Corn—or the cellulose in everything from wood chips to crop stalks—are often touted as the basis of the fuel of the future. But Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates is betting that algae will provide the answer to our future fuel needs. He's so sure, in fact, that last week he joined the Rockefeller family and London-based Wellcome Trust to invest $100 million in a California start-up devoted to churning out biofuel from this tiny primitive plant.

San Diego-based Sapphire Energy, which launched in May, plans to use the money to produce more than 10,000 barrels of so-called green crude (oil from algae that is chemically identical to fossil oil) in as little as three years.

Sapphire did not respond to repeated requests for comment on its technology. But company background materials (pdf) note that it uses "photosynthetic microorganisms, such as algae, sunlight, [carbon dioxide] and nonarable land."

Adds the background paper: "The end product is not ethanol—and not biodiesel. The end product is, in fact, gasoline."

Sapphire Energy is one of more than a dozen companies that have sprung up in recent years to harness algae's power to make and stockpile oil. "Algae stores oil because it's energy dense and [algae] want to use it for fuel" (similar to the way animals store energy reserves as fat), says Jonathan Wolfson, CEO of South San Francisco–based Solazyme, Inc., which produces its algal biofuel in the dark. "Algae is the best in the world at taking chemical energy and turning it into an actual chemical, but it's going to take a long time to make it best at harvesting photons."

That's why Solazyme uses industrial fermenters, such as those used by the pharmaceutical industry to produce insulin, to grow batches of algae in the dark. Instead of feeding on sunlight and carbon dioxide (CO₂), Solazyme's genetically engineered algae produce oil from sugar water inside these large tanks.

"Some strains of [algae] come from a swamp in Africa, some strains from a high-altitude snowfield in South America," says microbiologist Harrison Dillon, Solazyme's chief technology officer and co-founder. "We take these and we find which ones are making oil efficiently and which ones are making oils that are appropriate for use as transportation fuel."

His company, founded in 2003, has already produced thousands of gallons of the oil—and turned it into everything from biodiesel to fuel the company car (a jeep) to cooking oil, and even aviation fuel that has the same characteristics as Jet A derived from petroleum. "We're not at commercial economics," Dillon admits, noting that algal fuel is even more expensive than today's gas prices. But "every month the cost of this stuff is getting cheaper."

Costs for algae-based fuel currently range from $10 to $100 per gallon, according to systems engineer Ron Pate at Sandia National Laboratories. "The idea [is] bringing algal oil down to $1 or $2 per gallon at a scale of 50 million gallons [190 million liters] per year."

High cost is a problem throughout the algal biofuels industry. "It's energy cost to pump the water," says Craig Harting, chief operating officer for Vancouver-based Global Green Solutions, which is building 100 bioreactors (large plastic devices used to grow algae) at a pilot plant in El Paso, Tex. "It's capital cost to build bioreactors. It's the harvesting and extraction process."

As a result, most companies say they have yet to determine the consumer price tag for algae-derived oil—or to produce much of the stuff—though Wolfson says Solazyme's goal is $40 to $80 a barrel—competitive with fossil oil.

But the technology also offers a potential solution to climate change. One of the first algal energy companies—Boston-based GreenFuel Technologies—tested algae bioreactors three years ago on a coal-fired power plant in Arizona to determine how well algae absorbed planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions. And algae exposed to the atmosphere actually pull CO₂ out of it and turn it into protein and oil, both of which can be used.

"We need a place with land and a CO₂ producer" to grow algae, says mechanical engineer Bryan Willson of Colorado State University, who has helped develop the technology for Solix Biofuels in Fort Collins, Colo. That company has partnered with neighboring New Belgium Brewing Co. to use the CO₂ shed from the latter's beer-making process to feed algae. "Our long-term target is 8,000 gallons [30,300 liters] [of oils] per acre per year." By absorbing CO₂, the algae can produce a valuable item such as fuel—and similar efforts to capture carbon with algae are underway in Spain at a cement plant.

That still leaves the issue of water; other biofuels such as ethanol require thousands of gallons of fresh water for every gallon of fuel produced. But "algae can use wastewater or salty water," Pate notes. "It's an aquatic species."

At present, however, none of the algal biofuel enterprises are known to be using such wastewater or saltwater for their processes—as freshwater species have proved more tractable. And most will need at least a few years before they can begin producing such biofuel in significant quantities. But if the price is right "the market is essentially infinite," Solix's Willson says. "We do believe we can achieve significant scale. We see this as a global need."

12 Comments

1. 1. hotblack 01:10 AM 9/24/08

   Soooo more gasoline. ...so more of the same pollution and health problems associated with its widespread use? Great, that it gets us off the middle east teat, but unfortunate, if it just makes it easier to keep us on gas that much longer.

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2. 2. ductileironman 10:48 AM 9/24/08

   With the current predictions for a 50 year downward trend in global temperature, it is apparent that such trends in alternative fuels are going to be much more common than the wind and solar based electrical storage methods. Bottom line here is that electrical storage mediums fade over time, whereas chemical mediums are much more energy dense and are truly recyclable without the need for toxic medium for their storage. Although there are many who are in denial of the basic truths that a life of luxury will not be willingly sacrificed for the religion of environmentalism, still there are people who complain when a process comes along that could well serve to neutralise the very threat about which they complain. Tieing up solar radiation in the form of electricity is very inefficient at this point. Why not use solar energy and industrial emissions as growth stock for new energy. Perhaps on-site algal energy farms will be the new wave of the future in powering industrial sites and making them net zero emissions sites with the added bonus of generating a vast network of fuel source locations for individual consumption. Just think how cheap and plentiful gasoline or other biofuels would be if every production facility was producing algal based fuel on the roof of their plant and on the surrounding land that currently is growing grass for decoration. Ok, maybe this is far fetched, but decentralizing the source of our energy is much more important to this story than whether we are getting it from biofuels or "green" sources of energy. How much more green can you get than direct excretion of fuel from a miniature plant?

