Exxon's Climate Fix Is Algae. Experts Say It Won't Work

by Benjamin Storrow (E&E News) ... "Algae. A renewable source of energy. ExxonMobil is researching it. To revolutionize biofuels. For more energy. And fewer emissions." Biofuels represent one of Exxon Mobil's primary answers to climate change. In television ads and presentations to investors, the company showcases it as an example of its dedication to cutting greenhouse gases. But after more than a decade of research, serious questions remain about Exxon Mobil's biofuel efforts.

The company has spent more in the last 10 years on advertising than on algae research. Exxon Mobil is the only major oil company looking at algae as a potential source of biofuels. Scientists say there is good reason for that. The technology, while technically feasible, is wildly expensive.

"It's like I give you $1 million and you convert it to $1 bills, and you light it on fire to make energy," said Avigad Vonshak, a professor at Ben-Gurion University in Israel who has studied algae for decades. "I think it will be from stupid to nonsensical to believe that in any given time it will be an economically feasible process to extract fuels from microalgae."

The question facing Exxon Mobil today is whether biofuels are a real climate solution or just green washing. The company says biofuels could reduce commercial transportation emissions by 50%. That assessment is shared by many energy analysts, who believe biofuels could be an important tool for greening hard-to-decarbonize sectors like aviation. But many experts doubt algae will become a major source of that biofuel, saying other alternatives are more likely to compete on cost.

Critics contend Exxon Mobil's spending on algae research represents a drop in the bucket compared with its efforts to boost oil and gas production.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has seized on Exxon's biofuels program as part of her lawsuit against the company, writing in the suit, "These ads constitute a highly effective greenwashing tactic, because they send the false and misleading message ExxonMobil is working to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, when in fact, the Company is increasing fossil fuel production, and its profitability turns on its sales of fossil fuels, which necessarily increase the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving dangerous climate change impacts."

The Irving, Texas-based company is making a profoundly different bet about the future, staking its fortunes on projections that population growth in developing countries will fuel the need for more oil and gas.

Their solution is a series of technological improvements to green the oil giant's existing business: carbon capture and sequestration for power plants and industry, reduced flaring and improved industrial processes to bolster efficiency of existing operations, and biofuels for aviation and freight.

In 2017, Exxon Mobil and Synthetic Genomics announced they had found a solution. Using the gene editing technology CRISPR, the companies said, they had found a way to double the lipid content of algae from 20% to more than 40% with limited effects on growth.

But by then the world had changed considerably. The advent of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling sent oil prices plummeting and drove scores of biofuel companies into bankruptcy. Algae researchers, meanwhile, found other profitable uses for their product, which is now used in everything from fish feed to high-quality polymers to human nutraceuticals.

Some scientists believe algae-based biofuels are possible, but they say government investment is needed to make the technology viable.

The company's 2019 research and development report shows it has spent $300 million on biofuels research in the past decade.

High evaporation rates in arid regions can cause saline levels to rise to dangerous levels for algae, and removing the salt is expensive. NREL assumes a commercial-scale facility in Arizona would need to dispose of the salty water by injecting it deep into underground wells, much as oil and gas drilling operations do, significantly adding to the overall costs.

Minimizing costs would likely require using fresh water or building facilities in areas like the Gulf Coast, where evaporation rates are lower, the researchers said.

That points to another potential challenge: the availability of land. NREL's model for a commercial-scale algae facility calls for 5,000 acres of open-air algae ponds plus an additional 2,000 acres for support facilities. Yet all that land would produce only a limited amount of fuel.

NREL demonstrated daily production last year in Arizona of 15.9 grams per square meter, with a goal of reaching 25 grams in 2030. At that production rate, Exxon Mobil would need a facility at least NREL's size just to reach its 10,000-barrel-a-day goal, said Vonshak, the Israeli researcher.

Exxon Mobil spent a total of $1.5 billion on corporate promotion across all media over the last decade, .... READ MORE