and how sunlight drives fundamental biological functions and energizes the world’s ecosystems.
He has built his scientific career on researching photosynthesis, the process in which the planet’s green organisms integrate sunlight, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and water to produce oxygen and carbohydrates, creating biomass.
Since he arrived at Scripps in 1987, Mitchell has kept close tabs on advancements in studies of algae as a potential source for biofuels, including landmark experiments by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a research and development facility. Scripps Professor Emeritus Ralph Lewin had a hand in these efforts in the early 1980s when he successfully grew marine algae for biofuel in experimental ponds.
As funding for such projects evaporated in the 1990s, Mitchell never took his eyes off the field.
Marine algae, as Mitchell is quick to point out to anyone who asks, are the most efficient organisms on Earth for absorbing light energy and converting it into a natural biomass oil product, the biofuel equivalent of crude oil.
“Algae yields five to 10 times more bioenergy molecules per area, per time, than any terrestrial plant,” said Mitchell, a native of oil-rich Houston, Texas. “Nothing else comes close.”
From a sustainability perspective, algae hold the upper hand against other biofuel candidates, such as corn and soybeans. Algae can be grown on barren desert land using salt water, averting competition with agricultural cropland and the need for large amounts of precious fresh water for irrigation.
Since they require carbon dioxide for growth, algae are inherently carbon neutral, and they can suck up CO2 directly from industrial pollution sources. Furthermore, algae can feed off the nutrients in discarded wastewater. Adding yet another layer to their allure, the rich protein left over from algae harvests can be converted to animal feed.
“There is still a lot of work to do, but algal-derived biofuels have the potential to become a major source of transportation fuel,” says Bernard Raemy, executive vice president of Carbon Capture Corporation, a company growing algae in ponds for biofuel research in California’s Imperial Valley desert.
Raemy acknowledges that a string of challenges lies ahead, but with appropriate investment he believes a new algal biofuel industry, based on collaborations with public and private sectors, could be built within 10 years.
“Given their advantages, I believe marine algae are not only the most promising option for bioenergy fuel, but the only option that can scale up massively at the global level,” said Mitchell. “Most scientists who understand these processes are concluding that algae has the best chance. There is no silver bullet when it comes to energy, but there is a green bullet, or rather a green missile.”
The prospect of squeezing billions of gallons of biofuel oil from marine algae is enticing, but to transform tiny lime-green-colored plant-like organisms into a viable and realistic fuel option, they must be tested and grown on a massive scale. Intermediate-sized, and eventually immense, algae production sites will be required to produce an economically relevant quantity of algae-based oil for biodiesel fuel in cars, trucks, and airplanes.
Such facilities are beginning to emerge, featuring farms with vast oval-shaped ponds capable of churning out hundreds of pounds of algal biomass per day. But these facilities are in their formative stages and face an array of problems, from selecting which species of algae are the best candidates for biofuel output to addressing the threat of airborne contaminants that invade algae ponds and disrupt growth processes.
In 2005, as gas prices continued to rise and long-term oil supplies grew increasingly suspect, interest in algal biofuel research began to stir and society began to awaken on a large scale to the issues of fossil fuel emissions and a warming planet. Mitchell, who spent years promoting algal biofuel but was largely dismissed, jumped in with zeal. He began organizing seminars and meetings on the topic, in addition to coordinating efforts with national and international algal biofuel stakeholders. He played a pivotal role in establishing a new algal biomass organization and helped plan summits on the topic in San Francisco in 2007 and Seattle in 2008.
At the same time, Mitchell’s laboratory began evaluating various species of algae for their biofuel potential. Today, the lab is evaluating diverse algal growth scenarios and resultant biological models, or test cases, which could be applied in algal pond farms.
Scripps Oceanography, UC San Diego, and San Diego in general are uniquely positioned to lead algal biofuel efforts, according to Mitchell. Besides his laboratory, efforts have emerged across Scripps, including initiatives by scientists William Gerwick, Mark Hildebrand, Mike Landry, Brian Palenik, and Maria Vernet.
“By virtue of the expertise found at Scripps and UC San Diego, this region has a fundamental critical mass of talent—with biological oceanographers, aquatic microbiologists, UCSD biologists, and a world-class biotechnology industry—that’s not available anywhere else,” Mitchell said.
