It seems that algae biofuel producers are at disadvantage, because they are not recognized in the tax code as advanced biofuels makers. So the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) decided to take action and urged Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) to extend tax code parity to algae-based biofuels as soon as possible.
“Algae-based biofuel technology is advancing rapidly and is ready for commercialization. Production of algae-based biofuels can generate thousands of domestic green jobs in facility construction and operation and have the potential to greatly enhance our country’s energy and environmental security,” Brent Erickson, executive vice president for BIO’s Industrial and Environmental Section, stated.
“The Environmental Protection Agency’s recently released rules for the Renewable Fuel Standard recognize that algae-based biofuels can qualify as advanced biofuels and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to gasoline. Unfortunately, though, algae-based biofuel developers do not qualify for existing tax incentives for advanced biofuel development.”
“It is extremely challenging for algae-based biofuel start-up companies to attract the capital required for facility construction, due to this disparate treatment under the tax code. Fixing this discrepancy and granting algae-based biofuels tax treatment similar to other advanced biofuels can open the way to greater job creation and economic growth,” Erickson concluded.

Renewable Energy entrepreneurs are now looking for the best bioreactors with the right stuff. What is the right stuff you ask? Well it has to be a algae farm that meets a number of challenges: be affordable, scalable, able to handle variable temperatures at different client sites.

Low Cost of Implementation

The first area of concern is always the cost. As with all systems of a commercial scale, cost is king. The technology at this point has many faces to include row crops, large open pond systems, race way systems and photo-bioreactors. Thy system you choose must have nutrients to feed the algae, water and sunlight. Your carbon dioxide inputs can be active or ambient air. Cross contamination of the algae is a concern, but intended use of the algae will be your guide.

Continuous Harvesting

Harvesting the algae will always be a concern depending on the system. It will take more effort to harvest algae from an open pond system than it would from a continuous harvesting photo-bioreactors. Continuous harvesters do just that, always harvest algae cake, at this point you will only need staff to move the algae cake to the next stations for drying and oil extraction.

Oil Extraction

• There are three well-known methods to extract the oil from oilseeds, and these methods apply equally well for algae too:
• 1. Expeller/Press
  2. Hexane solvent oil extraction
  3. Supercritical Fluid extraction
• Expeller/Press
• Expression/Expeller press-When algae is dried it retains its oil content, which then can be “pressed” out with an oil press. Many commercial manufacturers of vegetable oil use a combination of mechanical pressing and chemical solvents in extracting oil.
• While more efficient processes are emerging, a simple process is to use a press to extract a large percentage (70-75%) of the oils out of algae.
• Hexane Solvent Method
• Algal oil can be extracted using chemicals. Benzene and ether have been used, but a popular chemical for solvent extraction is hexane, which is relatively inexpensive.
• Supercritical Fluid Method
• Supercritical extraction involves, pressure and heat to burst algal cell walls.

No matter what algae medium you chose just make sure it meets your needs and production goals.

Algae Biofuel will play a very important part in meeting the worlds growing energy need, Algae has a place in not only our past, but in our future as well.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an office of the US Department of Defense, will soon be producing jet fuel made from algae at a price comparable to that of petroleum-based fuel, the UK Guardian reported on Saturday. DARPA could be months, not years, from producing an algal biofuel that is price-competitive with fossil fuels. According to Barbara McQuiston, special assistant to energy for DARPA, “Oil from algae is projected at $2 per gallon, headed towards $1 per gallon.”

The oil produced by algae still needs to be refined into jet fuel, which can be done while still keeping the price under $3 per gallon. McQuiston said an additional refinery will come on line in 2011 and be capable of producing 50 million gallons of algae-based jet fuel a year.

Research into algal biofuels has received massive funding from the US government and Exxon, but DARPA’s breakthrough in achieving a cost-effective method of production still came as a surprise. The director of the Algal Biomass Association, Mary Rosenthal, was taken aback by DARPA’s accelerated timeline and said she expected algal fuels to become competitive “in the next two years.”

