Burning Bio News

Siemens Energy has successfully completed the first firing of PetroAlgae Inc.’s biocrude fuel, a plant-based, micro-crop biomass material that is processed into a solid residue. The biocrude fuel was combined with pulverized coal in a pilot-scale burner with a thermal capacity of approximately 4 MMBtu/hr. The testing was performed at a test bed installed at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, and results show that the biocrude/coal fuel mixture burned well, and produced 20 percent lower nitric oxide (NOx) emissions than coal alone.

Florida-based Algenol Biofuels is partnering with a Valero Services, a subsidiary of Texan oil and gas firm Valero Energy. Valero is the oil company that bought 7 bankrupt ethanol plants. Algenol is developing a direct-to-ethanol process, which involves growing carbon dioxide-saturated, blue-green algae in bioreactors with saltwater. In June last year, Algenol also teamed up with Dow Chemical to build a demonstration plant at Dow’s site in Freeport, Texas. The facility will comprise 3,100 algae cultivating bioreactors, which are expected to produce 100,000 gallons per year of ethanol.

A team of Stanford engineers has managed to harness electrical energy directly from algae cells by inserting tiny gold nanoprobes into individual living algae cells, extracting electrons that the cells had produced during photosynthesis. While biofuel combustion typically only yields three to six percent of a plant’s stored solar energy, the Stanford study’s electron harvest yielded 20 percent. And unlike burning biofuels or biomass, there is no carbon released in electron harvesting.

BioTown, USA aka Reynolds, IN is the Indiana Governor’s project to take a small rural community off the grid using biomass. The initial excitement in 2005/2006 consumed everything. The economy and reality of doing things that had never been done before interfered with most of the planned bioenergy projects. But like the little engine that could, BioTown just keeps plugging along. Algaewheel Technologies installed a $2.7 million, 6,500 square foot greenhouse as a wastewater treatment technology in January. – mj: I was involved in the first few years of BioTown, USA. They are all good folks and I am thrilled to see them moving a long at a pace and scale that fits the community. Well done!

Pharmaceutical companies could substantially reduce the expense of costly treatments for cancer and other diseases produced from mammalian or bacterial cells by growing these human therapeutic proteins in algae. “What surprised us was that of the seven genes chosen, four expressed proteins at levels sufficient for commercial production,” said Stephen Mayfield, a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego.

UOP, a Honeywell company, announced that it has been awarded a $1.5 million cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy for a project to demonstrate technology to capture carbon dioxide and produce algae for use in biofuel and energy production. A demonstration system will capture carbon dioxide from exhaust stacks at Honeywell’s manufacturing facility in Hopewell, VA, and deliver the captured CO2 to a cultivation system for algae. Algal oil can then be extracted from the algae for conversion to biofuels, and the algae residual can be converted to pyrolysis oil, which can be burned to generate renewable electricity.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) says it is just months away from producing a jet fuel from algae for the same cost as its fossil-fuel equivalent. Darpa’s research projects have already extracted oil from algal ponds at a cost of $2 per gallon. It is now on track to begin large-scale refining of that oil into jet fuel, at a cost of less than $3 a gallon, according to Barbara McQuiston, special assistant for energy at Darpa.

A collaboration led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has developed a microbe that can produce an advanced biofuel directly from biomass. Deploying the tools of synthetic biology, the JBEI researchers engineered a strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria to produce biodiesel fuel and other important chemicals derived from fatty acids.

Energy Quest, Inc. announced that it is to begin construction on a turn key woody biomass power plant/algae energy plant producing 24 megawatts of electricity. The plant will consist of four 6.7 megawatt (6.0 net) modular power systems and is located at Nances Creek Industrial Park, in Piedmont, Alabama. The attached Algae biodiesel plant will produce a clean and efficient fuel that can be used in any device that utilizes diesel fuel. The plant will produce approximately 24 MW of electrical power at $0.06 per KW and 20 million gallon annually of biodiesel at $2.00 per gallon. The plant will operate 24 hours a day and when completed provide 60 jobs.

XL Renewables has been developing their Super Trough algae production system for several years. A 160-acre algae farm utilizing the Super Trough System would have a capital cost range of $5 to $7 million, with annual algae yields of about 50 tons or more per acre. At presstime XL Renewables was poised to announce a major sale of the Super Trough to China-based Biofuels HK Limited for a 2,880-acre algae farm at full build-out. XL Renewables has algae-based projects underway in Virginia and Oklahoma and a system planned in Texas. The privately-held company also plans to install a 160-acre demonstration facility in Pinal County, Ariz., in 2010 for Phyco BioSciences, Inc., to showcase the technology.

