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International Energy Developing 'Algae to Oil' for Many Applications

November 7, 2007 | 16 Comments

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Vancouver, British Columbia [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] International Energy, Inc. announced this week that it has launched its "algae to oil" research and development initiatives to produce renewable diesel and jet fuel based entirely on the photosynthesis of algae, which have the unique capability of taking carbon dioxide and converting it into a high-density natural oil.

The company believes that algae-based biofuels will make up a significant portion of the 35 billion gallons of renewable fuels needed for President Bush's Advanced Fuel Initiative by 2017.

As a result, algae have emerged as one of the most promising sources for biofuel production. In contrast to food crops or cellulosic materials, certain algae produce and accumulate oil naturally and can, in the process, clean up waste by absorbing and utilizing nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide, aiding in carbon sequestration and the mitigation of climate change.

International Energy employs proprietary microalgae that naturally photosynthesize CO2 and water to liquid hydrocarbons, and accumulate up to 30% of their biomass in the the renewable equivalent of petroleum.

“With the capacity to produce oil naturally and needing little more than sunlight and carbon dioxide to flourish, algae may well be the antidote to depleting fossil oil reserves and growing concerns about increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide,” said Mr. Harmel S. Rayat, a director of International Energy.

The company believes that algae-based biofuels will make up a significant portion of the 35 billion gallons of renewable fuels needed for President Bush's Advanced Fuel Initiative by 2017.

Bioenergy

16 Reader Comments

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1 of 16

carolyn-luce-54460

November 7, 2007

I'm underwhelmed because I got all excited about algae biofuel some years ago and I've seen so little progress. There are still no commercial-size algae biofuel plants. I keep reading how some algae are over 50% oil by dryweight, which sounds great until you realize that dry weight means they aren't counting the water, which is over 90% of the algae. It costs a lot in energy and money to separate out that oil from the water. I'm still hoping there will be a breakthrough, but for now, I refuse to get my hopes up so high only to have them dashed again.

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murray-rose-67503

November 7, 2007

Algae hey? sounds like a great source of energy, god I love all this stuff ,why are so many people underwhelmed by these exciting alternative energy use plans ,are they too busy wrecking the planet to try and save it?

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william-hughes-66196

November 9, 2007

I'm afraid that it has been a problem in the past, Carolyn although perhaps someone has come up with a cost effective solution to separating single cell algae from its growing medium. Hence the value of growing a chain algae which can be more easily separated.

We may find that as an energy source, it may be more economic to harvest sun energy mechanically and use the energy to feed the grid. The true place for algae-produced-oil will be in the production of lubricants (which are needed in much lower quantities in electrical vehicles than in internal combustion vehicles) and in the production of fine chemicals. Here the engineering or selection of the appropriate strain of algae will increase the production of the desired product. A by product will be a very rich source of protein / a feed material of long chain carbon atoms which can be turned into virtually anything that used to be produced from mineral oil, and if diatoms are grown, a source of high grade diatomaceous earth.

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eugene-lucas-60935

November 9, 2007

I like the idea of colocating the algae farms with coal-fired power plants, and piping the carbon dioxide through the pool for use. I've heard it will be a 75% efficient process. But, if it's just oil you want the Chinese tallow tree is an easy-to-grow, heavy producer of oil. As a matter of fact, the only problem with it is its tendency to take over wherever it's grown. An interesting article to read is on the Internet at http://www.esrla.com/pdf/tallow.pdf

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gary-tulie-73445

November 9, 2007

Given that algae crops will be most easily grown in hot countries, often in arid places, surely it would be possible to filter out the algae, squeeze off the worst of the water, and then let the sun dry the resulting algal cake.

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carolyn-luce-54460

November 9, 2007

I don't think there's a problem separating the algae cells from the water they live in. The energy intensive part is breaking the cell walls and separating the oil from the water that is inside the algae cells.

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william-hughes-66196

November 9, 2007

Algae cultivation has huge potential for oil production both because of its fast growth rate and the high oil content of some varieties. It's achilies heel is in finding an energy efficient harvesting method. And you can't get around the fact that its ultimate limit is how much surface area you can expose to the sun. Algae culture is simply another method of harvesting sun energy and as such must be compared with other methods such as solar electric panels charging, say, car batteries. The oriental prawn culture industry has come up with an ingenious solution to the harvesting process, greatly enhancing the efficiency of their hatcheries. They grow a variety of the chain diatom, Skeletonema sp. which can be filtered out by a simple cloth filter. Industrially, one would use a "froth flotation dewaterer" such is used in ore concentration plants. see the blog "mtkass" "algae culture".