Up one floor from Mitchell’s office inside Scripps Oceanography’s Sverdrup Hall is William Gerwick’s bustling laboratory, part of Scripps’ Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine.
A 1981 Scripps Ph.D. graduate in oceanography who returned as a professor in 2005, Gerwick is one of several researchers at Scripps searching for new biomedical products from ocean resources to help treat human diseases such as cancer.
Two years ago Gerwick and then-UCSD undergraduate student Cameron Coates, now a graduate student at Scripps, began applying the tricks of the marine drug discovery trade to algal biofuel development.
“Algae are my life,” said Gerwick, who believes algal biofuel development will require expertise across several disciplines. “There is an amazing transformation happening at the moment with a groundswell of interest in new energy sources.”
Gerwick’s team deciphers the structures of molecules and probes the metabolic processes that produce unique and sometimes medically promising compounds. Such expertise could similarly help unlock the mysteries of algae’s biofuel potential. The organism’s energy sources reside in its production of lipid oils, or fat molecules, that store energy. Algae produce and store globules of lipids in a fashion similar to the way fat is generated and accumulated in human bodies.
A relatively simple chemical process turns the solid lipid globules to liquid. A few more steps convert the liquid to biodiesel fuel for cars and trucks, and, in the near future, jet fuel. Because algae reproduce quickly—they can double their numbers in a single day—it’s believed they can more efficiently produce many more gallons of oil per acre than any other source.
Gerwick’s team is working on methods to rapidly identify algae species to address situations in which algal biofuel ponds of one species are contaminated with another.
They are also using an imaging technique called mass spectrometry to explore the inner workings of organisms at the molecular level. The tool is helping the scientists determine the mechanisms of the genes that produce lipid molecules in the hopes of boosting lipid oil production by adding certain molecules to algal cultures.
“We have tested about 15 different ways for eliciting (lipids),” said Gerwick. “We see some evidence in which we were able to greatly expand their growth rate and production of oils. It’s early but I’m excited.”
Like Gerwick, Scripps biologist Mark Hildebrand only recently initiated algal biofuel studies in his laboratory at Scripps’ Hubbs Hall.
Hidebrand is optimistic about algae’s contribution to future bioenergy solutions, but he is realistic about the challenges ahead. And he is especially sensitive to misinformation being generated to the public about algae and biofuel. He particularly winces when he comes across public descriptions of biofuel algae as “common pond scum.”
For the record, many algae targeted for biofuel inhabit the sea, rather than terrestrial ponds. And the algae Hildebrand studies, tiny algae called diatoms, are far from scummy. He is quick to point out, backed by striking nano-scale images of the one-celled organisms, that they, in fact, can be quite beautiful.
He and members of his lab are probing a catch-22 presented in algal biofuel research. Algae mainly produce desired lipid oils when they are starved for nutrients. Yet if they are limited in nutrients, they don’t grow well. Give them a healthy diet of nutrients and they grow just fine, but they produce carbohydrates instead of lipids.
Thus Hildebrand is investigating how genes are turned on, or “expressed,” in lipid production.
“If we can grow cells under conditions where they are not making lipids and another batch where they are, we can compare changes in gene expression patterns and that will help us identify the genes that are induced when lipids are produced,” said Hildebrand.
Hildebrand uses fluorescent dye to measure lipid content and is developing genetic manipulation tools to induce or repress the expression of these genes. He is also seeking to determine how the cell is “partitioning” carbon between lipids or carbohydrates, and then looking to metabolically engineer the cell to use more carbon for lipid synthesis.
Such investigations and others by his colleagues are vital, Hildebrand said, in order to lay a badly needed basic research foundation for the emerging algal biofuel industry.
The monumental upside of algae, Hildebrand maintains, is that lipids have shown great promise as a robust energy source. Oils derived from certain algae species have already been converted to fuel. Now it’s a matter of economics and the engineering needed to ramp up to large-scale production, along with a range of trials and tribulations that must be addressed.
“We know almost nothing about how lipids are synthesized and where the gene regulation is occurring. It’s like proposing to develop agriculture without understanding how plants grow,” said Hildebrand. “We’ll need to keep studying new areas and coming up with new solutions because new problems will need to be addressed. That’s the beauty of basic research.”
Adapted from materials provided by University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, via Newswise.

