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Alternative Energy - Biofuels from Algae as a Viable Prospect John Korstad, PhD

Alternative Energy - Biofuels from Algae as a Viable Prospect John Korstad, PhD.

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Alternative Energy - Biofuels from Algae as a Viable Prospect John Korstad, PhD

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  1. Alternative Energy - Biofuels from Algae as a Viable Prospect John Korstad, PhD

  2. “This year, Americans will pay $650 billion for imported oil, plus another $400 billion for US oil, for a total bill of over $1 trillion. In 2008, OPEC will clear $1.5 trillion in net export profits.” Dr. Robert Zubrin Pioneer Astronautics 11111 W. 8th Ave, unit A Lakewood, CO 80215 zubrin@aol.com

  3. James Woolsey • Born and raised in Tulsa, OK • Under Secretary of the Navy, 1977-1979 • CIA Director, 1993-1995 • Currently Chairman of the Advisory Boards of the Clean Fuels Foundation and the New Uses Council. • He is a founding member of the Set America Free Coalition, dedicated to American oil independence. 'Oil Itself Is a Problem‘ An Interview with inFOCUS Quarterly (June 18, 2009) iF: “You've been working to get America off oil. What's driving your effort?” JW:“Oil, since it has a 96 percent monopoly on transportation, is a substantial problem from the point of view of emissions of carbon dioxide.” “OPEC dominates oil and sets oil's prices. Practically everything that we do requires transporting something. So, oil dominance and OPEC's dominance of oil presents an extraordinary national security problem for us, in a number of ways.”

  4. In September 2009, the powerful Saudi Arabian leader Prince Turki Al-Faisal called the Democrats’ call for energy independence through renewables and the Republicans’ call for energy independence through a little more US drilling  “a concept that is unrealistic, misguided, and ultimately harmful to energy-producing and -consuming countries alike.” His position is that the US is and will be dependent on oil producing giants like Saudi Arabia (with 25% of the world’s oil) for decades to come.And while talk of “switch-grass” and “Drill, baby drill” leading to rapid US oil independence is all very well, it is an entertaining distraction, a sideshow. When the US economy comes surging back in the next few months and the demand for oil spikes again, it is not biofuels or solar power, or an incremental uptick in drilling in the US that will come to the rescue of beleaguered drivers on US turnpikes, it is Turki Al-Faisal’s oil reservoirs. http://www.bizmology.com/2009/10/20/its-not-easy-being-green-when-youre-big-and-oily/

  5. In March, Royal Dutch Shell announced a freeze on its wind solar and hydrogen power investments, focusing instead on biofuels. Shell formed joint venture company Cellana, which operates a pilot facility in Hawaii to grow marine algae and produce vegetable oil for conversion into biodiesel. Algae hold great promise because they grow very rapidly, are rich in vegetable oil and can be cultivated in ponds of seawater, minimising the use of fertile land and fresh water. Since March 2008, Shell has partnered with Virent Energy Systems in the USA on a research project to convert plant sugars directly into petrol and diesel, rather than ethanol. The collaboration could herald the availability in the future of biofuels that can be blended in higher proportions in standard petrol engines. http://www.faoi.shell.com/2008/alternativeenergy/biofuels.html

  6. Alternative Energy Cost Comparisons For more detailed description of alternative energy sources and costs see US DOE Web site: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/assumption/pdf/renewable.pdf Cost by technology Conventional Combustion Turbine Wind Coal Biofuels Nuclear Solar

  7. DOE http://biomass.ucdavis.edu/materials/forums%20and%20workshops/f2008/1.3_%20Alison%20Goss%20Eng.pdf

  8. Beneficial Biofuels—The Food, Energy, and Environment Trilemma Tilman et al. 17 July 2009 Science 325:270-271 Algae???? The search for beneficial biofuels should focus on sustainable biomass feedstocks that neither compete with food crops nor directly or indirectly cause land-clearing and that offer advantages in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Perennials grown on degraded formerly agricultural land, municipal and industrial sold waste, crop and forestry residues, and double or mixed crops offer great potential. The best biofuels make good substitutes for fossil energy. A recent analysis suggests that more than 500 million tons of such feedstocks could be produced annually in the United States (NAS 2009). Algae????

