La piste des Algues

An international consortium has a new strain of oil-producing algae that also produces large quantities of high grade hydrogen. But it’s a GMO, and that’s slowing trials.

Algae have received attention for their promise in producing biocrude oils. But what if they could also be modified to produce large quantities of hydrogen at the same time?
Could that change the economics of algae?
Ben Hankamer, Director of the Solar Biofuels Consortium, is leading an international team experimenting with a new genetically modified algal strain that appears able to make significant amounts of 90 percent pure hydrogen while also producing oil for biofuel or other purposes. However, they’re genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and currently restricted to the lab.
While algae emit a small amount of hydrogen naturally during photosynthesis, the new strain has been specifically modified to do so at large scale.
“We’ve developed mutants that produce hydrogen,” Hankamer, also an Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia, told the Cleantech Group.
Hankamer first published about the breakthrough in 2005, and patented the engineered algal strain this year with colleague Olaf Kruse of the University of Bielefeld, Germany.
Hankamer, who relocated to Australia from his native London, said his work builds on that of Tasios Melis of the University of California at Berkeley. Melis first restricted sulfur from the diet of the common C. reinhardtii algae, and induced the organisms into emitting hydrogen instead of water when he was a colleague of Michael Seibert and Maria Ghirardi at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado.
Hankamer and Kruse’s mutant strain of C. reinhardtii, named Stm6, produces more hydrogen than Melis’. And while it’s only one to 1.5 percent efficient today in its hydrogen production, vast improvement is possible, he said.
“Theoretically you can get to 12 percent conversion efficiency from light to hydrogen [using the algae]. You can get to only about eight using oils, according to [U.C. Berkeley’s] Melis. The reason’s quite simple: if you look at the reaction schemes, the longer they are, the more energy loss there is. It’s like having a very long work process and losing energy at every stage.”
“To my knowledge, we’ve patented the highest hydrogen producing cell lines there are,” he said, noting that the consortium has not yet been able to enter into field trials, which would require specific approval to use its GMOs in the wild.
While touted for its potential as a clean fuel, hydrogen has traditionally been produced from fossil fuel sources. CO2 is generated in its production, which has also required large amounts of electrical power and water.
The new hydrogen-producing cell lines produce the same sugars and starches that form the oils coveted for algae biofuel applications, Hankamer said, which in theory could give algae farms two revenue streams: hydrogen and algal biocrude, making them therefore more cost effective.
Hankamer’s Solar Biofuels Consortium is funded by 10 industry partners. Seven teams are spread over Australia, Germany and the U.K., with some 70 people total, are working on algae bioengineering, bioreactor design, use of algae for CCS and other applications.
In a related development, the consortium claims it has succeeded in improving the light capture of C. reinhardtii by genetically modifying it to remove its antenna proteins. This modification is said to result in the same yield of biomass in half the time, by allowing more light to reach more algae in the same volume of space. It also changes the color of the algae from dark green to light green. The group published its finding earlier this year.
The Solar Biofuels Consortium says it has developed economic models that it says show very compelling IRR for algae projects that produce oil, biomass and another high value product, with actual specifics depending on a number of variables.
Historically, algae project profitability has been impeded by the high capital cost of photobioreactors and net energy balance concerns when raising algae in open ponds. New innovations in strains and bioreactors have the potential to change that, according to Hankamer.
The challenges facing widespread use of the Consortium’s work are not just technical, but political as well—especially when genetically modified organisms are concerned.
“There will probably be different algae for different countries because of legislation. Can you imagine me trying to import an Australian strain into California? Or for that matter trying to import other strains from outside into Australia with its quarantine regulations,” Hankamer said.
As promising as the consortium’s new cell lines are, its technology has only been proven in the lab. Hankamer and colleagues have raised funding for limited trials, but could use additional capital, he said, and are looking into whether U.S. partners make sense.
While fringe science for 60 years, investors have recently been putting increasingly large amounts of money into algae research and commercialization, including large oil companies (see [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]).
Hankamer visited the U.S. this month courtesy of the Eisenhower Fellowships, a grant program that engages emerging leaders around the world to for professional development and broadening their contacts.