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mary-saunders-73470

November 9, 2007

If getting the water out is a major challenge, what about using fungi? Fungal strands can grow quickly to produce pretty effective biofilters, it appears. Paul Stamets is using fungi for bioremediation in Washington state, and big corporations are starting to use fungi to produce stuff in enclosed basements to prevent escape.

The alcohol guru, David Blume, says cattails can remediate estogen mimics, so there's another possible source of biofiltration.

The grass-seed industry (good grief, the Chinese buy clover instead, duh) needs to stop burning its stubble, maybe there's another source. I pose this with a sigh. We need to stop growing so much silly grass. Loads of people in my neighborhood are doing just that, even though I live in Oregon, where grass-seed is grown for market. There are such better things to grow that are gorgeous, that smell good, that provide medicines and fiber and on and on.

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frank-j-heller-54997

November 9, 2007

Psst...I've got a spirolina plant down in Mexico for sale...lot's of cheap labor!

There seems to be a lot of money being spent on strains of algae that are rich in oils; but the reality is that it takes tons of the stuff, a very warm climate, and energy efficient drying and extraction technology to make it all worthwhile.

Why bother when there are crops higher up the food chain which produce more oil and are less labor intensive; and conversion technologies to extract the hydrogen out of our abundant forests and convert it to alcohols and hydrocarbons?

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greg-raymond-73597

November 9, 2007

When folks talk about millions of new jobs generated from renewable energy sources, Algae to diesel fuel is it. The subject of algae to diesel is what I most enjoy reading and thinking about. The ingenuity & hard work that we will need to produce this on a commercial scale is enormous but certainly possible. The potential benefits of harnessing waste water and CO2 gases should have every A&E university buzzing to develop the methodolgy to produce algae in a efficient and scalable manner.

It seems the focus is still on isolating or engineering a strain that will produce the highest oil content. That's the easy part, what about the processes for commercialization. Lets go! This is exciting stuff.

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julie-rosenthal-73596

November 9, 2007

What if every gas station roof had plastic bags of bio-gas producing algae and stored the oil in its tanks?
What if home or office roofs had the same, with a small
generator powering the building and running excess back into the grid?
Would that scenario free up a lot of resources for health, education and quality of living ?

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ian-page-36034

November 9, 2007

I can understand Carolyn's point. I also have been waiting for the technology to get off the pot. Water is not a great issue since presumably it can be recovered and reused. Oil extraction and reprocessing needs a bit of thought so it doesn't use old fashioned energy intensive boil and bash chemistry ...but there are some smart uses of organic ionic solvents that might help. So keep the faith folks at least its always only 5 years away unlike fusion which is always 20 years away.

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christopher-spencer-65972

November 9, 2007

Oil was made from algae in the first place, so there's no real reason why it shouldn't be done again.

It took 135,000,000 years to happen the first time around so to have come as far as we have in 20 years is great - I can't wait for this to come online.

Which it will have to ... necessity is afterall the mother of invention ?

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george-massad-65965

November 9, 2007

I am very optimistic about oil from algae. I believe this has much more potential than any of the ethanol based initiatives. We should pursue this and other renewable energy options with more urgency than building more weapons and chasing crazy oil rich sheiks around caves in Asia.

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jonheatley

November 13, 2007

I agree with william Hughes above that it would be a lot easier to use sunpower whether through heat collection or PV both having efficiencies exceeding 15% while plants only use 6% of the energy in sunlight. This would feed directly into the national grid and low weight electic cars used for commuting and all the usual short journeys will rescue us from our overdependence on imported oil.

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michael-adler-74179

November 20, 2007

I've heard that the biggest obstacle is that unproductive aglea varieties overrun the farms unless they use a sealed system, and those are very expensive. Separation seems easier to me becuse oil floats on water. Couldn't they just blend it up and skim the oil? or not blend but get a filter that collects the algae and lets the water through.

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