Sapphire secures USDA loan guarantee for NM algae demo facility (Solyndra, Jr.?)

Biodiesel Magazine ^ | 11/16/11 | Voegele

[pabianice]

The USDA announced this month that it had issued a loan guarantee to Sapphire Energy Inc. The guarantee will support the development of Sapphire Energy’s demonstration-scale algae production facility in New Mexico, which will produce “green crude” oil from algae that can be refined into transportation fuel.

“The Obama Administration is committed to providing support for renewable energy production, which will safeguard national security and create jobs in rural America,” said Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This project represents another step in the effort to assist the nation's advanced biofuel industry produce energy in commercial quantities from sustainable rural resources.”

Sapphire Energy is constructing a $135 million integrated algal biorefinery (IABR) in Columbus, N.M. According to the USDA, the IABR will be capable of producing 100 barrels of refined algal oil per day, equivalent to at least 1 million gallons per year. The oil will be shipped to the Gulf Coast, where it will be refined into drop-in biofuels by Geismar, La.-based Dynamic Fuels.

According to Tim Zenk, Sapphire Energy’s vice president of corporate affairs, his company has been working to finalize the loan guarantee since late 2009. The $135 million project is under development using a $50 million federal grant, the recently finalized $54.5 million loan guarantee and $30 million matching funds contributed by Sapphire Energy.

Construction on the first phase of the project began in June, Zenk said. “The project will be built in three distinct phases,” he said. The first portion of the project will include 100 acres of algae cultivation. “We’ll do everything from cultivation to harvest and extraction,” Zenk said. “Then the oil will be refined in a typical refinery into diesel and jet fuel. At full capacity, once all three phases are built over the next three years, we’ll be producing a million gallons of jet and a million gallons of diesel per year.” The final stage of the project is scheduled to be operational by 2015.

[pabianice]

I wonder how much Obama has invested in this turkey?

[blackdog]

If it’s a viable venture, private investors will buy in providing government stays out.

[fireforeffect]

Obama has nothing invested in this. You may.

The theory on this process is sound. Many small batch plants have successfully produced petroleum from algae, but it has never been done on a large scale.

Somebody has to be first.

[VRW Conspirator]

Did someone say pond scum?

[fishtank]

“The theory on this process is sound.”

Yes, and the “theory” for photovoltaics is sound, too.

What is NOT sound, though is Keynesian SOCIALISM!!!

It always fails.

[CedarDave]

Check out the posts at the keyword Joule. The group is saying they are going to make diesel fuel and ethanol using water, carbon dioxide and a specially engineered micro-organism that mirrors photosynthesis in plants. If so, we would have a virtually inexhaustible supply of energy for vehicles. Joule has purchased land here in the oil patch to scale up from bench testing to a pilot plant. It will be interesting to see if they can do it. One thing to be suspicious of is the former Clinton crony John Podesta has joined the company. Don't know if he came with green energy subsidies.

NM list PING! Click on the flag to go to the Free Republic New Mexico message page.

(The NM list is available on my FR homepage for anyone to use. Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)

[w4women]

If it’s algae, it’s Soros.

[pabianice]

Biofuels Corp. dropped today from .20 a share to .06. Not a dependable industry.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

The theory on this process is sound. Many small batch plants have successfully produced petroleum from algae, but it has never been done on a large scale. Somebody has to be first.

It has been done on a large scale, God did it first. (See offshore oil production)