Algae Biofuel Back from Dead, Now with Carbon Capture

by Tina Casey (Clean Technica) Algae biofuel could have another moment in the sun, now that more federal dollars are pouring into carbon capture-and-recycling technology. -- Algae biofuel stakeholders have been stuck in the doldrums for years, but in an odd twist of fate, the fossil fuel industry could help algae make a comeback. Apparently the new plan is to pair algae farming with waste carbon from gas power plants and other industrial operations. In addition to biofuel, algae farming can also produce animal feed, fish food, nutritional supplements and toiletries for people, and bioplastic products.

On the down side, figuring out an economical way to cultivate algae and extract the oil at an industrial scale is a challenging endeavor, especially when the over-arching goal is to reduce carbon emissions rather than adding them.

The picture was looking bright in the early 2000s, up through the Obama administration. However, by the time former President Obama left office in 2016, oil prices were crashing. The relatively low cost of petroleum seemed to put the idea of a bioeconomy fueled by algae biofuel to bed.

In 2018, for example, the Energy Department was funding the algae bioplastics angle. In 2020 researchers were exploring the idea of hooking up with high speed 3-D printing. The Mars mission has also sparked a new burst of interest in the algae biofuel field.

In January of this year the Energy Department’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) launched the new AlgaePrize competition for students, aimed at developing “the next generation of bioeconomy professionals by expanding novel solutions to production, processing, and new product development on the way to gigaton-scale algae commercialization for fuel, food, products, and carbon dioxide utilization/sequestration.”

If you caught that thing about carbon dioxide, that’s where the happy dance for natural gas stakeholders comes in. Carbon capture from flue gas could turn out to be a value-added element that improves the bottom line for algae farming.

Nevertheless, gas is soaring again and ExxonMobil has a chance to wriggle back up on top, partly due to its interest in algae biofuel.

ExxonMobil has been investing in algae biofuel research since at least 2009, though its activity in the commercial aspect of algae farming has not been a straight line since then. In 2013, for example, the company seemed to lose interest in making quick entry into the algae biofuel market. Instead, it pivoted into foundational research under a 4-year contract with the firm Synthetic Genomics, Inc.

By 2018, the company was also collaborating with the Colorado School of Mines and Michigan State University on algae biofuel research, but a clear pathway to commercial-scale algae biofuel had yet to emerge.

The carbon capture angle could be a game changer. The outlook for algae biofuel looked gloomy indeed several years ago, but now that more federal dollars are pumping into point-source carbon capture the prospects have brightened.

To the extent that algae farming at gas power plants enables more gas extraction, it’s just another form of greenhouse gas whack-a-mole.

Either way, it looks like algae farming at power plants has a window of opportunity. Last November ExxonMobil re-upped its collaboration with Synthetic Genomics, under the new name of Viridos. READ MORE