Filed under: Biodiesel, Emerging Technologies, Green Daily
Green Star Products grows biodiesel algae in cold Montana winter
Last May, Green Star Products, Inc. announced that it had completed the first phase of an algae biodiesel demonstration. The company has now announced that its Phase III testing (for winter environmental testing) was successfully completed at a GSPI facility in Montana. GSPI says it has been able to grow algae in outdoor environments where temperatures that dropped to -18 degrees Celsius and that saw plenty of snowfall. The company says that this sort of "controlled algae growing environment at an affordable capital and maintenance cost" is something that "has eluded engineers for more than three decades."
One excellent instant recycling system the GSPI uses is that the generator that pumps the water through the system emits CO2; instead of letting this gas get into the air, the system shunts it into the tank, where the algae happily eat it up.
On the same day as it made the winter algae announcement, GSPI said it has acquired a technology license from Biotech Research, Inc. to "utilize a breakthrough processing technology to convert algae biomass to feedstock oil and cellulose sugars for the production of biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol respectively." The process "eliminates the need to mechanically dry and press-extract the algae oil using traditional methods" and should reduce the cost of producing algae biofuels.
[Source: GSPI]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mort 9:13PM (2/02/2008)
There are huge algae blooms in the GOM and the Pacific all the time. Why exactly are we growing algae in a lab?
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Michael Hippenhammer 9:36PM (2/02/2008)
This is a great break-through in technology for scrubbing CO2 from coal fired plants as well as many other uses. Sure there is a lot of algae in the oceans but, shouldn't we leave that for the eco-system? We can't continually harvest from nature from this planet. By growing algae in systems like this we are, in a sense, farming in a better way getting two sources of fuel from one crop with out competing with food crops. Growing algae this way also uses a lot less water than conventional farming because it is done in a controlled environment and it won't evaporate or run off into the local water supply.
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Mort 10:00PM (2/02/2008)
Algae blooms are the result of agricultural and wastewater runoff. This is not a natural phenomena. The article speaks of making biodiesel, not scrubbing coal emissions. They could harvest algae blooms with huge sailing vessels. They could process the fuel on board using solar and wind power. The energy used to make that plant alone will never be paid back. They still don't get it. Why can't anyone in authority stop thinking about grant money and greed long enough to think about the EROEI?
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A.Brien 10:27PM (2/02/2008)
That's way better than growing crops for ethanol.
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Taser 11:20AM (2/03/2008)
Come on Mort, that argument is specious. You won't recover any of the energy used to build the multiple plants on the ships that are used to process the algae. Plus, you have to search and then travel to the algae blooms which are affected by weather and international competition.
Can we stop with making disparaging remarks about a solution because it does not fit your environmental pedigree?
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rgseidl 3:11PM (2/03/2008)
@ Mort -
not all algae are created equal. The ones you want for biodiesel feedstock are special, naturally occurring species that under certain growing conditions produce and store relatively large amounts of triglycerides (cp. vegetable oil).
Marine algal blooms consist of different species that yield little or no biodiesel. They could be converted to biogas, but the desalination effort alone makes marine algae that much harder to deal with. Bear in mind that GreenStar Products has achieved some technologcal progress but isn't profitable yet. The algaculture industry is still in its infancy.
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Wise Golden 3:43PM (2/03/2008)
Taser, right on brother!
I believe that the only thing that can possibly stop our eventual solution to energy dependance and environmental pollution is....environmentalist with unrealistic and unreasonable insistance that it be done through their superior vision.
The solution is going to require a thousand developments each designed to solve a fraction of the problem. Environmentalist have to stop shushing the inventors. Environmentalist need to wake up and understand that I am going to take a hot shower tomorrow and every day following, and that I am going to drive 30 miles to work each way, each day, and that I will be in a car that is useful to me. I am going to air condition my home in the summer, and I am going to heat it in the winter. I'll gladly do it with American electricity and American bio-fuels. I'll gladly do it while consuming the least resorces necessary.
That said, the algie folks are trying to find ways that I can do it without polluting and without using oil, so let's not poo pooing their brillant idea.
(And before I get the pile on from environmentalist, understand that I've spent over $30k this year to lower my footprint. I've bought a hybrid car, I've installed a 16 SEER heat-pump, and I've re-lamped my home. Additionally, I am trying to cut one day of commute every week by working at home, but not everyone gets to do that. I also drive using efficiency techniques to improve my milage. I'm fine with conserving, I'm just not fine telling others that they HAVE to. I'd rather allow them to reach the conclusion themselves by offering alternatives.)