  9. http://www.rite.or.jp/English/lab/microbio/03/b-2(1)/b-2(1).htmlhttp://www.rite.or.jp/English/lab/microbio/03/b-2(1)/b-2(1).html

  10. How a Biofuel 'Miracle' Ruined Kenyan Farmers (Time CNN 10.4.09) Everyone in Kibwezi, a village in southeastern Kenya parched by four years of drought, remembers the promises. It all started in 2000, when the government started preaching the word about a plant called jatropha curcas. The government told the farmers, however, that jatropha seeds can be pressed to make biofuel and that scientists believed the plant's seeds contained more oil than other biofuel crops. Even better, the government said, jatropha needed little tending. All you had to do was stick it in the ground and watch it grow. Best of all for Kibwezi, a place that's frequently stricken by drought, scientists believed that the plant thrived on arid land. Convinced they could reap large profits from the plant in the global craze for alternative energy sources, hundreds of farmers turned over acres of their small farms to jatropha. But "The people who did the promotion for jatropha had not done [their] research ... because we have realized that the crop is getting moisture stress just like any other crop," he says. A study published in June in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a Washington-based scientific journal, found that jatropha actually requires more water per liter of biofuel produced than most other biofuel plants. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1927538,00.html

  11. As the food crisis deepens, more and more cultivable land is being used to grow plants for the production of 'ecological', non-oil based fuels. This German landscape is a patchwork of rapeseed (canola) fields between cornfields and other food crops. Measurements of emissions from the burning of biofuels derived from canola and corn have been found to produce more greenhouse gas emissions than they save. http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1731280_1565371,00.html

  12. Johnston Biofuels in Asia 2009

  13. Biofuels Feedstock Performance against Environmental, Social, Economic, & Agronomic Criteria Johnston Biofuels in Asia 2009

  14. FIGURE 1. Schematic of systems considered in this work. Model scope includes all upstream processing of biomass material. Conversion to liquid or solid fuel is intentionally excluded. Clarens et al. 2010. Environmental Life Cycle Comparison of Algae to Other Bioenergy Feedstocks. Environ. Sci. Technol.

  15. Johnston Biofuels in Asia 2009

  16. “There is no magic-bullet fuel crop that can solve our energy woes without harming the environment, says virtually every scientist studying the issue. But most say that algae… comes closer than any other plant…” National Geographic October, 2007 http://www-csgc.ucsd.edu/NEWSROOM/NEWSRELEASES/2009/AlgaeForBiofuels.html

  17. Overview of Photosynthesis Ethanol “Light Rxn”” “Dark Rxn”” 20

  18. CHOs Oil Protein Algae produce more O2 and oils per unit biomass than terrestrial plants.

  19. Why ALGAE? • Does not compete with agriculture • High yield per acre • Contains no sulphur therefore no SO2 emissions • Non toxic and highly biodegradable • Does not require soil for growth • Uses as little as 30cm of water per year per hectare (open pond system) • Adaptable anywhere even at great distances from water • Abatement of CO2 – carbon neutral

  20. science.howstuffworks.com/.../printable

  21. ORIGIN OIL Unique Lighting Technologies for Use in Photo Bio Reactor Systems Source citations mentioned in ALGAE 2020 STUDY, Emerging Markets Online

  22. 12.31.06 GreenFuel's president Dr. Isaac Berzin ... possibility of attaining US self-sufficiency in liquid fuels: • To replace all transportation fuels in the US need ~140 billion gallons of biodiesel/yr. • Energy conservation like hybrid drivetrains and other improvements reduced to 100 billion gallons • To produce the biodiesel by growing soybeans would require ~3 billion acres of prime farm land, or >1 billion acres growing canola & cost twice as much as the comparative value of petrol. Impossible to do & still provide food crops at reasonable prices. • To produce that same amount of biodiesel by growing algae on flooded desert would require ~9.5 million acres = ~15,000 mi2 (= only 2.5% of Sonora Desert). • Algae now producing 15,000 gallons per acre for the current companies working on this strategy. Greater production possible with engineered algae. • 450 million acres currently used for crop farming in the US, and over 500 million acres are used as grazing land for farm animals. Therefore, algae area = ~2.1% of farmland. http://www.avonhistory.org/mil3/oilgae7.htm

