Posted on 01/24/2007 12:18:48 PM PST by WestTexasWend
Pond scum may be an important component of the world's energy future.
Solix Biofuels Inc., a startup company based in Boulder, is working with Colorado State University engineers to commercialize technology that can cheaply mass produce oil derived from algae and turn it into biodiesel - an environmentally friendly solution to high gas prices, greenhouse gas emissions and volatile global energy markets.
Solix officials plan to commercialize the technology over the next two years. After ramping up to widespread production, the company expects to eventually compete commercially with the wholesale price of crude petroleum.
“We’re facing two global challenges: depletion of our petroleum reserves and a buildup of greenhouse gases,” said Bryan Willson, director of Colorado State's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory, which is helping Colorado State achieve its goal to lead the nation in developing and commercializing environmentally sustainable solutions to global problems. “This process harnesses photosynthesis to turn carbon dioxide and energy captured from the sun into an economical petroleum substitute.”
“Algae are the fastest growing organisms on the planet, and can produce 100 times more oil per acre than conventional soil-tilled crops that are now being grown for biofuel use,” said Solix founder Jim Sears.
Solix officials estimate that widespread construction of its photo-bioreactor system could meet the demand for the U.S. consumption of diesel fuel - about 4 million barrels a day - by growing algae on less than 0.5 percent of the U.S. land area, which is otherwise unused land adjacent to power plants and ethanol plants. The plants produce excess carbon dioxide, which is necessary to turn algae into oil. In addition to producing biodiesel, the process would prevent a large portion of the greenhouse gases produced by coal-burning power plants from being expelled directly into the atmosphere.
“Algae to biofuel technologies are still being developed, yet a strong case can be made for global domestication of algae as an energy crop,” said Doug Henston, chief executive officer of Solix. “We want to manage this technology to create a business that will serve current and future energy stakeholders.”
Colorado State and Solix officials are collaborating with New Belgium Brewing Co. to use excess carbon dioxide from the brewery’s plant to test the algae-based biodiesel process.
Solix is one of many companies doing business in northern Colorado because of its leadership in attracting clean and renewable energy companies and technology.
This spring, Colorado State and Solix participated in the creation of the Northern Colorado Clean Energy Cluster, a clearinghouse that connects entrepreneurs and major power users with researchers and government officials, encouraging innovation, new job creation and investment in the region. The Clean Energy Cluster has already produced several technology transfer opportunities including a new collaboration between Colorado State University's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory in the College of Engineering and Spirae Inc., a privately held company based in Fort Collins.
A majority of Colorado State’s eight colleges host faculty who are researching clean and renewable energy alternatives including Willson, who is a mechanical engineering professor in the College of Engineering. Also reinforcing the major role of Colorado State in the clean-energy arena is the recent formation of the Clean Energy Collaboratory between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado State, Colorado School of Mines and the University of Colorado.
"Commercialization partners such as Solix are critical to the successful transfer of laboratory innovations to the marketplace, and with the tremendous entrepreneurial interest in the Northern Colorado region, we expect to see Colorado State participating in many more startups,” said Mark Wdowik, vice president for Technology Transfer at Colorado State University Research Foundation - a private, non-profit foundation that aids the university in its research and educational efforts including the responsibility to protect and manage the intellectual property resulting from that research.
“We have already seen evidence of earlier commercialization successes from the engines lab, including Envirofit, a not-for-profit corporation created to commercialize reduced emissions technologies created by Dr. Willson and his colleagues, and we expect more to come,” Wdowik said.
The Solix collaboration is one example of Colorado State's emphasis, as stated in the university's Strategic Plan, to develop closer ties to the community and foster economic development via expeditious technology transfer and commercialization.
It was my understanding that tilled crops turn something like 10% of incident solar energy into useable chemical energy, in which case, algae couldn't possibly be 100 times more efficient. You point out that algae can be grown year-round, as opposed to during one season, and now that you say it, I doubt that that factor was included in the 10% number that I recall. It might also be that tilled crops convert 10% of *absorbed* light into useful chemical energy, which is an additional inefficiency compared to *incident* light, and the algae could score another win there simply by being darker (which they often are).
Saw a similar setup on TV last night--I think on the History Channel.
It was in Arizona. The algae is/are (?) in transparent tubes angled to receive sunlight.
It sounded quite interesting.
I thought they just baked the manure to kill off the seeds. Does that add too much to the cost?
Composting manure can kill some seeds, but baking won't work...if it gets too hot, it burns, and, in fact, if piled too deeply it will heat up on its own and spontaneously combust. Feedlots have to keep spreading it to keep this from happening...so, even after composting-in-place or mixing with other organics, weed seeds survive. The bigger knock against it is that chemical fertilizers are so much easier to apply, give more uniform distribution and usually require no tilling in, which saves on fuel/labor. Also, unlike manure, they don't stink for days or draw flies.
Okay, so what are these chemical fertilizers made of, and how much energy does it take to produce them? Are those energy costs factored into the cost-benefit analysis?
Did anyone else read "pond scum" then AlGore instead of Algae?
Chemical (inorganic) fertilizers are made up of components you'd find in organic fertilizer, minus organic matter. (That's why they can burn plants if there's not enough organic matter in the soil.) It's sort of like the difference between vitamins in pill form as opposed to vitamins present in food. (Here's a decent overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer)
Whatever money and energy is spent producing chemical fertilizers is easily recouped by being easier to store, transport, and market. Chemicals also let you control and customize the NPK ratio (among other things) for your specific crop. You can't be certain of the chemical makeup of organics, even from one truckload to the next.
Organics have great benefits, certainly, but just aren't clean, convenient or consistent enough for most modern growers.
Okay, but where do you get those components? Don't they need the organic matter in order to chemically extract the nutrients? If not, where do they get them?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1116843/posts
Similar topic, pig manure and turkey guts.
Gensets being run off of offgas methane from digester ponds.
As far as energy production, I would count Democrats about the same as singularities. Beyond the end of the road.
No, you don't have to start with organic fertilizer to get fertilizer. Many components are mined from soil (sodium nitrate, mined "rock phosphate" and limestone...a calcium source, but mostly used to reduce soil acidity), while others are manufactured (some as by-products) or chemically-synthesized inorganic fertilizers. Those would include ammonium nitrate, potassium sulfate, and superphosphate, or triple superphosphate by-products.
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bttt
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