Green Options » bioreactor

15 Year Old Invents Complete Algae Energy System

Derek Markham — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:39:37 +0000

15 year old Javier Fernández-Han invented a truly innovative solution to meeting the basic needs of many of the world’s poor, and won Ashoka’s Invent Your World Challenge with his algae energy system, called VERSATILE. His holistic approach uses an efficient, modular system to meet multiple needs.

“An invention that is narrowly focused on solving a single problem often inadvertently creates more problems because nature is highly complex and interconnected.” - Javier Fernandez-Han

Build Your Own Algae Bioreactor from Recycled Water Bottles

Ariel Schwartz — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:06:59 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always fantasized about having an algae bioreactor in my backyard. Instructables recently posted a video to help me do just that. The DIY algae photo-bioreactor is built from plastic water bottles, and churns out some beautiful green biofuel.

First Sustainable Ethanol to Mass Market?

David Anderson — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:17:02 +0000

So, I have a confession. Jeff had to publish my mostly-finished post for our anniversary this week, because I was asleep on a plane. I was invited to Chicago for nine hours (no thanks to the weather) on behalf of GM, to tour the laboratory of Coskata, the auto manufacturer’s newest–and perhaps smartest– investment. The few bloggers and journalists who braved the cold met with the company’s executives for Q&A and a lengthy PowerPoint. (Obviously, GM paid my way for the trip. I’d never pay to go on a trip where air time > ground time.)

I won’t go into the details of the tour, the PowerPoint, the partnership, the process that Coskata uses, the partnership that Coskata announced on the 6th with one of the largest ethanol refinery builders, (under embargo–we can expect details of partnerships like this to literally leak out consistently over the next year, similar to the strategy that GM is using to re-release all of its SUV lines as hybrids) or anything else, because they’ve all been covered so well here:

GroovyGreen’s coverage of the tour and PowerPoint

GM Announces Biofuel Partnership: Cheap, Green Ethanol?

Economic Conditions Shifting in Favor of Ethanol

Coskata partnerhship with ICM Announcement

Update: EcoGeek has a post up too, but they don’t link to any of ours.

Algae Biodiesel Startups Plan Large-Scale Algae Farms

Clayton B. Cornell — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:37:17 +0000

This is what an algae biodiesel farm might look like. If you aren’t sick of the topic yet, here’s one more story to throw in the mix: Several new startups, including a company called Solix Biofuels outside Ft. Colins, CO, and Greenfuel Technologies Corp. of MA, have plans for large-scale algae production that should be online within the year.

As I’ve discussed, algae win the feedstock battle in terms of productivity, with theoretical oil yields of up to 10,000 gallons per acre (that’s 30-100x what soybeans produce). But reality is always a little more complicated. Although algae grow relatively easily (think pond slime), maintaining ideal growing conditions like temperature and CO2 concentration can be difficult. If you want exponential growth, it also turns out that atmospheric CO2 concentrations are not high enough to produce the yields necessary for commercial production, not to mention the potential for the whole mix to be thrown off by invasive species.

Enter the polyethylene “photobioreactor” bag, where light, temperature, CO2, and nutrients can be tightly controlled. The CO2 concentration can be supplemented by waste CO2 from any industrial process, but especially coal-power plants. Initially, this would seem to constrain the utility of algae-farming to having a nearby coal plant, but smaller process produce wast CO2 too. Solix plans on working with the New Belgium Brewery in Ft. Colins to produce algae from waste CO2 produced in the brewing process. (Check back later for an interview with New Belgium). Under the right conditions, algae can be coaxed to double their volume overnight, and this means a lot of oil:

“If we were to replace all of the diesel that we use in the United States” with an algae derivative, says Solix CEO Douglas Henston, “we could do it on an area of land that’s about one-half of 1 percent of the current farm land that we use now.”

Idealistic? Maybe. I’ve heard this kind of thing for wind power too. But it seems possible given the proposed technology, and I know that coal power and it’s perpetual waste CO2 stream isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The algae farm is also “infinitely scalable”, so rapid expansion seems like a no brainer:

John Sheehan, an energy analyst with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., believes these goals are within reach. “There is no other resource that comes even close in magnitude to the potential for making oil,” says Sheehan, who worked in the lab’s algae program before it was shut down by the Department of Energy. One of algae’s great strengths, Sheehan adds, is its ability to grow well in brackish water. In the desert southwest, where much of the groundwater is saline and unsuitable for other forms of agriculture, algae can proliferate.”

All that waits to be seen now is when algae biodiesel will actually become economically viable. Keep your fingers crossed - it may be by the end of the decade.

Latest update on Algae Biodiesel: Algae Biodiesel: First Industrial Algae Plants Go Online

Pond-Powered Biofuels: Turning Algae into America’s New Energy (March 29th) Popular Mechanics
Solix Biofuels: Fueling a Better World
GreenFuel Technologies Corp.

Photo Credit: Solix Biofuels