  23. “Nutrient Capture” Bioremediation

  24. Algae Growth Systems – Common Methods 1. Open Ponds and Raceway Systems http://www.braziltexas.org/attachments/contentmanagers/1/1Thurmond_PDF_Presentation.pdf

  25. 2. Photo Bio Reactor Systems A Photo-Bioreactor in Translucent Tube from GreenFuels Global Green Solutions/Vertigro Vertical Photo Bioreactor System http://www.braziltexas.org/attachments/contentmanagers/1/1Thurmond_PDF_Presentation.pdf

  26. Simgae™ System Conceptual Layout Diversified Energy http://www.diversified-energy.com/index.cfm?s_webAction=simgae

  27. http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2009/07/29/472179.html

  28. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded Montana State University and Utah State University a three-year, $900,000 grant to study the oil produced by algae, which could be a renewable source of biodiesel. http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=6502

  29. www.myettnews.com/.../07/biodiesel-algae.JPG

  30. http://algaefuel.org/products-PBR-photo-bioreactor-biodiesel-making-system-green-energy.htmlhttp://algaefuel.org/products-PBR-photo-bioreactor-biodiesel-making-system-green-energy.html

  31. Private Companies Directly Involved In Producing Fuels from Algae (1 company in 2001 and ~50 in 2008): Algae BioFuels OriginOil Algoil PetroAlgae Aquaflow Bionic Corp. Sapphire Bio Fuel Systems Seambiotic GreenFuel Technologies Solazyme Green Star Products, Inc. Solix Kwikpower SQC Enhanced Biofuels & Technologies Synthetic Genomics Icon Energy Valcent Infinifuel Biodiesel Vertigro Inventure Corp. International Alga Technol. LiveFuels Inc Green = companies I’m most familiar with. http://www.braziltexas.org/attachments/contentmanagers/1/1Thurmond_PDF_Presentation.pdf Source: Biodiesel 2020 study, Emerging Markets Online

  32. ExxonMobil Algae Biofuels Research and Development Program Launching a significant ($600 million) new program teaming up with Synthetic Genomics to research and develop next-generation biofuels from algae. This is part of our ongoing commitment to advance breakthrough energy technologies to help address the world’s long term energy challenges. Algae are grown in either open ponds or closed photobioreactors. As they grow, algae accumulate fats and bio-oils that have similar molecular structures to traditional crude oil. The bio-oil is extracted or harvested from the algae. Bio-oil will be further processed in existing refineries, just as crude oil is refined today, to produce a range of products including gasoline, diesel, jet and marine fuel. Gallons of fuel per acre per year of production Algae — 2000 gallons per acre per year. Approx. yields for other fuel sources are far lower:Palm — 650 gallons per acre per yearSugar cane — 450 gallons per acre per yearCorn — 250 gallons per acre per yearSoy — 50 gallons per acre per year

  33. Sapphire Energy - Using algae to make fuels Chief executive of Sapphire Energy Inc., a San Diego biofuels company that grew out of a dinner argument in 2006, where Pyle contended that biofuels, especially corn ethanol, were a flawed fad that could never be developed on a commercial scale. But ever the problem solver, he, along with partners Kristina Burow and Nathaniel David, began looking into alternative fuel sources. Sapphire hopes to produce 1 million gallons of algae diesel and jet fuel each year in the next two years, and up to a massive 1 billion gallons of fuel a year by 2025.

