Cheaper Renewable Fuels: Is Algae the Missing Ingredient?

Algae/Other Aquatic Organisms/Seaweed, Farming/Growing, Feedstocks, Florida, Infrastructure

May 27, 2014

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by Sarah Lozanova (Triple Pundit) … “Not all algae can be lumped together,” says Paul Woods, CEO of Algenol, a biotechnology company that produces ethanol and other fuels. “There are lots of [algae-based biofuel] programs that use fresh water and open ponds that have high evaporation rates, even if they use brines. Algenol has a closed system. Ethanol evaporates. If we had an open system, we would lose all our product and because it is closed, it isn’t subject to evaporation.”
… Woods says the Algenol process has yielded over 10,000 gallons of fuel per year at its pilot-scale facility in Fort Myers, Fla. After ethanol is produced, waste algae is used to produce smaller amounts of jet fuel, diesel and gasoline.
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The Algenol process requires algae, saltwater and carbon dioxide. A natural gas power plant flue is an ideal source for the carbon dioxide required in the process. Instead of using a pond, the closed system occurs within a plastic bag.
“We have a 50-liter bag,” explains Woods. “We have a lot of them, and that’s a very small amount of culture to manage. We do all of our scale-up through replicating the same module over and over again. ” READ MORE

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