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3. 3. cwelsh@dtnspeed.net 01:15 PM 9/24/08

   Does the gasoline produced from algae have pollutants? If so, what are they?

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4. 4. Stretch Fowler 01:50 PM 9/24/08

   Please include us in your future emails.
   William L. "Stretch" Fowler, Executuve Director
   United Biorefineries Corp.
   stretchfowler@socal.rr.com
   Great coverage!!

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5. 5. benjaminjayp in reply to hotblack 03:20 PM 9/24/08

   Your don't understand what Algae do. Algae offer CO2 emission reductions through green house gas avoidance. This is not necessarily the same as carbon sequestration, but still allows for reduction of emitted green house gases if paired with a CO2 producing power plant, or through atmospheric nitrogen sequestration. You are right in that the burning of any fuel will emit CO2 gases into the atmosphere, but the source from which you obtain that fuel is paramount. Releasing CO2 stored in the geology of Earth (oil as you understand it) has a much greater effect on global warming that Algae would.

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6. 6. stuartbishop39 06:21 PM 9/25/08

   its about time large economic players are starting to take concern of global issues

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7. 7. NB in reply to hotblack 08:25 PM 9/25/08

   Some people misunderstand the issue of CO2 emissions. First of all, humanity does not have to be 100% clean on CO2 emissions. The earth's biosphere can absorb a lot of CO2. The current problem is a result of a huge volume of these emissions that overwhelmed the nature's capacity for absorbing this stuff.
   
   Second, gasoline produced from algae is clean in terms of CO2 because it's produced from the same CO2 that algae takes from the atmosphere. The problem with burning oil is that it adds to the atmosphere something that was stored in the ground over hundreds of millions of years. But as long as algae and other biofuels recycle the CO2 already present in atmosphere, there should be no problem as far as global warming is concerned.

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8. 8. Jo 02:49 PM 9/26/08

   Money, money, money. Clearly we have a yearning for new and improved methods of fuel production however; we should be looking towards making "fuel", or rather power, that isn't associated with global warming, harmful emissions, and death of the planet. We should be looking into ways to improve the production of such energy methods as wind, water, and electricity (watch the death of the electric car... warning it may make you really, really angry). I realize that we are under pressure to provide piece of mind for our future generations, regarding fuel consumption and availability, but we aren't thinking in the green direction (and no I'm not talking $$$ lol). Although I feel as though that's great in all that we are able to have a back-up fuel method once we run out of the deadly gasoline that we have, we don't need to create more problems, more price hikes, or more pointless fuel that we are wasting away. We should be re-thinking our methods on use and ask ourselves why we are seeking a new source of fuel in the first place.

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9. 9. tafadzwa mubariri 07:47 AM 9/29/08

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10. 10. tafadzwa mubariri 08:12 AM 9/29/08

    i think algae is the way to go if we are going to get clean fuel than the current fossil fuels which have led to the destruction of our beloved planet.
    considering the fact that there is actually a firm uttilising the CO2 from fermentation of beer to feed algae.this might be at a smaller scale but with more reseach this will go along way.

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11. 11. Gopi 05:11 PM 10/31/08

    Good news algae biofuel technologies are gaining increased attention from the corporate world.
    In fact algae- beig responsible for major share of photosynthesis on the planet and the fastest gowing organisms on the planet- should be the ultimate answer for toay's major issues like GHG enissions and associated climate change, oil independance/fuel security and of course the arms race for conrol over fossil fuel reserves.
    But producing algae oil sufficient to mark a changge is still a herculian task. Though there are many equipmnet and technology available to grow algae, there exists many issues to be addressed in commercial production of algae.
    We, at algaecake Technologies Corporatin, have succeeded in addressing major issues in commercialalgae culture with the helpof our patent pending jumbo bioreactor system ans proprietary algae propagation tecnology. Our bioreactors can hold up to 10 times more media volume per unit area ,compared to other bioreactor systems, with improved surface to volume ratio and light penetration. We have achieved substantial control over short life cycle of algae by introducing alternate light and dark regimens in a closed loop- continuous flow system. The system is capable to achieve 12-16 life cycles per 24 hour day under night time artificial lighting by synchronizing the metabolic activities of a high temperature strain of short cell cycle algae and by regulating media temperature in relation to incident illuminance. The bioreactors closely to each other and mutual shading overcome by harvesting sunlight cost effectively.
    Nutrients and pH areefficiently controlled based on actual consumption during each stage. Oxygen is upplimened in the dark regimen to overcome conditions of fouling and culture collapse. The design allows greater controlin photo-inhibition and internal heat build-up. Before harvesting the cells are subjected to maximum growth followed by a lipid trigger phase for maximum conversion of carbobydrates into lipids. The system alsoincorporates unique climate control features to enable adaptability to almost all climatic conditions of 6 continents. The systemis highy replicableand scalable to fi any size of farm.
    Recycling of resources is another feature ofthe system.
    A 1 acre facility is capable to recycle 10,000 MT to 12,000 MT CO2 per annum and liberate 7,200MTto 8,500 MT oxygen, while producing 10MT - 12 MT biomass per day.
    Pleasevisit www.algaecake.com for more details
    Gopinath G.Nellikkattil
    Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
    Algaecake Technologies Cor
    

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12. 12. chiefenterprises01 10:05 PM 1/17/09

    This is a good and best example for the growth of automobile industry. Pond scum is a type of bacteria or fungi and it relates to the automobile industry is a great thing in this world and this shows how it is growing.
    
    http://www.chiefenterprises.com

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