The Algal Biomass Organization today launched AllAboutAlgae.com, a new website designed to showcase the potential of algae-based products to provide sustainable and scalable sources of food, energy and fuel. The website, developed in concert with the National Biodiesel Board provides information, videos and photos all about algae-derived products such as biodiesel, aviation fuel, biochemicals, animal feed and nutritional supplements.

AllAboutAlgae.com is the first site designed to showcase algae’s potential for everyone — from those just learning about algae to seasoned algae enthusiasts and entrepreneurs looking for the latest information on the industry’s progress toward meeting challenges in energy security, food production and sustainability.

“With global population expected to reach 9 billion in the next decades, we must find additional sustainable sources of food, energy and fuel,” said Mary Rosenthal, executive director of the Algal Biomass Organization. “Products made from algae have incredible potential to meet these needs, and this website is designed to inform and excite people about algae. AllAboutAlgae.com is a one-stop shop of comprehensive, easy-to-understand information about this exciting industry.”

The site is organized in a way that allows users to navigate between basic and more complex aspects of algae. It answers questions about what algae are and their unique characteristics as a feedstock for fuels, food, feed and more. It includes reviews of the history of algae research, state-of-the-art technology and the latest efforts of the industry to begin large-scale production. Users can review photos of operations, video interviews with industry and academic experts, an FAQ to quickly find information, a quiz that tests their algae knowledge, and more.

“This is a much-needed resource when you consider how quickly this industry is moving. Algae is slated to be a source of many products, including biodiesel, and we are excited that there is now a place for people to learn about its potential,” said Joe Jobe, Chief Executive Officer of the National Biodiesel Board.

AllAboutAlgae.com was funded, in part, by the U.S. Department of Energy.  READ MORE and MORE

…Since first installing its trademarked Grower Harvester bioreactors at the Shenandoah plant in 2009, the project has continually met or exceeded its expectations, with the latest expansion being no exception. The company announced last fall that it planned to construct the five-acre farm in the spring and is now moving ahead as scheduled. But the successful scaling-up process has brought with it unexpected challenges on the demand side.

Last year, Green Plains CEO Todd Becker said that the project was progressing faster than market opportunities were being developed for algae. As a result, the company began participating in market development activities, supplying algae for feed trials and tests for other markets, such as pharmaceutical applications.

…(T)he company wants to play the role of farmer, supplying the wholesale dried algae to companies for their individual purposes. READ MORE

…As CEO of BioVantage Resources, Inc., Sue is responsible for corporate vision, strategy, execution and capitalization of a company pursuing two tracks of development in the algae industry, one as a scale-up specialist, enabling cultivators to advance from lab level to commercial production. And two, being experts in water reclamation, in which they use their own products to facilitate algae nutrient removal and biomass development.

…We chose the scale-up part of the growing system, and water reclamation. There is always that classic build or buy decision, in early-stage businesses especially. We’ve put together a very nice packaged set of products to allow you to grow algae from milligram, to kilogram, to commercial scale in a 21st Century way.

I’ve got some background in manufacturing, and we’ve commercialized a lot of product. So we’ve looked at how to tackle commercialization of systems so that we can really have repeatable and reliable processes. And that is something we’re good at. Anyone who wants to grow algae at volume needs to go through the scale-up process, so we look at that as our biomass business. We’ve built dozens of scale-up systems already, with customers using it for biofuels, biochemicals, for protein, and we’ve just started dialogs about growing for nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals.  READ MORE

Mexicali Valley, Mexico and Los Angeles, CA February 3, 2012 – Algae producer Aquaviridis and OriginOil, Inc., the developer of a breakthrough technology to extract oil from algae and an emerging leader in the global algae oil services industry, today announced that Aquaviridis has signed a commercial agreement with OriginOil to help develop the multi-phase algae production rollout at its Mexicali, Mexico site, a potential model for algae sites throughout the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) region, with a focus on desert areas of the American Southwest and Mexico.

OriginOil will provide its expertise to help develop growth and harvesting solutions and implement appropriate OriginOil technologies. The facility will also serve as a test bed for OriginOil innovations.

In announcing the agreement, Aquaviridis president Thomas Byrne stated, “After evaluating OriginOil’s portfolio, our technical team felt that OriginOil had some novel, scalable, and potentially game-changing technologies for algae harvesting and growth enhancement. We are excited about the opportunity to work closely with them as a partner during our research and planning stage. Having the right partners and technologies is critical, as our expectation is to have this facility in revenue this year.”

Aquaviridis is backed by private sector funding, with plans to immediately scale up from research and development to ten acres of pilot algae production by the middle of this year. Commercial scale production capacity is expected by the second quarter of 2013.  Aquaviridis selected the Mexicali Valley as a strategic location due to favorable growing conditions, strong local and governmental support, and available sources of carbon dioxide.

