$500/BOE Profit from Algae? Yes We Can!

by Stafford “Doc” Williamson (Biofuels Digest) ... The US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has a plan. Specifically it has a 5 year plan known as the Multi-Year Program Plan (and with the typical zeal of most governments to pepper us with acronyms, this is known as the EERE MYPP). The 5 year plan sets out goals for 2030. No shame in being cautious with a grand ambition to change world.

The latest revisions to this MYPP happened in November 2014, in which it now states, “By 2030, validate demonstration-scale production of algae-based biofuels at total production cost of $3/GGE (2011$), with or without co-products.” (Just in case any of you have not encountered that particular proliferation of acronyms, GGE stands for “Gallon of Gasoline Equivalent”.) Indeed some companies that have had a firm target of producing biofuels for years, are now softening that stance into a transitioning to biofuels after attempting to produce alternative products which are already a financially survivable strategy.

“There is a need to find ways to disseminate success publically as an industry without jeopardizing intellectual property.”

So, I am going to take that as a personal challenge, right now. I will tell you how I would create an integrated algae fuel and co-product facility, that minimizes wastes and should be close to financially viable (and I’ll get around to telling you why I think so in a minute). There are several distinct components to an “integrated” algae to biofuel operation that will maximize the efficiency of the whole chain of processes. It may well be that the best way to assure that this complex set of interactions is profitable would be to have a corporate structure of a single corporation or entity. It might (more likely) be best if each separate phase it operated by a company that it already experienced, preferably expertly so, in the operation and management of the process as a separate business.

What I am proposing then, in effect, is a consortium or joint venture of experienced companies although a set of COO’s or operational Presidents might seem a viable alternative, the capital requirements of this as yet untried combination would almost preclude such a barebones startup, regardless of the experience of the individuals. Here then, in a nutshell is how this integrated process would work.

Resulting oils receive hydrotreating and differential distillation to become renewable diesel and renewable jet fuel.

... the protein/starch/sugars complex from algae can be considered to be fish food, which has a market value of at least $1300/ton, and as high as $2388 just last December 31, 2014. READ MORE