U.S.-based OriginOil Inc. announced its low-[color:f59d=blue !important][color:f59d=blue !important]energy [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir cette image]

process to extract oil from algae reached the highest industry standard for extraction efficiency.


The typical range of efficiency for oil from algae is between 94 percent and 97 percent. OriginOil said its latest technology reached 97 percent extraction of oil from algae cells.

"This level of efficiency is astonishing for a process that requires less than a tenth of the energy of conventional processes, and without needing [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]," said Riggs Eckelberry, the chief executive officer at OriginOil.

The company said oil, water and biomass separate by gravity in less than an hour. Its latest technology uses electromagnetic pulses and pH modification to break down the cell walls of algae to release the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which then rises to the surface of the medium.

Supermajor Exxon Mobil announced plans in July to team up with Synthetic Genomics on a $600 million partnership to genetically engineer new strains of algae for biofuels.

Exxon Mobil said algae could generate as much as 2,000 gallons of fuel per acre each year, compared to the palm tree yield of 650 gallons and 450 gallons for sugar cane.

OriginOil is working on technology to transform algae into a competitor to petroleum, noting much of the world's oil and gas reserves are derived from ancient deposits of algae. Its latest work is in collaboration with California State University at Long Beach.

All go for EADS algae demo

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] parent [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] is to make an environmental breakthrough at ILA by flying an aircraft powered by a biofuel composed purely of algae.
The daily flights will be conducted using a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] New Generation light twin powered by Austro Engine AE300s.
As a result of algae's higher energy content, fuel burn will be 1.5 litres per hour (0.4USgal/h) lower than if conventional Jet-A1 fuel were used, says EADS, adding: "Only relatively minor modifications and adjustments had to be made to the aircraft's engines."
EADS estimates that algae-based biofuel contains one-eighth the level of hydrocarbons in kerosene derived from crude oil, and releases 40% less nitrogen oxide and about 98% less sulphur dioxide than conventional Jet-A1 fuel.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

Algae has long been touted as a potential salve to aviation's carbon concerns on the grounds that its cultivation - which does not compete with food production - can be achieved on poor quality land using non-potable water or even seawater. Furthermore, it reproduces rapidly and, by EADS's calculations, creates "at least 30 times more biomass per cultivation area than rapeseed".
However, the task of reaching scale production is complicated by the high surface area taken up the open ponds in which algae is grown, the specialised technology required for photosynthesis, and difficulties in achieving efficient dewatering.
EADS says that "all necessary technologies to develop the production of biofuel from algae are known, but industrial size and economy require further development" as it is "significantly more expensive" to produce oil from algae than from crude oil.
To overcome this obstacle, EADS has enlisted partners in "a pilot project to develop the necessary industrial infrastructure" for algae-based biofuel production. Led by its Innovation Works research and technology division, the EADS project has received funding support from the Bavarian government and involves [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], Austro Engines and German cereal-processing institute IGV.
The target is "cost-effective mass production of algae biofuels using industrial quantities of carbon dioxide". EADS estimates that the amount of CO2 released during flight is "about equivalent" to that absorbed during the algae's growth phase, creating the potential for carbon-neutral flights.
The algae oil to be used in the DA42 flying ILA demonstration flights was delivered by Argentina's Biocombustibles del Chubut and refined into biofuel by Verfahrenstechnik Schwedt, of Germany.
Algae biofuel is not yet available in sufficient quantities to power an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] narrowbody or even an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], EADS confirms.
In February, the manufacturer revealed plans to assess the potential of microalgae over a 12-month period in collaboration with Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research. Within these plans, the partners committed to investigate methods of converting the microalgae oil to fuel.