Algae From The Ocean May Offer A Sustainable Energy Source Of The Future

Research by two Kansas State University scientists could help with the large-scale cultivation and manufacturing of oil-rich algae in oceans for biofuel.

K-State's Zhijian "Z.J." Pei, associate professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, and Wenqiao "Wayne" Yuan, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering, have received a $98,560 Small Grant for Exploratory Research from the National Science Foundation to study solid carriers for manufacturing algae biofuels in the ocean.
Algae are a diverse and simple group of organisms that live in or near water. Certain algal species are high in oil content that could be converted into such fuels as biodiesel, according to Pei and Yuan. Algae also have several environmentally-friendly advantages over corn or other plants used for biofuels, including not needing soil or fresh water to grow.
Pei and Yuan plan to identify attributes of algae and properties of materials that enable growth of certain algae species on solid carriers. Solid carriers float on the water surface for algae to attach to and grow on.
"Not all materials are equally suitable to make these carriers," Yuan said. "Some materials are better for algal attachment and growth than others, and we will be identifying what those 'good' materials are."
The project could help with the design of major equipment for manufacturing algae biofuels from the ocean, including solid carriers, in-the-ocean algae harvesting equipment and oil extraction machines, Pei said.
"This research aims to develop a cost-effective process for growing algae on solid carriers in the ocean for biofuel manufacturing," he said. "If successful, it will greatly benefit the energy security of the United States, as well as society in general."
The research will be conducted with a two-step approach.
"Selected algae species will be grown on solid carriers in a simulated ocean environment and will be evaluated for their ability to attach to solid carriers and grow in seawater, their biomass productivity, and their oil content," Pei said. "Top-ranked species in step one will be selected to test the performance of several carrier materials, including natural organic, synthetic organic and inorganic materials, with the same evaluation parameters as in step one."
Pei said the properties of the highly-ranked carriers also will be analyzed.
Yuan, who has studied biodiesel for several years, said the major problem with making the fuel has been finding sustainable oil and fat sources.
"Algae seems to be the only promising sustainable oil source for biodiesel production," he said. "In my lab, we have several different projects involving algae and we have been trying different ways to grow it. We have already obtained some encouraging results."
Adapted from materials provided by Kansas State University, via Newswise.

Marine algae get the green light from Shell

Shell is to become the first major oil company to produce diesel fuelfrom marine algae.Algae are a climate-friendly way to make fuel from carbon dioxide. Theyproduce an oil that can readily be converted to diesel, and can be fedCO2 directly from smokestacks. Unlike biofuels such as corn, they don'tuse up soil or water that could otherwise be used to grow food, whichcan pump up food prices.The US government abandoned research on algal biofuel in the 1990sbecause of the low cost of crude oil. But as oil and food prices beganto rise, small algal fuel producers sprang up.Shell plans to begin construction on a pilot plant in Hawaiiimmediately, which it expects will produce 15 times as much oil for agiven area as other biofuel crops, thanks to the efficiency of algalphotosynthesis.

First car powered by algal biodiesel to demonstrate real-world driving at Sundance