DARPA’s work is part of the US military’s efforts to reduce costs and improve the flexibility of its supply chain by relying more on renewable sources of energy. The military aims to get half its energy from renewable sources by 2016, and the US Air Force wants to test 50-50 blends of biofuel and petroleum-based fuel by 2011.

As has been the case for many technological advancements throughout history, the military’s breakthrough advancement in algal fuels could soon benefit American civilians and heating oil users in particular. While the viability of biofuels from algae feedstocks has already been proven, other obstacles preventing biofuels from being widely available and cost-competitive with petroleum fuels have yet to be overcome. DARPA’s announcement signifies the existence of technology to manufacture biofuels at a competitive price point which, in our free-market society, means it is only a matter of time before that same technology makes its way into the private sector.

When that time comes, heating oil users can expect major changes in their heating fuel: higher concentrations of biofuel (from algae and other feedstocks) in heating oil at similar or even significantly lower prices than 100 percent petroleum heating oil.

Cleaner, greener fuel available at lower prices in the next few years; now that’s good news for everybody.

Methane and power produced in anaerobic digestion facilities can be utilized to replace energy derived from fossil fuels, and hence reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses. This is due to the fact that the carbon in biodegradable material such as algae is part of a carbon cycle. The carbon released into the atmosphere from the combustion of biogas has been removed by plants in order for them to grow in the recent past. This can have occurred within the last decade, but more typically within the last growing season. If the plants are re-grown, taking the carbon out of the atmosphere once more, the system will be carbon neutral. This contrasts to carbon in fossil fuels that has been sequestered in the earth for many millions of years, the combustion of which increases the overall levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Biogas plants consist of two components: a digester (or fermentation tank) and a gas holder. The digester is a cube-shaped or cylindrical waterproof container with an inlet into which the fermentable mixture is introduced in the form of a liquid slurry. The gas holder is normally an airproof steel container that, by floating like a ball on the fermentation mix, cuts off air to the digester (anaerobiosis) and collects the gas generated. In one of the most widely used designs (Figure 2), the gas holder is equipped with a gas outlet, while the digester is provided with an overflow pipe to lead the sludge out into a drainage pit.

The average cost of a digester is nearly $1.5 million, and it takes about six years to earn back that original investment without any grants.

Creation of biogas

Biogas is a product of the metabolism of methane bacteria and is created when the bacteria degrade a mass of organic material. The methane bacteria can only work and reproduce if the substrate is sufficiently bloated with water (at least 50 %). In contrast to aerobic bacteria, yeasts and fungi they cannot exist in a solid phase.

Exclusion of air

These micro-organisms are strongly anaerobic. If the substrate still contains oxygen, as for example is the case with liquid manure, then aerobic bacteria must use this up first. This happens during the first phase of the biogas process. Low quantities of oxygen, such as occur through the deliberate aeration of air in order to desulphurise the material, do not cause any harm.

Temperature

The working range of the methane bacteria lies between 0 and 70°C. At higher temperatures they are killed off, with the exception of a few strains which can survive in temperatures up to 90°C. The speed of the decomposition process is heavily dependent on temperature. The following applies: the higher the temperature, decomposition occurs more quickly, the production of gas is higher, the decomposition time is shorter and the content of methane in the biogas is lower.

Practical experience has shown that there are typical temperature ranges in which particular strains of bacteria feel quite comfortable:

mesophile strains at temperatures of 25-35°C

thermophile strains at temperatures above 45°C

The higher the temperature, the more sensitive the bacteria are to temperature variations, especially when these occur for a short time and the temperature drops. Whilst in the mesophile range daily variations of from 2 to 3°C about the medium can still be supported, for the thermophile range these variations should not be more than 1°C. Over longer periods of time (around 1 month) the bacteria become accustomed to new temperature ranges.

The pH value The pH value should be in the weakly alkaline range of about 7.5. For liquid manure and dung this range usually occurs naturally during the second phase of the decomposition process, as a result of the creation of ammonium. For more acidic substrates such as slop, whey and silage it may be necessary to add lime in order to increase the pH value.