The renewable energy site, Earth2tech.com, recently published the top 10 articles they produced in 2009. To follow-up on these articles, click on this hyperlinked text.

10). 11 Solar Thermal Companies Powering Up: A list of companies that are building massive solar plants in the deserts that use mirrors and lenses to concentrate the sun’s heat to power a steam turbine.
9). Earth2Tech’s Top 15 Smart Grid Influencers: One of my favorites of the year: a list of who I think are the most influential execs in the smart grid world.
8). 25 Who Ditched Infotech for Cleantech: A bunch of folks that made the successful transition from infotech to greentech.
7). Google Jumps Into Organizing Smart Meter Energy Data: Google’s PowerMeter shook up the utility and energy landscapes in 2009 — now we’ll see if they can gain traction with the tool in 2010.
6). Bloom Energy: “Close” to Unveiling Its Fuel Cell: Ah, Bloom. Everyone wants to know what’s going on with you.
5). 11 Companies Racing to Build U.S. Cellulosic Plants: Most of these companies that were rushing to build cellulosic ethanol plants in 2008, are still toiling over them in 2009 — and will continue in 2010.
4). FAQ: Thin-Film Solar: It’s thin, it’s commonly not made of silicon, and it’s the future of the solar photovoltaic industry.
3). FAQ: Smart Grid: 2009 was the year of the smart grid, and here’s a primer on what you need to know.
2). 10 Monitoring Tools Bringing Smart Energy Home: Given this market is so new, here’s a handy-dandy list of the tools already out there.
1). 15 Algae Startups Bringing Pond Scum To Fuel Tanks: Thanks algae fuel — you’re the list that keeps on giving.

In a study published in the journal Nature Nov. 26, the researchers determined the role that a certain protein plays in helping reduce the damage done to a cell by excess light. The protein helps protect the photosynthesis mechanism of the algae and can be used to make algae more productive as a biofuel source.

Researchers from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have found that photosynthesis may function as that clean, sustainable source of hydrogen. The team, led by Barry Bruce, a professor of biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology at UT Knoxville, found that the inner machinery of photosynthesis can be isolated from certain algae and, when coupled with a platinum catalyst, is able to produce a steady supply of hydrogen when exposed to light.

Ethanol Producer Magazine has published a review of regional feedstocks that are being developed for cellulosic biofuels. It focuses primarily on agricultural and forest biomass with a cursory mention of MSW and algae biomass. Still it is a nice overview of the regional differences in available biomass.

Kansas University researchers are working to turn microbes from treated sewage into a commercially viable biofuel, fluid that one day could be used to power the nation’s cars, trucks, airplanes and other modes of transportation. “From the point of view of the EPA, this should be like heaven,” said Val Smith, a KU professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. “We’re harnessing a waste, making it do work for America, and purifying it all at the same time. Bob Honea, the institute’s director, is confident that the work of KU researchers — collaborating on a “Feedstock to Tailpipe” program that includes a wide variety of biofuel efforts — is on the right track.

The University of Minnesota was awarded $2.2 million in federal stimulus money to gauge Shewanella’s capability as a commercial-fuel provider. Shewanella, the hydrocarbon-producing bacteria capable of surviving in frigid Antarctica, could become an oil producer within 10 years if a federally funded research project at the University of Minnesota proves successful. More than 3,700 project proposals were submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) earlier this year. In the end, Larry Wackett, distinguished McKnight Professor in the university’s College of Biological Sciences, and BioCee Inc., a start-up company based on the university’s St. Paul campus, were picked as one of 37 DOE grant recipients nationwide.

The Algal Biomass Organization`s (ABO) Executive Director Mary Rosenthal testified before Congress today on the economic and environmental benefits of algae-based fuels, as well as on steps legislators can take to ensure algae receives benefits and financial incentives similar to those afforded to other biofuel feedstocks. The ABO testified to the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research, which has jurisdiction over energy and bio-based energy production, on the status of 2nd and 3rd generation biofuel feedstocks.

The Algae Fuel Prize, to produce commercially viable fuel from algae, has been offered by Del Mar-based Prize Capital. The actual amount may change, because the rules and guidelines for the prize aren’t final, said Lee Stein, Prize Capital’s founder. But the main goal is fixed, he said, which is to add a new source of fuel and not to compete with food crops, as with ethanol made from corn.

With EPA tightening restrictions on CO2 emissions and the interest in algae as a biofuel, the interest is heightened in commercial algae production to capture CO2.

Just for balance, this article on algae technology development challenges evens out the positives of the other algae technology development side. For the most part, from a business development standpoint the technical variables are too great, the technology property rights often uncertain, and permitting can be a nightmare. These factors are in addition to the depressed economic factors…