[HoosierRon]

Algenol trains algae to turn carbon into ethanol

The company has signed an $850 million deal with a Mexican company BioFields to grow algae, one of the planet's first life forms, that has been trained to convert water, sunlight, and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into motor fuel.
...
Several algae companies are trying to enter the biofuels business by drying and pressing the organisms to make vegetable oil that can be processed into biodiesel.

Woods said Algenol will use a process he invented in the 1980s to coax individual algal cells to secrete ethanol. That way, the fuel can be taken directly from the vats where the algae is grown while the organism lives on, using far less energy than drying and pressing the organisms for their oil.

Algenol plans to make 100 million gallons of ethanol, about the average annual capacity of one traditional U.S. distillery, in Mexico's Sonoran Desert by the end of the 2009. By the end of 2012, it plans to increase that to 1 billion gallons -- more than 10 percent of current ethanol capacity in the United States, the world's top ethanol producer.
...
Algenol operates the world's largest algae library in Baltimore, Maryland to study the organism that can grow in salt or fresh water, and expanding the technique to locations beyond Mexico. The company is targeting to build algae-to-ethanol farms on coasts in the United States.
...
BioFields has signed an agreement to sell the fuel to the Mexican government, probably through the state oil monopoly Pemex.
...
Another advantage of ethanol from algae, NRDC's Steelman said, is its sheer productivity compared to agricultural crops. Algenol estimates it can make 6,000 gallons of ethanol from an acre of land.

At that rate, Steelman said, if all U.S. ethanol was made from algae it would only use 3 percent of the land that corn needs to make the fuel. "It's a huge advantage," he said.

 

[jkennedy293]

Who says you can't teach old algae new tricks.

 

[ByTheLake]

...one of the planet's first life forms,

why is that significant? Just silly filler words.

Algenol plans to make 100 million gallons of ethanol

Is that an annual figure? It's a drop in the bucket since the US is consuming 388.6 million gallons of gasoline every day. Source: http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html

 

[boston boy]

I just wonder how brazil does it & we can't. I like to stick it to the people who been screwing things up...

 

[HoosierRon]

Is that an annual figure? It's a drop in the bucket since the US is consuming 388.6 million gallons of gasoline every day. Source: http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html

I was talking about the statement that they plan on ramping up to 1 billion gallons per year by 2012. The fact that a single company is going to replace 7/10 of 1% of our gasoline with ethanol from algae within 4 years is big news in my book. If this works, you will see algae factories non-stop up and down every coast.

 

[logansowner]

why is that significant? Just silly filler words.

Is that an annual figure? It's a drop in the bucket since the US is consuming 388.6 million gallons of gasoline every day. Source: http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html

Well obviously we are going to fail, we should just not try. While were at it, work is hard, so we can just all go on welfare.

 

[Ed Arcuri]

Brazil does it by drilling for oil.
They make ethanol from sugar cane which is much better than corn as a feedstock. If you look at Brazil's results, however, it belies the media driven notion that Brazil became energy independent by putting sugar in their gas tanks. They use a lot of oil.
I'm an ethanol supporter; but it's drill now or get some comfortable walking shoes. We still have a fleet that is largely dependent on fossil fuels.
Cheers,
Ed Arcuri

 

[Ronald McChevy]

I was talking about the statement that they plan on ramping up to 1 billion gallons per year by 2012. The fact that a single company is going to replace 7/10 of 1% of our gasoline with ethanol from algae within 4 years is big news in my book. If this works, you will see algae factories non-stop up and down every coast.

I agree, that's huge. Almost one percent from just one factory in just a few years. Think of what we could do if other companies start doing it too (and they will).

 

[Fusion2.3H]

We've been hearing about this since 2005. Stop posting this information until I can actually buy it at a station near me.

 

[HoosierRon]

We've been hearing about this since 2005. Stop posting this information until I can actually buy it at a station near me.