Supply of nutrients

Methane bacteria cannot break down fats, protein, carbohydrate (starch, sugar) and cellulose in pure form. In fact they need soluble nitrogen compounds, minerals and trace elements to break down the cellular mass of these materials. Sufficient quantities of these substances are present in dung and liquid manure. But Algae Biomass and grass too (in fresh and preserved form) as also marc, slop and whey contain sufficient total nutrients and can in principle be broken down alone. In practice however it is recommended that dung and liquid manure are used as a stable basic substrate and additional amounts of the materials referred to are added, so as to avoid segregation and to achieve a good buffering of acids and lyes.

Methane Stages

The key process stages of anaerobic digestion there are four key biological and chemical stages of anaerobic digestion:

1. Hydrolysis
2. Acidogenesis
3. Acetogenesis
4. Methanogenesis

In most cases biomass is made up of large organic polymers. In order for the bacteria in anaerobic digesters to access the energy potential of the material, these chains must first be broken down into their smaller constituent parts. These constituent parts or monomers such as sugars are readily available by other bacteria. The process of breaking these chains and dissolving the smaller molecules into solution is called hydrolysis. Therefore hydrolysis of these high molecular weight polymeric components is the necessary first step in anaerobic digestion. Through hydrolysis the complex organic molecules are broken down into simple sugars amino acids, and fatty acids.

Acetate and hydrogen produced in the first stages can be used directly by methanogens. Other molecules such as volatile fatty acids (VFA’s) with a chain length that is greater than acetate must first be catabolised into compounds that can be directly utilized by methanogens.

Digestate is the solid remnants of the original input material to the digesters that the microbes cannot use. It also consists of the mineralized remains of the dead bacteria from within the digesters. Digestate can come in three forms; fibrous, liquor or a sludge-based combination of the two fractions. In two-stage systems the different forms of digestate come from different digestion tanks. In single stage digestion systems the two fractions will be combined and if desired separated by further processing.

Digestate liquor can be used as a fertilizer supplying vital nutrients to soils. The solid, fibrous component of digestate can be used as a soil conditioner. The liquor can be used as a substitute for chemical fertilizers which require large amounts of energy to produce and transport. The use of manufactured fertilizers is therefore more carbon intensive than the use of anaerobic digestate fertilizer. This solid digestate can be used to boost the organic content of soils. There are some countries, such as Turkey where there are many organically depleted soils, and here the markets for the digestate can be just as important as the biogas.

In countries that collect household waste, the utilization of local anaerobic digestion facilities can help to reduce the amount of waste that requires transportation to centralized landfill sites or incineration facilities. This reduced burden on transportation has and will reduce carbon emissions from the collection vehicles. If localized anaerobic digestion facilities are embedded within an electrical distribution network, they can help reduce the electrical losses that are associated with transporting electricity over a national grid.

The second by-product (acidogenic digestate) is a stable organic material comprised largely of lignin and cellulose, but also of a variety of mineral components in a matrix of dead bacterial cells; some plastic may be present. The material resembles domestic compost and can be used as compost or to make low grade building products such as fibreboard.

The third by-product is a liquid (methanogenic digestate) that is rich in nutrients and can be used as a fertilizer dependent on the quality of the material being digested. Levels of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) should be chemically assessed. This will be dependent upon the quality of the original feedstock. In the case of most clean and source-separated biodegradable waste streams the levels of PTEs will be low. In the case of wastes originating from industry the levels of PTEs may be higher and will need to be taken into consideration when determining a suitable end use for the material.

Digestate typically contains elements such as lignin that cannot be broken down by the anaerobic microorganisms. Also the digestate may contain ammonia that is phytotoxic and will hamper the growth of plants if it is used as a soil improving material. For these two reasons a maturation or composting stage may be employed after digestion. Lignin and other materials are available for degradation by aerobic microorganisms such as fungi helping reduce the overall volume of the material for transport. During this maturation the ammonia will be broken down into nitrates, improving the fertility of the material and making it more suitable as a soil improver. Large composting stages are typically used by dry anaerobic digestion technologies.

Wastewater

The final output from anaerobic digestion systems is water.