Biofuels Could Be Cleared For Aircraft Use

In just five years, the aviation industry’s decades-long reliance on petroleum-based fuels has been turned on its head. The future lies in fuels from sources that range from animal fat to microalgae. But with the technology in hand, the question now is whether biofuel producers can raise the investment needed to launch commercial-scale production.
Approval of biofuels for use in aircraft, expected by mid-2011, is a critical step. A standard for jet fuels using synthesized hydrocarbons has already been crafted and the first annex, covering synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK) produced via the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process, was approved last year. But a second annex covering bio-SPKs—also called hydrotreated renewable jet fuel (HRJ)—is eagerly awaited, as these promise to reduce aviation’s greenhouse-gas emissions (see p. 60).
For an industry that has used one jet fuel for decades, development of the new D7566 specification by standards organization ASTM International has moved surprisingly quickly. But it has not been easy, requiring substantial fuel and engine testing to ensure synthetic kerosenes are truly drop-in replacements for petroleum-based jet fuel.
As expected, the proposal to amend D7566 to include bio-SPKs did not pass a ballot of ASTM members in June. Opponents, mainly the engine manufacturers, argued that more data are needed on different fuels from different manufacturers and more engine testing is required. One reason is that most of the fuel tested came from Honeywell company UOP, which won a Pentagon contract to supply HRJ for qualification testing, says Tim Edwards, who is leading biofuels research at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
After the vote, the Air Force agreed to share fuel to allow additional commercial engine demonstrations. The service is also conducting biofuel tests on military derivatives of commercial engines, which will help with certification. These include flight tests of the F117 derivative of Pratt & Whitney’s PW2000 turbofan on the C-17 airlifter. An aircraft flew in August with all four engines fueled by a 50:50 blend of conventional JP-8 and HRJ from beef tallow.
Data from the additional fuel and engine testing will be presented to ASTM members, and a re-ballot in December is expected to succeed. This should lead to approval early next year of an annex to the D7566 synthetic-fuel standard allowing bio-SPKs to be used in aircraft in blends of up to 50% with conventional jet fuel. This will be a pivotal event, as certification is expected to remove a significant barrier to investment in large-scale facilities to produce HRJ fuels in economic quantities.
“Nothing matters until you get that approval,” says Tom Todaro, chief executive of AltAir Fuels and Sustainable Oils, which produces oil from camelina, a plant that largely does not compete with food crops for land or water. “The problem is the availability of financing, not camelina. We can’t get the money until the fuel is certified,” he says.
AltAir Fuels is the first to license UOP’s process to produce HRJ. The Seattle-based company signed memorandums of understanding with 14 airlines in December to negotiate the purchase of up to 750 million gal. of camelina-derived fuel. This is to be produced at a facility in Anacortes, Wash., and would replace about 10% of the fuel consumed annually at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. “Once ASTM approves the fuel, we can begin the permitting process,” he says, adding that construction will take 18 months.
The creation of AltAir illustrates the challenges of starting biofuel production. Sustainable Oils works by signing contracts with farmers to grow camelina that it will buy back at an agreed price. Farmers grow a specific strain of camelina developed by biotechnology company Targeted Growth. Sustainable Oils extracts the oil from camelina seeds, “but we hoped someone else would build the refinery,” says Todaro.
Eventually, to kick-start the market, Sustainable Oils decided to form AltAir as an independent company. The business plan is to build add-on units at traditional refineries. With 100-million-gal. capacity, these bolt-on facilities will each cost “a couple of hundred million dollars” and provide about 10% of the fuel required annually at an average-sized airport, he says.
different business model is being pursued by St. Paul, Minn.-based JetE, which is proposing to sell small turnkey HRJ plants to farming cooperatives looking to add value to their feedstock. “Ultimately it is all about feedstock, and who controls it? Farmers. We can put them in the business of making fuel,” says Tim Kubista, senior vice president. JetE’s role includes bringing fuel buyers to the table.
JetE has licensed small-scale hydroprocessing technology from Danish company Haldor Topsoe and is offering a 7.5-million-gal.-per-year plant for $40 million and a 30-million-gal. plant for $85-90 million. Kubista is hopeful of a deal by year-end, and says the feedstocks that are economically viable and available in commercial quantities in the U.S. are crude corn oil from ethanol production, soybean oil and tallow.