  34. Algae Farms - A Look at The Future High-Yield, Non-Food Oil, Non-Ag and Non-Rainforest areas Source: Solix Biofuels http://www.braziltexas.org/attachments/contentmanagers/1/1Thurmond_PDF_Presentation.pdf

  35. PetroAlgae facility in Fellsmere, Florida

  36. Algae Biofuel To Send Astronauts to Space? Israel's Seambiotic Partners With NASA (7.6.09) Seambiotic, located in Ashkelon, Israel, uses eight raceway/paddle-wheel open-ponds for algae cultivation, fed by C02 flue-gas from a nearby Israeli Electric Corporation power plant. The company employs genetic optimization and has teamed up with Inventure Chemical to turn the algae into fuel. http://www.greentechmedia.com/green-light/post/whats-it-all-about-algae1/ http://www.seambiotic.com/

  37. PetroAlgae Their modular, flexible design construction, enables a near-continuous growing and harvesting process of a wide variety of micro-crops suited to local climates, ensuring maximum growth rates. Micro-crops can be grown on non-arable land, removing competition with the food supply, a significant issue facing macro-crops. Micro-crop fuels are carbon-neutral, consuming nearly double their own weight in CO2, and 98% of the water used to grow micro-crops is recycled. The harvested micro-crop is screw-pressed into two components: a carbohydrate-rich solid and a protein-rich liquid.

  38. This chemical-free, low cost method is OriginOil's major product, and can be used in their systems as well as licensed to other companies. http://www.originoil.com/technology/low-cost-oil-extraction.html

  39. http://www.originoil.com/multimedia/player.php?f=single-step-extraction-640.flv&w=640&h=360&This=true&TB_iframe=true&height=390&width=640http://www.originoil.com/multimedia/player.php?f=single-step-extraction-640.flv&w=640&h=360&This=true&TB_iframe=true&height=390&width=640 This dramatic time-lapse video begins with a batch of algae that has just gone through OriginOil’s breakthrough process. In less than an hour, the oil, water and biomass separate by gravity alone. Unlike conventional systems, no chemicals or heavy machinery are used in this single-step process, and no initial dewatering is required.

  40. On August 28, 2009, Dr. Kris Niyogi, Prof. of Algal Biology at UC Berkeley, answered selected viewer questions about algae, biofuel, and more. See From Pond Scum to Power below for video: ..\Algae\NOVA & PBS\NOVA scienceNOW Algae Fuel Ask the Expert PBS.mht $24.99; 56 min.

  41. Nanofarming technology harvests biofuel oils without harming algae The process doesn't harm the algae like other methods being developed, which helps reduce both production costs and the production cycle. http://www.physorg.com/news158333205.html Botryococcus braunii can produce long chain hydrocarbons representing 86% of its dry weight. This green alga is unique in the quality and quantity of the liquid hydrocarbons it produces. Some scientists consider the ancestors of Botryococcus to be responsible for many of the world's fossil fuel deposits.

  42. Industries for which it is attractive to explore investing in the algal energy domain owing to synergistic benefits: 1. Sewage & Water Treatment Companies 2. Agriculture & Farming 3. Companies that produce waste water Meat and Poultry (e.g., Nearby Tyson Foods in NE OK & NW AR) Pesticides & Insecticides Photography 4. Companies that are major CO2 polluters: Coal Burning and Natural Gas Power Plants Oil refineries (petrochemicals) Iron & Steel Industries www.oilgae.com

  43. ALGENOLHarnessing the Sun to Fuel the World How much CO2 can algae consume?~2g CO2/1g algae (=2x their biomass) http://www.seambiotic.com/contact/faq/ Addressing Climate Change: Biologic Sequestration of CO2 • Average person produces 2.3 tons per year • Average car produces 6 tons per year • An acre of normal forest consumes 2-3 tons per year • An acre of oranges consumes 1-2 tons per year • An acre of typical farm consumes 2 tons per year • An acre of algae consumes ~60 tons per year http://www.algenolbiofuels.com/Algenol%20101%20Sept%202009.pdf

  44. ‘Energy is the most important scientific and technological challenge facing humanity in the twenty-first century. Energy security and environmental security have come to the forefront of both global and national priorities.’ Professor Nathan Lewis

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