Green Options

Algae fuel has become a hot topic as of late, and now Solix Biofuels has spiced up the conversation with a claim that it can cut the cost of growing algae by 90 to 95 percent.

Biofuel-powered plane rides may be in our future much sooner than anticipated if Boeing gets its way. The company expects to see approval for commercial use of biofuels in the next 3 to 5 years.

You may remember Solazyme from my post a few weeks ago about its plan to mass-produce algae biodiesel in a three-year time frame. Now the innovative company is taking algae fuel a step further.

Solazyme announced today that it has produced the world’s first algae-based jet fuel. The product passed all testing specifications for Aviation Turbine Fuel— which means that the aviation kerosene has passed all the major hurdles to creating a jet fuel that is compatible with the current commercial and military infrastructure.

According to reports, algae biofuel company Solazyme has raised $45.4 million dollars in Series C funding to take their unique algae diesel process to the commercial scale.

Major partners in this round of funding include Braemar Energy Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, who were joined by return backers The Roda Group and Harris & Harris Group.

Solazyme’s novel biofuel production method involves growing algae in the absence of light. In nature, algae use light to make sugar and then make oil from that sugar. Solazyme skips the light part and just feeds their algae sugar to get them to make oil.

I’ve often thought that algae could be one of the keys to our energy future, and now I’m more convinced than ever. In a conference call earlier today, Solazyme CEO Jonathan Wolfson said that his company is capable of producing millions of gallons of biodiesel derived from algae within 3 years.

Solazyme is the first company to produce algae diesel that meets US standards, but until today their production timeline was unknown.

“The technology is moving a lot quicker than some people would expect,” Wolfson said.

Solazyme announced today that they have produced the first 100% algae-based renewable diesel to meet the strict American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D-975 specifications.

Called Soladiesel(RD)™, it is the world’s first 100% algal diesel blend to meet these standards.

The company has road-tested Soladiesel(RD)™ in a factory standard 2005 diesel Jeep Liberty with results that indicate identical usability and engine wear to that of petroleum diesel.

Soladiesel(RD)™ has lower particulate emissions than petroleum-based diesel and also meets the ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) standards.

It looks like Solazyme will be making algal biodiesel for the US military, after a test-drive demonstrated the fuel’s superior cold-weather properties when compared to commercially-available biodiesel.

Former Director of Central Intelligence and Under-Secretary of the Navy R. James Woolsey tested the fuel himself by driving to the Worldwide Energy Conference & Trade Show in an unmodified 2008 Ford F450 fueled by 100% algal biodiesel.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good documentary can change your vocabulary.

Josh Tickell’s new film, Fields of Fuel, has just won the Audience Award for Documentary at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which opened last Monday to a standing ovation, is a sharp, compelling look at biofuels and the history of America’s dependence on foreign oil. From home-made biodiesel to OPEC corruption, it covers the myriad reasons why we should be changing our fuel to change our lives.

Tickell, the man who essentially introduced the world to biodiesel, has brought us an outstanding contribution to the discourse on biofuels: Fields of Fuel says in ninety minutes what we’ve all been trying to sum up for years. Here’s the trailer:

Note: See the precursor to this post, BREAKING NEWS: First Cars Run on Algae Biodiesel; Breakthrough Production Possible.

Today I had a few minutes to speak with Harrison Dillon, President and CTO of Solazyme. But with all the publicity around the film Fields of Fuel (see earlier post), I didn’t have much of a chance to get into a detailed discussion. When I approached him, Harrison was surrounded by a group intent on elucidating the not-so-subtle points of using biodiesel (such as, does it require conversion to run in a diesel engine?).

In our brief conversation I was able to learn that Solazyme is going to combine cellulosic ethanol and algae biodiesel production technology, which they think provides a more positive energy balance than either one alone (Harrison said that algae are 1000 times more efficient when fed sugar vs. grown by sunlight). Solazyme will be buying sugar, including cellulosically-derived sugar produced by cellulosic ethanol companies, to feed to their algae. They’re basically short-circuiting the cellulosic ethanol process and diverting the sugar to what they say is a more efficient process: growing micro-algae.

It’s been a big week for biofuel breakthroughs and new partnerships. While photographing the algae biodiesel cars outside Fields of Fuel yesterday, insiders I spoke with alluded to big news: I just learned that Chevron will be backing Solazyme to produce algae biodiesel (East Bay Business Times):

Chevron Corp. is accelerating its research into biofuel derived from algae. On Tuesday, Solazyme Inc. of South San Francisco announced an agreement with the Chevron subsidiary Chevron Technology Ventures to develop and test biodiesel feedstock made from algae.

The partnership will almost certainly rev up Solazyme’s production and research process, as will GM’s backing of Coskata ethanol. But I still have no information on how the algae will be grown. I’m getting the sense that this is almost cellulosic + algae = biodiesel, since these guys are talking about getting sugar from corn stover, switchgrass, wood chips, and sugarcane, then feeding it to algae to boost production. Take a look at this video from the film:

Just a few hours ago, the world’s first pair of cars to run on algae biodiesel were announced at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The cars were prominently displayed outside the world premier of Fields of Fuel, Josh Tickell’s stunning new documentary on biodiesel and the state of a world dependent on petroleum.

Burning a B20 blend of algal biodiesel, these vehicles are the first to make use of a potentially revolutionary way to grow algae for biodiesel production. Solazyme, a synthetic biology company out of San Francisco, has developed a way to grow algae that essentially hijacks the photosynthetic process to optimize oil production. Like any good photosynthetic organism, algae convert the sun’s energy into sugars, which then power the oil-producing process (algae can be over 50% oil). But getting the algae enough sunlight to grow efficiently has been a particular stumbling block to large scale algae production.

So what if you could just feed the algae sugar and skip the sunlight part altogether?