Algae remove massive amounts of CO2 (Carbon dioxide) from the air. Algae farms are glutton eaters of CO2 gas providing a means for recycling waste carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion. It is possible to sequester as much as one billion tons of CO2 per year from algae farms. The United States has one energy plant that produces 25.3 million tons of CO2 by itself. This technology has attracted companies that need inexpensive CO2 sequestration solutions & renewable energy solutions.

The combination of algae production & methane biogas is a green way to create endless renewable clean energy for many cities and industries.

Have you ever gone fishing only to discover that your favorite fishing hole was over grown with algae? Well now they are using that same green algae to power your diesel engine truck. That’s right the algae grown in ponds can be converted to oil and the oil refined into Biodiesel.

Algae have the potential to evolve into a mainstream fuel feedstock. Algae are not a food crops, they grow fast and algae remove massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the air.

Algae are not a food crops and there has been a huge debate and more focus on the food vs. fuel question. Some critics say agricultural based crops are not sustainable as a fuel source. Corn and Soybeans are being used currently as Biofuel which some say are the blame for higher food prices. For example; some waste collections companies have seen the cost of WVO (Waste vegetable oil) or yellow grease increase to an all time high worth as much as $3.50 cents per gallon. Hey!! Correct me if my math is a little off, but isn’t that almost the same price as a gallon of diesel fuel? Algae farms can produce 100 times more oil per acre than traditional oil crops (such as soy oil), which can be converted to Biodiesel.

Algae grow fast. Algae can be grown especially well in desert states that have plenty of sunshine and access to water unusable for drinking. Because of the high salt content in algae, saltwater can be used more economically than fresh water for optimal growth. Meaning our sunny southern states with saline aquifers will make fast and efficient locations to grow algae on commercial farms.

Algae remove massive amounts of CO2 (Carbon dioxide) from the air. Algae farms are glutton eaters of CO2 gas providing a means for recycling waste carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion. It is possible to sequester as much as one billion tons of CO2 per year from algae farms. The United States has one energy plant that produces 25.3 millions tons of CO2 by itself. This new technology has attracted companies that need inexpensive CO2 sequestration solutions. Algae was responsible for creating the Earth’s oxygen atmosphere three billion years ago and it took around two billion years to form the modern atmosphere with 20 percent oxygen. Without algae we would not be here.

Algae Biofuel will play a very important part in meeting the worlds growing energy need, Algae has a place in not only our past, but in our future as well.

As the world’s petroleum supply experiences skyrocketing prices, looking for a green way to make fuel has become more popular. Biofuel production using algae is one green way to create a fuel source. While it is a difficult and long process, it is a straightforward one and may be the source of energy for the future. In fact, many private companies are working on mass production of algae for fuel use.

Home Made Algae Production

Choosing Your Algae

1. Choosing your algae for biodiesel production can depend on a variety of factors. Cost, efficiency and how hard the algae is to grow are all factors to keep in mind. Chlorella, a green algae, is the most cost-effective because it can be used as food after the oil is extracted. If you want algae that you can remove the most oil from, try Dunaliella and Botryococcus.

Feeding Your Algae

1. When growing algae for biodiesel production, choose the best quality of nutrients. All algae needs is nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, plus other components such as iron and chloride. You can use your own nutrient mix, or purchase a blend from a home and garden store.

Placing Your Algae

1. Your algae can grow in a variety of places. While there are kits that you can purchase with hoses to filtrate water and special filtration systems, simpler systems work just as well. Shallow water in ponds works as well as a filtrated water system. Your location should have sunlight for most of the day and some salinity.

Harvesting Your Algae

1. Algae is a fast-growing plant. So harvest frequently to encourage new growth. Up to 90 percent of your harvest can be picked without slowing down your algae production. Harvesting frequently encourages new growth and keeps your supply up.

Extracting Your Algae’s Oil

1. Oil needs to be pulled from the algae. The best way to do this is to combine methods. You can pull through an oil press, but that leaves 1/4 of the oil. Mixing it with hexane, a chemical solvent, absorbs the oil so that it can be extracted.