We did not hear in 2005 that companies were signing contracts for the production and sale of biodiesel fuel from algae. We may have heard about laboratory experiments, but the fact that contracts have been signed is big news indeed.

 

[racy]

We've been hearing about this since 2005. Stop posting this information until I can actually buy it at a station near me.

Depending on where you live, you are likely already running at least *SOME* percentage of ethanol in your car. A majority of states now mandate a percentage ethanol blend and the Feds are mandating it as well.

If you're looking for an E85 station, that's a whole 'nuther problem. It will likely take longer to figure out the distribution issues than it will to discover the technology to produce sufficient ethanol/biodiesel as a replacement for gas/diesel.

I share your frustration in this area, which is why I am a bigger fan of biobutanol...its a better quality alcohol than ethanol and it can be shipped in existing pipelines.

 

[racy]

I was talking about the statement that they plan on ramping up to 1 billion gallons per year by 2012. The fact that a single company is going to replace 7/10 of 1% of our gasoline with ethanol from algae within 4 years is big news in my book. If this works, you will see algae factories non-stop up and down every coast.

It is big news and thanks for posting, as usual. I'd love more than anything to see the bottom fall out of the oil market...with China and India growing at an exponential rate, the only thing that keeps me from completely freaking out is good news such as this.

In other words, can technology keep pace with and eventually outgrow the supply/demand gap that we are now experiencing? I do believe so.

 

[HoosierRon]

the only thing that keeps me from completely freaking out is good news such as this.

5 cents please.

 

[ByTheLake]

Well obviously we are going to fail, we should just not try. While were at it, work is hard, so we can just all go on welfare.

I'm all for incremental improvements, and celebrate each one. I was just putting the thread title in perspective a bit.

 

[slowinthefastlane]

There's a lot stagnant swimming pools sitting around California due to foreclosures. All we need to do is add some algae for instant ethanol farms!!

 

[jbiggs]

why is that significant? Just silly filler words.

haha i was thinking the same thing.....perhaps its easier to believe that a Kangaroo could be trained to ***** out fuel more easily because its "newer"

 

[MisterMe]

Last week, it was Sapphire Energy; this week, it is Algenol. Both are promising energy from algae. Rather than technical journals, websites associated with popular publications are given as authorities. Both sound like hoaxes.

Can plants produce alcohol? Every bootlegger knows that they can. The issue is one of yield and efficiency. If algae were competitive with yeast in the production of alcohol, then the spirits industry would have switched to the green stuff centuries ago.

 

[Wolfman01]

Last week, it was Sapphire Energy; this week, it is Algenol. Both are promising energy from algae. Rather than technical journals, websites associated with popular publications are given as authorities. Both sound like hoaxes.

Can plants produce alcohol? Every bootlegger knows that they can. The issue is one of yield and efficiency. If algae were competitive with yeast in the production of alcohol, then the spirits industry would have switched to the green stuff centuries ago.

Where does this kind of thinking come from. That's just like saying that if cars were such a great invention, they would have been invented back in the caveman days. Ethanol from algae is just another progression. Your moonshiners use what's already known, available and plentiful. I highly doubt that they looked at their local pond scum, and thought about the merits of making booze out of the stuff.

 

[hunchman]

.........if this works then what about the commodity traders?.........how are they going to trade algae?......by the pound or by the barrel full?................there has to be a simple solution so wall street can reap the benefits of this........

 

[slowinthefastlane]

.........if this works then what about the commodity traders?.........how are they going to trade algae?......by the pound or by the barrel full?................there has to be a simple solution so wall street can reap the benefits of this........

Probably like any other agricultural product on the commodities market (i.e. pork bellies, soybeans, wheat, and frozen concentrated orange juice). How they actually sell them depends on the commodity. For instance, frozen concentrated orange juice futures are sold by the contract in lots of 15,000 pounds (1 contact = 15,000 lbs of FCOJ solids).