Solazyme, Inc., a synthetic biology company unleashing the power of aquatic microbes to create clean and scalable solutions for biofuel, industrial chemical, and health and wellness markets, today revealed the first ever algae-derived biodiesel fuel (Soladiesel(TM)) to have undergone road testing by successfully powering a factory-standard automobile for long distances under typical driving conditions. The car and fuel will make their public debuts at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where they are also featured in Fields of Fuel, Josh Tikell's documentary about renewable fuels. Soladiesel biodiesel is clean, renewable, environmentally sustainable and scalable.The algal biodiesel fueling the car is made through Solazyme's proprietary process for manufacturing high-value, functionally-tailored oils from algae. This process, which uses standard industrial fermentation equipment, yields a biofuel that significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and is biodegradable, nontoxic and safe. Solazyme is currently producing thousands of gallons of algal oil and recently signed a biodiesel feedstock development and testing agreement with Chevron Technology Ventures, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc."Biodiesel from algae changes the landscape of renewable fuels," said Jonathan Wolfson, chief executive officer of Solazyme. "The concept of algal biofuel has been discussed for decades, and Solazyme's technology finally provides a scalable solution based on proven industrial processes. This fuel is just the first example of how algal oil will help the environment through new products that offer attractive economics and performance, as well as environmental benefits."Soladiesel exceeds both the requirements of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) biodiesel standard D6751 and EN 14214, the European standard, which ensures that biodiesel can safely run any existing diesel engine. The car demonstrating Solazyme's biofuel at Sundance is running on its original, factory-standard diesel engine with no modifications, and is powered by the highest blend of biodiesel that engine manufacturers currently certify. By operating in the typical sub-freezing temperatures for the area in January, it also illustrates how Soladiesel provides better temperature properties than any traditional biodiesel."In demonstrating this new fuel alternative, we're responding to the need for a near-term solution that will also be cost effective and sustainable," added Harrison Dillon, president and chief technology officer of Solazyme. "Our technology combines all the key components: low carbon footprint, environmental sustainability, certified compatibility with existing vehicles and infrastructure, and energy security for our country."About Solazyme:Solazyme, Inc. is a synthetic biology company unleashing the power of aquatic microbes to create clean and scalable solutions for biofuel, industrial chemical, and health & wellness markets The company was founded in 2003 and has its headquarters in South San Francisco, Calif. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.solazyme.com/.

Renewed Interest In Turning Algae Into Fuel Generated

The same brown algae that cover rocks and cause anglers to slip while fly fishing contain oil that can be turned into diesel fuel, says a Montana State University microbiologist।

Drivers can't pump algal fuel into their gas tanks yet, but Keith Cooksey said the idea holds promise. He felt that way 20 years ago. He feels that way today.
"We would be there now if people then hadn't been so short-sighted," Cooksey said.
Cooksey is one of many U.S. scientists who studied the feasibility of turning algal oil into biodiesel in the 1980s. The U.S. Department of Energy, through its Aquatics Species program, funded their research. Cooksey's lab made a number of discoveries. Scientific journals published his findings.
Funding dried up, however, and the scientists went on to other things.
"Rumor had it that big oil got in the way," Cooksey said. "They didn't want competition so the project was dropped."
Cooksey "sort of" retired as a research professor in 2003. He now directs the Department of Defense's EPSCoR program for Montana. A few months ago, however, Cooksey started getting phone calls and e-mails from researchers and others who read about his algal work on the Internet or had seen it referenced in scientific journals. Companies tried to hire him as a consultant. He was invited to attend conferences. He ran into several scientists who had been his friendly competitors in the old days. They all said, "If only."
"It's a very strange feeling," said Cooksey, now 72. "You don't usually have people bending your ear on what you did 20 years ago. Science doesn't work that way, but in this case, it did."
The revived interest in microalgae stems from the conflict in the Middle East and the resulting focus on alternative fuels, Cooksey said.
"Our lab was one of three or four in the world doing research that nobody was really interested in," Cooksey said। "Now, suddenly lots of people are interested in it."