While the near-term focus is on plant oils and animal fats as feedstocks, aviation is enamored of algae because it promises high-oil yields from small land areas and does not compete with food for land or water. Work is underway scaling up algae production in both open ponds and closed bioreactors, in a bid to drive down costs, but San Francisco-based Solazyme says it is ready to move into commercial-scale oil production using a different algae pathway.
Solazyme has adapted the fermentation process used to produce ethanol, replacing yeast with algae. Sugars produced from a wide range of feedstocks—switchgrass, corn stover, sugar cane, municipal waste and cellulosic biomass—are fed to the algae, which convert the sugar to oil. The oil is then extracted from the algae and converted to HRJ using UOP’s process. Solazyme has delivered 1,500 gal. of algal HRJ to the U.S. Navy for engine testing.
The company says it is on track to be cost-competitive with petroleum-based fuel in 18-24 months, targeting $60-80 a barrel. “We should be producing quantities that can fill some demand in the aviation market in the next three years,” says CEO Jonathan Wolfson.
Solazyme is talking to airlines about long-term supply agreements and to refining partners about establishing a supply chain. “We are working with numerous partners to provide a rapid path to commercialization that includes access to feedstock and financing,” he says, noting the addition of U.S. agribusiness Bunge as a strategic investor “is an indicator of how we are thinking about feedstock . . . we are confident that the supply will be there.”
After playing a key role in the rapid progress of biofuels from idea to reality, UOP is turning its attention to new processes and feedstocks.
“We’ve made [bio-SPK] fuels from about 12 different types of natural oils,” says Jim Rekoske, vice president and general manager of UOP’s renewable energy business. “We are confident we can look at an oil and say what yield of jet fuel you will get from that feedstock.”
UOP’s process “is completely feedstock flexible,” Rekoske says, and can convert any natural oil with hydrocarbon chains of appropriate lengths into jet fuel. “A flexible process allows you to source the cheapest available oil.” The challenge now, he says, is in bringing together three different industries—agriculture, refining and transportation—to reach long-term agreements that will provide the confidence needed to scale up feedstock and fuel production. “That’s the process that is taking time.”
Feedstock flexibility will allow an HRJ fuel producer to switch to a higher-yield feedstock. “If the question is, do you want to invest in growing camelina if you can be supplanted in five years by algae, the answer is long-term agreements with customers and refiners. It’s just negotiation,” says Rekoske. He believes there has been significant progress, with two groups close to definitive supply agreements with airlines.
With approval for bio-SPKs now within sight, interest is shifting to more advanced biofuels, and there is growing excitement—and debate—over which pathways will be next to be approved. “Part of our work is to figure out what is next, what’s the most mature,” says AFRL’s Edwards. “It starts with people sending us fuels. We’re working on different feedstocks, different processes and fully synthetic fuels.”
Much of the work is focused on processes for producing jet fuel from ligno-cellulosic feedstocks such as forest, agricultural and municipal waste, which is available in huge quantities. UOP is working on upgrading pyrolysis oil to liquid fuel. Fast pyrolysis is the rapid decomposition of biomass in the presence of heat and absence of oxygen. The resulting bio-oil can be upgraded to fuel. “We are looking at a variety of different things for next-generation fuels. But there is a tremendous capacity to supply natural oils without going to biomass and other carbon sources,” argues Rekoske.
One of the most promising new pathways, Edwards says, is being called “alcohol oligomerization.” This starts with an alcohol-like ethanol or butanol, removes the oxygen and grows hydrocarbons from the molecules. Gevo, Virent and Swedish Biofuels are among the companies working on this “catalytic renewable jet” pathway. Brazilian biotechnology company Amyris, meanwhile, is pursuing an advanced fermentation process that goes direct from cellulosic biomass to liquid fuel using specially tailored microorganisms.
Richard Altman, executive director of the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative, says the catalytic, fermentation and pyrolysis renewable jet pathways are competing to be the next process approved by ASTM in the 2013 timeframe. ASTM, meanwhile, has formed a task force to look at fully synthetic fuels, called SKAs, for “synthetic kerosene with aromatics.”
Synthetic paraffinic kerosenes are limited to 50% blends by the need for aromatic hydrocarbons found in conventional jet fuel, but synthesized aromatics—or changes to engine seal materials—could allow 100% synthetic fuels. “We are doing a lot of work on fully synthetic fuels,” says Edwards. Honeywell and the FAA are working to determine by 2013-14 the minimum aromatics required in engines, says Rekoske, adding that “100% synthetic is still the goal.”