OriginOil’s vice president of marketing, Ken Reynolds added, “The Mexicali Valley is a great place to develop an algae industry, given its climate and access to industry research and resources throughout North America. With the U.S. as a neighboring market for high value exports, Mexico is in an excellent position to take the lead in areas such as research and production of algae for nutritional products, animal feed, and oil for biofuels, which would create long-term regional economic growth and job production.”  READ MORE

First, the development of economically feasible technologies. Second, the financing and construction of new capacity, including any bolt-ons, restarts or retrofits of existing capacity. Third, the distribution of the fuel, whether through existing blending waivers (e.g. E10 ethanol or B10 biodiesel), expanded waivers (e.g. E15 ethanol), higher blends through flex-fuel car manufacturing (e.g. E30, E85), or drop-in fuels.

Work is underway on all three fronts – all have proven supremely difficult.

36 billion gallons, the easier way     Now, there’s no requirement of law of economics that mandates the scenario that we will present below. What it does represent is, we believe, the lowest-cost, lowest-risk path to meeting the RFS based on what we have learned to date regarding the three Grand Challenges.

12 billion gallons of corn-starch based biobutanol.   …But the RFS does not mandate ethanol. We believe that the fleet can convert to biobutanol by 2022. They would do so, to produce higher value molecules, and working around the E10 “blend wall” which limits the US to around 13.5 billion gallons of ethanol via blending at the refineries. …

3 billion gallons of agricultural residue-based biobutanol, using the existing corn ethanol fleet.    Why 3 billion? POET tells us that you can add about 25 percent to existing corn ethanol capacity by having farmers from the same geography bring in their baled cobs and corn stover, while leaving enough biomass on the field for soil quality purposes.

Now, because this is biobutanol, it counts for the equivalent of 3.9 billion gallons of ethanol-equivalent under the RFS.

6 billion gallons of algal-based biofuels or solar fuels, utilizing the existing corn ethanol fleet. …But BioProcess Algae has its groundbreaking today, for a algal-based fuel system that does just that – uses the CO2 (and process heat) from the Green Plains corn ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa.

This has the equivalent of up to 10.2 billion gallons under the RFS.

2 billion gallons of biodiesel, using existing US capacity. …

3 billion gallons of cellulosic biobutanol, utilizing new capacity, or 2.3 billions gallons of renewable diesel.  READ MORE and MORE (Biofuels Digest follow up with readers’ comments)

Excerpts from follow-up:  The readers respond

From readers (who generally wished to remain anonymous), we had the most negative feedback on three items.

1. We ignored the stronger GHG emissions reduction opportunities available via ethanol.

2. It will take years to convert the corn ethanol fleet to biobutanol, and the industry is at the ethanol blend wall now, so ignoring, for example, blender pumps, does the industry a disservice.

3. Consumers will not pay more for isobutanol than for ethanol (on an energy value), so how will producers make more money, and why would companies sell a molecule as a $3 fuel instead of a $5 chemical?

Key takeaways from Butamax and Gevo

1. The Butamax joint venture intends to sell isobutanol into the fuel markets at a competitive price (on an energy-equivalent basis) to ethanol.  …

2. The Butamax JV will be capable of and focused on, with its engineering staff and the staff of their proposed partners, conversion of multiple ethanol facilities at one time – rather than onesy-twosy.

…The retrofits are, in the case of both Gevo and Butamax, focused on three key units at the ethanol plant. Namely, the units for fermentation, separation and distillation.  …

3. What’s the proposition to the bioprocessor, the actual ethanol plant? Higher value molecules, for sure. Also, as a lesser point but still important, less exposure to issues such as the ethanol blend wall.

The Digest’s Take

…Well, we certainly agree that, in an ideal world, ethanol might well rule and certainly an “all of the above” portfolio strategy that embraces all fuel molecules is more robust than an “eggs in one basket” strategy.

However, we note the financing and construction timelines, and warn industry that unless they develop an affordable, reliable strategy – which does not cost many more federal dollars – for reaching the RFS targets, the RFS will be opened and revised. Downward, in an investor-crushing manner.  READ MORE

Participants of the symposium, who are all in the frontlines of algae biotechnology research, will either give an oral presentation or present a poster on topics ranging from genetic engineering and metabolic flux analysis, to photosynthesis, life cycle analysis, cultivation and photo bioreactor design. In addition, participants will visit AlgaePARC (Algae Production and Research Centre), which is the first research center that compares different outdoor photobioreactor designs at an industrial scale worldwide (www.algaePARC.nl).