Still interested in pursuing algal fuel, Cooksey said his lab in the 1980s figured out how to increase oil production from algae. It developed a system that screened algae for their oil content and greatly reduced the sample size needed for their research. It developed a stain for algae, called Nile Red. When treated with the stain, the algae became fluorescent under certain conditions, making it easier to measure their oil content.
Algae grows naturally along rivers, the seashore, and in the mangrove swamps of southern Florida, Cooksey said. They also grow in wastewater treatment ponds and can be grown commercially in manmade ponds. One design that was tested in the 1980s is a shallow pond that looks like a raceway. Another is a system of deeper ponds. Algae can be grown especially well in desert states that have plenty of sunshine and access to water unusable for traditional agriculture or drinking. Because of its salt content, salt water is more economical than fresh water for growing algae, so southwestern states with saline aquifers might find it easy to grow them.
"In principle, lipids from microalgae are suitable for refining into conventional liquid fuels," said a 1983 annual report from the Solar Energy Research Institute that provided Cooksey's funding and some algal cultures. "Indeed, in the past, biological oils have been refined to fuels during shortages in petroleum supply."
Joseph LaStella, president of Green Star Products, Inc. in San Diego, Calif., raved about the potential of algae in a recent phone call. His company built a demonstration pond in Hamilton, Mont., last spring.
Soybeans produce about 50 gallons of oil per acre per year, and canola produces about 130, he said. Algae, however, produces about 4,000 gallons per acre a year, and he predicted it will go far beyond that. He said algae requires only sunshine and non-drinkable water to grow. The demonstration pond showed that algae will grow even when temperatures fall below zero.
"This is the only answer to our fuel crisis," LaStella said.
David Tooke, director of operations at Sustainable Systems in Missoula, said, "With new interest in biofuels, it's another opportunity to supply those fuels.
"As far as surface area needed, it's more reasonable to assume we could attain those levels of production from algae versus agricultural crops," he continued.
Twenty years ago, algae looked promising, too, but interest died down as oil prices dropped, Tooke said. Can algal biofuel make it this time around?
"Most certainly," he predicted. "It's beginning to make sense to pursue this again."
Adapted from materials provided by Montana State University।

Algae Emerges as a Potential Fuel Source

The 16 big flasks of bubbling bright green liquids in Roger Ruan's laboratory at the University of Minnesota are part of a new boom in renewable energy research।Driven by renewed investment as oil prices push $100 a barrel, Dr. Ruan and scores of scientists around the world are racing to turn algae into a commercially viable energy source.Some algae is as much as 50 percent oil that can be converted into biodiesel or jet fuel. The biggest challenge is cutting the cost of production, which by one Defense Department estimate is running more than $20 a gallon."If you can get algae oils down below $2 a gallon, then you'll be where you need to be," said Jennifer Holmgren, director of the renewable fuels unit of UOP, an energy subsidiary of Honeywell International. "And there's a lot of people who think you can." Researchers are trying to figure out how to grow enough of the right strains of algae and how to extract the oil most efficiently. Over the past two years they have received more money from governments, the Pentagon, big oil companies, utilities and venture capital firms.

The federal government halted its main algae research program nearly a decade ago, but technology has advanced and oil prices have climbed since then, and an Energy Department laboratory announced in late October that it was partnering with Chevron, the second-largest American oil company, in the hunt for better strains of algae."It's not backyard inventors at this point at all," said George Douglas, a spokesman for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, an arm of the Energy Department. "It's folks with experience to move it forward."A New Zealand company demonstrated a Range Rover powered by an algae biodiesel blend last year, but experts say algae will not be commercially viable for many years. Dr. Ruan said demonstration plants could be built within a few years.Converting algae oil into biodiesel uses the same process that turns vegetable oils into biodiesel. But the cost of producing algae oil is hard to pin down because nobody is running the process start to finish other than in a laboratory, Mr. Douglas said.If the price of production can be reduced, the advantages of algae include the fact that it grows much faster and in less space than conventional energy crops. An acre of corn can produce about 20 gallons of oil per year, Dr. Ruan said, compared with a possible 15,000 gallons of oil per acre of algae.An algae farm could be located almost anywhere. It would not require converting cropland from food production to energy production. It could use sea water and could consume pollutants from sewage and power plants.The Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is financing research into producing jet fuel from plants, including algae. The agency is already working with the Honeywell subsidiary, General Electric and the University of North Dakota. In November, it requested additional research proposals.

