Note: For the latest on Algae Biodiesel, head over to Gas 2.0 (http://gas2.org).

Looking to buy your own algae biodiesel manufacturing plant?
You may be in luck.

AlgaeLink has developed the first made-to-order industrial algae production facility in the world.

Sure, we’ve all read 50 stories about algae biodiesel the panacea—the only biofuel that will make a serious dent in petroleum usage—but none of those stories have materialized yet. But the fact that commercially harvesting algae could produce yields of 10,000 gallons of oil per acre on agriculturally poor land has not been lost on green entrepreneurs. See my other posts on the topic here. While most of my coverage on algae biofuel research has focused on the United States, AlgaeLink N.V., based in the Netherlands, is the first company to market industrial algae production systems. The 5-year old company began selling units in the third quarter of 2007, after 4 years of investment and research.

How are AlgaeLink systems different?

Industry trend has primarily focused on development of closed bioreactors, most commonly an array of clear tubing that maximizes light and nutrient flow. In this model, algae is grown inside this transparent tubing with a constantly circulating supply of carbon dioxide and food. AlgaeLink’s design doesn’t seem much different than some of the other proposed systems I’ve already discussed: it’s based on 118 feet of 25 inch diameter tube fed by a water pump.

But several improvements make AlgaeLink unique, most notably the claim that they’ve solved the high-yield photoefficieny problem. As algae growth increases, the photobioreactor tubes get clogged with biomass, thereby reducing light that can penetrate into the center and reducing overall yield. AlgaeLink is currently patenting some mysterious technology that allows them to get around this.

Economically speaking, the company has also improved efficiency of transport and assembly of plant materials, along with creating proprietary sensing technology that can monitor algal growth from anywhere in the world. Such a sensing system would ostensibly allow the company to provide tech support from half a world away. The system is also self-cleaning, so no disassembly interrupts production.

AlgaeLink requires a demonstration plant for each potential site in order to optimize algal strain and test local climate conditions. Since AlgaeLink ships the reactors with 10 species of algae, there’s plenty room for experimentation.

How Much Does it Cost?

About $98,000 for the demonstration plant, which is required, and $821,000 to $14 million for different sized models.
You can also take a two-day algae production course in the Netherlands for $2,547.

Does it work?

Apparently, a demonstration plant is already running, producing about 2-4 kg of dry weight biomass per day. AlgaeLink claims yields of 10-100 TONS per day after 4-6 months of site monitoring to optimize algae strain based on local climate and water conditions. 10 tons is a lot more than 2-4 kg, so the scalability of the system must be incredible.

How much biodiesel is that?

I’m not really sure about that, but AlgaeLink has conducted an analysis on the suitability of producing algae biodiesel.

How much does the oil cost?

Cost of production varies by climate, but AlgaeLink claims their demonstration plant in the Netherlands is currently producing oil for 50 cents per gallon.

So why hasn’t anyone else made this technology available?

I’ll let the company’s president and CEO, Hans van de Ven, speak for himself:

We have a unique system and that’s the reason nobody else can offer it. They don’t know how to do it.

Someone needed to be first. We have put at least four years of work into our system. We have put a great deal of money into it and have had engineers and biologists working on it all over the world. We are ready to sell commercial plants. A lot of people over the Internet have been ripped off by people who promised a lot and nothing happened. We have a very good name in the industry and we would like to keep it like that.

See the original article from the Nov. 2007 Biodiesel Magazine here.

Photo Credit: AlgaeLink.com

Digg this story.

Note: For the latest coverage of algae biodiesel, head over to Gas 2.0 (http://gas2.org).

The biodiesel community has always been marked by spirited enthusiasm, a clear sense of mission, and the dream that biodiesel could one day play a significant role in our energy future. That dream may soon be a reality. Researchers at Utah State University say that farming algae, with reported oil yields of 10,000 gallons per acre, could become an economically feasible biodiesel feedstock by the end of the decade.

This is the Holy Grail of biodiesel: an oil source that could make a serious dent in our fossil fuel consumption. Our most productive feedstock today, the oil palm, doesn’t even come close with yields of 635 gallons/acre, and is followed distantly by the U.S. standard, soy, at 48 gallons of oil/acre.

Producing biodiesel from algae isn’t a new concept, and it’s easy to see why: algae grow voraciously (measured by the day), algae can proliferate in heinous growing conditions (saltwater or extreme temperatures), and certain species contain up to 60% oil (by weight).

Put quite simply, microalgae are remarkable and efficient biological factories capable of taking a waste (zero-energy) form of carbon (CO2) and converting it into a high density liquid form of energy (natural oil). This ability has been the foundation of the research program funded by the Office Fuels Development.”

Between 1978 and 1996, the Department of Energy (DOE) funded research into technologies that could have significant impacts on the consumption of fossil fuels. The focus of this research became the Aquatic Species Program (ASP), which investigated renewable fuel production (biodiesel) from high-oil algae species, fed by the waste CO2 from coal-fired plants. Researchers whittled down over 3,000 strains of microorganisms into the most productive 300, and constructed 1000 sq. meter test ponds outside of Roswell, NM. The ponds were set up as sort of algae ‘race-tracks’, where algae were circulated around shallow, oval-shaped ponds as carbon dioxide bubbled through the mixture. Results were successful and encouraging, but the program fizzled out after almost 2 decades (a lot of which had to do with a budget crunch and allocating more resources to researching ethanol). Researchers noted that one obstacle to large-scale algae production may be the high cost, which was estimated to be double the price of diesel at the time. (I wonder what they would say now.)

Utah State may finally take this research to the next level. Scientists there plan to produce algae in a grid of indoor bioreactors, with light captured by parabolic dishes on the roof and fed inside via fiber-optic cables. Put several thousand of these bioreactors together and you have an algae farm:

The solar bioreactor utilizes single cell algae, nature’s most efficient means to convert sunshine to biomass, which contain up to 60% oil by weight.[4] To minimize land and water resources, an enclosed bioreactor is used to grow algae on proprietary vertical membranes that resemble library newspaper racks. Harvesting of algae is achieved by periodically flushing water down the membrane from holes in the top ‘rack’. Mature algae are dislodged and collected in a bottom trough while immature algae cling to the membrane and continue to grow. Sunlight is collected and distributed to vertical panels that are sandwiched in close proximity between the growth membranes, much like alternating plates in a car battery. Oil extracted from mature algae can be converted to biodiesel using well established technologies.”

The program has been funded by $6 million in seed money from the Utah Science and Technology Research Initiative, and plans on building the first commercial plant in Utah. USU researchers say algae-biodiesel could become economically feasible by 2009.

Needless to say, this is an exciting project that I will be watching closely.

Latest update on Algae Biodiesel: Algae Biodiesel: First Industrial Algae Plants Go Online

Resources:
USU Biofuels Initiative
A Look Back at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Aquatic Species Program: Biodiesel from Algae NREL 1998
Wikipedia: Algaculture

Widescale Biodiesel Production from Algae

This story was originally reported in January, 2007.
Pond Scum Offers Promise for Biodiesel

Photo Credit: KSL News, Bien Stephenson