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Jeff Sutter 9:36AM (2/04/2008)
This thread is great - it engages the issue nicely. I've been following the progress of GSPI for the last year because it appears that they are taking the most practical approach to algae farming.
Since it's not clear that everyone understands why we care, here's a summary of my understanding:
1) The object is to slow, then stop, the increase and ultimately to decrease the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the goal of returning to preindustrial levels. Greenhouse gasses create warming as a consequence of their radiative forcing property. They transmit light from the sun that warms the earth but trap the infrared radiation that results. Carbon dioxide isn't the only gas, just the most plentiful one by far.
2) Some activities, principally photosynthesis in plants, capture carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. Burning or decomposing organic matter and animals' breathing and digesting absorbs oxygen and emits carbon dioxide. If the processes are in balance, the relative concentration of these gasses in the atmosphere stays constant. Human activity in the course of releasing stored carbon from mined and drilled fossil fuel and deforestation produce an overabundance of carbon dioxide and an under abundance of plant mitigation that must be addressed.
3) As long as we're mining and drilling to get fossil fuel as our primary source of energy, the problem will get worse. Though there is much good to do managing our carbon footprint through efficiency and lifestyle choices, the fundamental problem lies with where we get "fuel" for energy and locomotion (the largest energy use category). The ideal solution would be to recycle the atmospheric carbon dioxide that's already out there rather than releasing "new" CO2 from fossil fuel - but that's a tall order.
4) Enter algae. Because it grows so fast, among all other plants that can be considered for an agricultural approach to carbon sequestration micro algae, by far, presents the most effective solution. Instead of liquefying smokestack emissions and pumping them into supposedly secure underground storage areas, agricultural sequestration is achieved by using photosynthesis to recycle the carbon eliminating the need for new fuel - the existing carbon is "caught" in a closed fuel cycle.
5) The proof is in the pudding - when mining and drilling stop, that's a clue that we're doing it rather than talking about it. We are not going to totally eliminate the use of fossil fuel. Because of it's superior energy density, some applications like air travel will continue to require it for the foreseeable future. But most else is up for grabs - transport electrification through wide adoption of plug-in hybrid autos will leverage utility generation efficiencies (one third the cost per mile compared to gasoline) and sequestration. And the overall need for fuel will taper off predictably as solar generation takes over.
6) Low cost photovoltaic went into production last December at Nanosolar: They're producing PV panels for utility generation that, at under $2.00/watt installed, cost less than coal fired plants to build and almost nothing to operate. They produce the panels at normal atmospheric pressure on a machine that looks like a printing press using 4 foot wide, mile long rolls of aluminum foil. Their first "press" doubles the US output of PV!
7) The benefits don't stop with mitigating global warming. Oil imports will stop as will the associated trade deficit and dependence on rogue oil producing nations. This will free resources to address issues like ageing population and infrastructure. And the methods and products we use to do it can be exported to, or worse case copied by, other nations according to their need that will mirror our success in this endeavor.
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John Dyer 5:18PM (2/15/2008)
I am very interested in obtaining a sample of algae oil, for lab testing as a possible drying oil substitute and for converting the oil into a mono ester, we could use around 6,000 gals per month. Can somebody tell me where to go?
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Mark Licenzi 7:27AM (7/03/2008)
It's kinda funny that the US government started research on algal-oil in 1976. The research was concluded in 1996 and stated that although algae is a great source for oil, the cost of production was too high, and therefore decided that it was not cost effective. Now it's a different story, and with added r and d better methods are being derived. All of the extra benefits to the environment were never a deciding factor though. Hmmm. How and who could have left that out?
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webclocker 6:18AM (7/09/2008)
im new to this algie biofuel and interested in how its tured into the various compounds especialy oil. as im sure it would'nt take a lot of space to grow enough to run one car
webclocker
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webclocker 7:39PM (7/12/2008)
http://oilgae.com/algae/oil/biod/cult/cult.html
try this site for oil extraction. its a start for thows who want the d.i.y approach. hope it helps
webclocker
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mitcat 5:07PM (10/20/2008)
i'm new to algae fuel and i believe it can help us in the future, especially with carbon emission problems.
i want to know the total manufacturing/production cost and how it compares to other alternative energy supply in terms of price and availability.
i also want to know which type of algae are being used for the production of the oil and if it will affect the ones used as food.
i heard that it has already been tested in cars how soon do you think it can be a substitute for fossil fuel.
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