The exclusivity for young researchers combined with the interactivity and broad scope of the topics makes the Young Algaeneers Symposium a unique initiative, which is supported by the board of recommendation consisting of Prof. R. Wijffels (NL), Dr. L. Brentner (NL), Prof. C. Vílchez (ES), Prof. S. Mayfield (USA), Prof. L. Nedbal (CZ), Prof. W. Vermaas (USA), Prof. O. Kruse (DE), Prof. J. Steyer (FR) and Prof. M. Tredici (IT).

Participants can apply until the 1st of February 2012. Further information regarding the application, location and costs can be found on the Young Algaeneers Symposium website. Contact: young.algaeneers@wur.nl   READ MORE

Novozymes, the world leader in bioinnovation, announced an exploratory research agreement with Sea6 Energy, an India-based company, to jointly develop a process for the production of biofuels from seaweed. The research alliance will use enzymes to convert seaweed-based carbohydrates to sugar, which can then be fermented to produce ethanol for fuel, fine chemicals, proteins for food, and fertilizers for plants.

Novozymes will research, develop, and manufacture enzymes for the conversion process, while Sea6 Energy contributes its offshore seaweed cultivation technology.

Seaweed is a natural complement to our efforts to convert other types of biomass to fuel ethanol,” says Per Falholt, Executive Vice President and CSO of Novozymes. “More than half of the dry mass in seaweed is sugar, and the potential is therefore significant.”

Harvesting the ocean for sustainable biofuels and food proteins 
Seaweed, technically known as macroalgae, is one of the world’s fastest growing plants. It does not require irrigation or fertilizers, or take up arable land. Seaweed cultivation is an ancient practice traditionally carried out using long ropes and bamboo rafts. Seaweed can be produced at many locations in the world, but the warm sea conditions, abundant sunlight, and the possibility for several harvest cycles through the year make the waters around India particularly suitable.

Sea6 Energy has already developed ocean-farming structures that are robust and versatile compared to traditional methods of seaweed cultivation. These structures could be used to create large-scale seaweed farms in offshore locations. In addition, Sea6 Energy is also pioneering approaches to fermenting the sugars derived from seaweed to produce fuel in a manner that requires minimal use of fresh water resources.

“We are excited about our partnership with Novozymes and look forward to developing an efficient enzymatic process to convert seaweed to sugar,” says Shrikumar Suryanarayan, Chairman of Sea6 Energy. “Combined with Sea6 Energy’s offshore seaweed cultivation expertise, these conversion technologies will offer a scalable and sustainable alternative to expensive and polluting fossil fuels, while providing employment to coastal communities and energy security for our country.”

Sea6 Energy is currently trialing its cultivation technology in partnership with a few fishing communities around the coastal areas of South India. Novozymes’ Indian arm will work closely with Sea6 Energy to develop the conversion technology.    READ MORE and MORE (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

The consortium is coordinated by the Agricultural Research Institute of Cyprus in collaboration with the Cyprus Energy Agency. The project ‘Production of biofuels from microalgae in selected Mediterranean Countries’ is funded by the Programme ENPI European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) Mediterranean Sea Basin Joint Operational Programme.

…The methodology includes all stages in the production of biodiesel from microalgae: sampling of seawater or freshwater, the selection of microalgae, species identification, cultivation of microalgae, harvesting and extraction of biodiesel and determination of properties of biodiesel produced in accordance with Standard EN14214 and its testing. READ MORE

…The system developed by Professor Zimmerman’s team uses up to 1000 times less energy to produce the microbubbles and, in addition, the cost of installing the Sheffield microbubble system is predicted to be much less than existing flotation systems.

The next step in the project is to develop a pilot plant to test the system at an industrial scale. Professor Zimmerman is already working with Tata Steel at their site in Scunthorpe using CO2 from their flue-gas stacks and plans to continue this partnership to test the new system.  READ MORE and MORE (Scientific American) and MORE (Biorefining Magazine)  Abstract

Speaking with one voice  First, let’s all come together and realize we’re all in the fuel business.  While I understand, and likely am guilty of this transgression myself, we need to stop arguing about whose feedstock is best.  …

All of the above    Second, let’s spend our time in 2012 educating policymakers that, frankly, oil is oil. That if vehicle and aircraft engines don’t care (or can’t tell) that the fuel inside was made from algae or sweet light crude, than neither should anyone else.   …

The goal is energy security, and exports too   Third, let us once and for all understand that it is possible in our lifetime to make America once again a net exporter of fuels if we leverage all the resources we have, whether its oil wells, shale rocks or algae ponds.   …

Stand and be heard    But ours is just one voice. I am calling on all the members in our organization, as well as the entire biofuels ecosystem, to stand up and be heard. Call or write yourelected official. Invite your delegation to your lab or your plant.   …  READ MORE and MORE (Algal Biomass Organization)