Algae Emerges as a Potential Fuel Source

The 16 big flasks of bubbling bright green liquids in Roger Ruan's laboratory at the University of Minnesota are part of a new boom in renewable energy research।Driven by renewed investment as oil prices push $100 a barrel, Dr. Ruan and scores of scientists around the world are racing to turn algae into a commercially viable energy source.Some algae is as much as 50 percent oil that can be converted into biodiesel or jet fuel. The biggest challenge is cutting the cost of production, which by one Defense Department estimate is running more than $20 a gallon."If you can get algae oils down below $2 a gallon, then you'll be where you need to be," said Jennifer Holmgren, director of the renewable fuels unit of UOP, an energy subsidiary of Honeywell International. "And there's a lot of people who think you can." Researchers are trying to figure out how to grow enough of the right strains of algae and how to extract the oil most efficiently. Over the past two years they have received more money from governments, the Pentagon, big oil companies, utilities and venture capital firms.

The federal government halted its main algae research program nearly a decade ago, but technology has advanced and oil prices have climbed since then, and an Energy Department laboratory announced in late October that it was partnering with Chevron, the second-largest American oil company, in the hunt for better strains of algae."It's not backyard inventors at this point at all," said George Douglas, a spokesman for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, an arm of the Energy Department. "It's folks with experience to move it forward."A New Zealand company demonstrated a Range Rover powered by an algae biodiesel blend last year, but experts say algae will not be commercially viable for many years. Dr. Ruan said demonstration plants could be built within a few years.Converting algae oil into biodiesel uses the same process that turns vegetable oils into biodiesel. But the cost of producing algae oil is hard to pin down because nobody is running the process start to finish other than in a laboratory, Mr. Douglas said.If the price of production can be reduced, the advantages of algae include the fact that it grows much faster and in less space than conventional energy crops. An acre of corn can produce about 20 gallons of oil per year, Dr. Ruan said, compared with a possible 15,000 gallons of oil per acre of algae.An algae farm could be located almost anywhere. It would not require converting cropland from food production to energy production. It could use sea water and could consume pollutants from sewage and power plants.The Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is financing research into producing jet fuel from plants, including algae. The agency is already working with the Honeywell subsidiary, General Electric and the University of North Dakota. In November, it requested additional research proposals.

Oil from algae

Gasoline prices over $3 a gallon, dire warnings about greenhouse effects and increased pollution bringing about global warming are causing some folks to think more about energy alternatives।Claude Sapp, principal for Infinifuel Biodiesel, is one of those folks, and now he is working to turn the oldest geothermal plant in Nevada into a biodiesel processing facility, where camelina oil seed and even algae is becoming diesel fuel.Sapp said any plant that produces high oil yields can someday power a vehicle. "Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil instead of petroleum," he said. "We can get it from crambe, canola-type plants, oily seeds, even algae."

He expects to have the first crop available in July, when a crop of camelina oil seed will be harvested and sent to a Lovelock plant to be crushed।Eventually, he hopes to have the plant at 15 Julian Lane in Wabuska ready to grow its own algae, which he said can be harvested monthly."It (algae) starts out in a test tube and replicates itself," he said. "We can grow it in our test ponds. It is about a thousand times more productive to grow algae than growing oil seed in the dirt. We have plenty of land to expand. We can grow acres more than our test ponds."

Sapp said government researchers were initially skeptical about algae growing in Nevada's desert climate because of the cool nights, but with the geothermal, Infinifuel can maintain a constant temperature।"We can grow more algae and harvest it more often than we can dry crops," he said. That doesn't mean dry crops don't have a future with Infinifuel. Sapp said he has distributed oil seed to farmers from Eureka to Tonopah and hopes to have enough to crush by summer."We'll have some at 4,000 feet and 6,000 feet, so we'll get a good idea on what grows where," he said. "Farmers from across the state have told me they can't keep planting hay and alfalfa."The plant, which Sapp hopes puts out its first batch of biodiesel in July, is almost entirely self-contained, said Sapp, and fits in nicely with the ranching and farming environment around Wabuska and Yerington.

It begins with algae or oil seed being nourished by the sun, fertilizer and carbon dioxide, then crushed or pressed in a special facility to become vegetable oil and biomass। The biomass is added to alcohol, where it is mixed with the vegetable oil and heated with geothermal power in a biodiesel plant, where it becomes finished biodiesel.Glycerine, a byproduct of geothermal processing, can be used in dust suppression and the biomass, left over from the crushing and pressing process, becomes fertilizer or fish or animal food.The geothermal facility Sapp is using creates enough to power the biodiesel plant and even sell some electricity.