Algae Providers List

University of Arizona (UA) researchers believe the microscopic organism algae will be providing fuel to power vehicles within the next five years.

Joel Cuello, UA professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, said algae has been proven as a renewable source of fuels like ethanol, biodiesel, and hydrogen, and his research team is working on ways to make such algae biofuels cheaper and commercially feasible.

Algae 4 Gas

“I really believe we will be able to make use of algae-based biofuels, probably in two to three years,” Cuello said. “We will have the right mix of technologies in place in two to three years, and it will be at the pump, I would say, in five years.”

Different types of algae – with different qualities and attributes – are grown in Cuello’s lab in UA’s Shantz Building. Some algae varieties produce fatty acids that can be converted to biodiesel, others produce starches that can be converted to bioethanol, and some types of algae directly produce hydrogen gas, he said.

Algae offers major advantages over other things grown as sources for renewable energy, Cuello said.

Growing algae produces oxygen and takes carbon dioxide out of the environment. It grows more productively than other fast-growing energy crops while requiring less space. Non-potable and treated wastewater can be used for growing algae. And using algae for fuel production does not take food out of the mouths of people or animals, he said.

The process begins with selecting the algae species appropriate to produce the desired fuel. Species and strain selection also considers the quickest and most productive type of algae, he said.

Huge amounts of algae are needed for large-scale biofuel production. Mass production takes two forms: growing it in open ponds or more complex and costly closed photobioreactors.

Open ponds where nutrients flow along a racetrack-like circuit offer a simpler and less expensive way to produce algae, but must deal with fluctuations in temperature and solar radiation as well as potential contamination.

Photobioreacators, which are large containers in which algae is grown, control the environmental parameters and ensure the best environment for algae growth, but are generally more costly, he said.

A new less expensive, more efficient design of photobioreactor has come out of Cuello’s UA lab.

“It’s called the Accordion because it is suggestive of the geometry or configuration of the musical instrument. It is a vertical series of flat plate reactors at different angles, and the algae and nutrient solution is circulated through those flat plates,” Cuello said.

Unlike other photobioreactors, Accordion is made of inexpensive, flexible plastic to keep costs down, Cuello said. The system is also modular and scalable for high-volume production in an economically feasible manner, he said.

After production the algae must be harvested.

“Harvesting is not easy. We are dealing with microalgae, which are microscopic. And they are floating around in water, so it is not so easy to separate them from the liquid nutrient solution in which they are suspended,” Cuello said.

Centrifuges are most commonly used to separate out the valuable algae, a process that is very energy intensive.

“We are looking at developing new methods or approaches for accomplishing harvesting microalgae from liquid nutrient solutions,” he said.

UA has received a provisional patent for Accordion, and is in negotiations with a Norwegian company interested in a licensing option or agreement to use the device commercially, Cuello said.

The next step is dewatering, or drying, the harvested algae. The Southwest, with its abundant sunshine and high temperatures, is an ideal area for drying the algae biomass, he said.

After drying, the oils are extracted or starch is separated to produce biodiesel or bioethanol.

Kuwahara is studying how best to use wastewater to effectively produce algae. This saves valuable groundwater for other purposes, and actually cleans the wastewater during the process of growing the algae, she said.

The process also produces oxygen while removing carbon dioxide from the environment, she said.

“We hope to make it a zero impact growing process,” Kuwahara said.

Cuello said that with some addition of nitrogen and phosphorus, wastewater grows algae as well as more expensive solutions designed specifically for that purpose.

Takanori Hoshino, a biosystems engineering graduate student, is investigating better ways to produce hydrogen gas from algae.

Hydrogen can be used to power vehicles. But now, 95 percent of hydrogen is produced from natural gas, a fossil fuel, he said.

Hoshino is working with Chlamydonomas reinhardtii, a type of algae, to produce more hydrogen gas from a given volume of algae.

Algae is not the only UA focus of research for biofuel sources.

Mark Riley, UA agricultural and biosystems engineering department head, said a project using arid lands to grow sweet sorghum for ethanol is close to commercialization.