"The water at the geothermal plant comes out of the ground at about 220 degrees," Sapp said। "The plant makes electricity, with any excess sold back to Sierra Pacific, so it is all self-contained. We're trying not to use any petroleum products at all."The plant used to produce ethanol, back in the 1980s, Sapp said. "They tried to do corn ethanol," he said. "But when gas got cheap again, they abandoned it." He doesn't expect that to happen again. "We got all the cheap stuff (crude oil)," he said. "All what's left is the stuff that's hard to get to. There could be hundreds of years of it, but it won't be easy or cheap."

Sapp gave a tour of his facility last month to researchers from Desert Research Institute and engineers from Summit Engineering, hoping to partner with each in the future to improve his operation। "DRI is the research powerhouse in the state and Summit is the engineering and building powerhouse in the state," he said.Del Fortner, energy and mineral manager for Summit, was impressed with the concept. "The whole thing about renewable energy is it is so compatible with other things around it, like agriculture," he said, pointing to cows grazing nearby. "They're putting a dairy across the street and he can get fertilizer from local ranchers."Kent Hoekman of DRI said the institute is interested in all types of energy research.

"Making fuels from plants and the environmental impact of making geothermal and biodiesel we find interesting," he said.Sapp said he has expansion facilities planned in Hazen and Valmy, near Winnemucca and expects to grow thousands of acres of algae and oil seed."Valmy for sure," he said. "We have already secured land near the power plant to grow algae and oil seed." He also doesn't plan to limit himself to Nevada, having picked up additional investors and land in North Carolina as well.

Biodiesel from algae

Utah State University researchers are using an innovative approach that takes oil from algae and converts it to biodiesel fuel.USU is currently conducting research on algae and plans to produce an algae-biodiesel that is cost-competitive by 2009. Algae, plainly referred to as pond scum, can produce up to 10,000 gallons of oil per acre and can be grown virtually anywhere."This is perhaps the most important scientific challenge facing humanity in the 21st century," said Lance Seefeldt, USU professor of chemistry and biochemistry."There are several options for solving the world's energy problem, but at this point, none of them are realistically viable for long-term use."Biodiesel is a clean and carbon-dioxide-neutral fuel that is becoming more popular, but most of the current product comes from soybean and corn oil. As supply and demand grows, so does the price of soybeans and corn. People and animals rely on soybean and corn as a food commodity, eventually causing competition between commodities and growing enough product. Meeting this demand would require the world to use virtually all of its arable land, said Seefeldt.The world today relies on fossil fuels to supply much of its energy, and there are currently 13 terawatts of energy used per year. A terawatt is 1,000 billion watts, and Seefeldt said usage is predicted to double to 26 terawatts by the year 2050. Fossil fuels are expensive, finite and generate greenhouse gasses that many believe are harming the environment, said Seefeldt."This has moved from a purely environmental issue to a global economics issue," said Seefeldt.Sir Nicholas Stern, chief economist for the World Bank, said that climate change presents a unique challenge for economics and that it has the potential to be the world's greatest and widest ranging market failure ever seen."Business as usual will result in a five-to six-degree warming of the Earth by 2100," said Stern. "This will result in a five to 10 percent loss in global gross domestic product, having a direct impact on human health and environment."Seefeldt, along with several fellow USU professors, formed the Biofuels Program to develop new and emerging technologies that will produce methane, biodiesel, hydrogen and alcohols from renewable, carbon-dioxide-neutral energy sources, such as consumer and agricultural waste and sunlight.The state of Utah sees so much promise in the research that it has given the USU Biofuels Program $6 million for five years through the Utah Science and Technology Research Initiative. USTAR makes highly-selective, strategic investments in research with the potential to benefit Utah's economy.The research has already set in motion several spin-off and industry relationships, and one patent has already been issued, with four others pending."We are looking toward the world's future energy solutions and USU is part of it," said Seefeldt.The research takes a tremendous amount of investment and energy, but the payoffs will be worth it, he said.Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Utah State University.

Full story at