Sweet sorghum grows quickly – up to 4 meters in four months – and is suited to Arizona because it is salt tolerant and can use reclaimed wastewater for irrigation, Riley said.

Sweet sorghum can be fermented directly into ethanol, and Riley said a Pinal Energy LLC plant near Maricopa, Ariz., is nearing commercialization of the first large-scale energy crop for the Southwest.

Algae Jet Fuel

Algae Aviation Fuel from Compact Contractors for America LLC (CCA) has developed a methodology for

creating a viable jet fuel surrogate out of raw algae bio-mass.

“DPA Aviation Fuel is competitive in pricing, environmentally friendly &

domestically produced.” Robert Fulton Chief Engineer stated “Dry Process

Jet Fuel from Algae will change the aviation fuel marketplace.”

Their target markets are:

- Northrop/Grumman Global Hawk Block 20 programs

- Boeing Phantom X-45 programs

- DOD Allied Operations Drone programs

- Commercial Aviation Industry

- Ground based turbine applications such as tanks and generators

CCA has contacted their targeted markets, stating all are interested in

an effective, low cost, and ecologically sound replacements for petro-chemical jet fuels.

Department of Defense (DOD) Governments, Commercial Aviation Carriers &

Bio-fuel producers can now produce algae biojet fuel using algae biomass

(cake) not the oil. Large aircraft fleet managers can now have a never-failing

renewable energy resource to make algae jet fuel that does not

compete with our nation’s food crops. Unlike liquid bio jet fuels that

require extensive and expensive processing, DPA jet fuel is much cheaper

to make. The process is simply drying & grinding to make the powdered

fuel. DPA jet fuel can use any algae with 15% lipid content (vegetable

oil) & raw algae can be harvested from a variety of wild sources here in

America. Liquid bio jet fuel requires high lipid content algae, which

requires a very controlled environment to produce.

LIGHTER

Liquid jet fuel weighs about 6.8 pounds per gallon. DPA jet fuel weighs

48% less than liquid without any additives. The weight per gallon will

vary with the strain of algae used.

MADE in USA

Since algae grows anywhere and everywhere, CCA can produce jet fuel right

here, in the United States.

Dry Process Algae is the fastest & most cost-effective means of making

algae jet fuel for the aviation industry. Not only is dry process algae

jet fuel less expensive, it also burns cleaner and is better for the

environment. The ability to create dry process algae jet fuel will create

jobs and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

“We urge the U.S. government and the investment community to support this

critical energy opportunity,” said Fulton.

Visit their web site to learn more about Dry Process Algae Bio Jet Fuel &

how Compact Contractors for America, LLC is moving forward with algae jet

fuel production. Learn how the government & civilian airline industry

will change with the use of Dry Process Algae Jet fuel using algae biomass cake.

Visit AlgaeAviationFuel.com at their site:

http://algaeaviationfuel.com/investors.html to receive access to

Downloadable information documents on the new Dry Process Algae Jet Fuel.

Millions of dollars have been spent on the quest for algae jet fuel. Look at the headlines Bill Gates to Exxon to our own federal government through DARPA are heavily invested.

Our countries President Obama is also just as green as Al Gore on alternative energy and the jobs the industry is creating. Bio Pioneers in green companies have developed algae biodiesel production and algae oil harvesting systems and equipment for growing algae and harvesting the algae in a very efficient manner for use in algae biofuels such as algae jet fuel.

Algae is plentiful and most of it is free, companies like CCA have created a dry process algae jetfuel from raw algae cake, not the oil. It is a unique approach to a global industry that contains military & commercial applications.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has identified approximately 300 species of algae, as varied as the diatoms (genera Amphora, Cymbella, Nitzschia) and green algae (genera Chlorella in particular) as potentially good sources of oil from algae. Diatoms, or Bacillariophytes, are unicellular, microscopic algae. These organisms are widespread in salt water where they constitute the largest portion of phytoplankton biomass. There exist approximately 100,000 known species around the world. More than 400 new specimens are described each year.

Algae Fuels will have an important role to play in renewable fuel plans for all countries around the world.