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.

Solazyme’s certification is a very important step in the commercialization of algae-based diesel. Many industries that depend on diesel fuel have been skeptical about what kind of damage alternative fuels such as biodiesel could cause to their expensive-to-repair rigs.

Technically, Soladiesel(RD)™ is not biodiesel — as was pointed out to me by Solazyme’s Chief Technology Officer, Harrison Dillon. According to Mr. Dillon, Soladiesel(RD)™ is chemically indistinguishable from petroleum diesel, which is why it has passed the same ASTM standards used for petroleum diesel and not the ASTM D6751 specifications used for biodiesel.

With the ASTM D-975 certification comes a needed step in putting the minds of truckers and related folks at ease.

We’ve covered Solazyme in detail before, but it still isn’t clear if their algal biodiesel process is nearing commercialization — leaving many unanswered questions. This in contrast to other algae-based biodiesel companies, such as PetroSun, which have apparently already started commercial production of algal biodiesel. This is what Mr.Dillon had to say about Solazyme’s future:

“As far as the road to commercialization: we currently do produce at scale, but expect that our product will be fully commercialized in 2-3 years.”

Solazyme’s novel algae biodiesel method grows 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.

As noted in previous posts, this method achieves a 1000-fold increase in productivity, but has two obvious problems: no carbon is sequestered in the growing process, and it requires a source of sugar. That source is currently sugarcane, but Solazyme says cellulosic feedstocks could also be used at some future date.

View Solazyme’s press release here.

Posts related to Solazyme and the Algae Biodiesel Process

• OriginOil Develops Portable Modular Round-the-Clock Algae Biodiesel System
• First Algae Biodiesel Plant Goes Online: April 1, 2008
• First Heavy-Duty Diesel Powered By Algae Biodiesel, Solazyme’s “Soladiesel”
• Chevron Backs Solazyme’s Algae Biodiesel Production Process (+Video)
• First Cars Run on Algae Biodiesel; Breakthrough Production Possible
• Cellulosic Ethanol Sugar Diverted to Algae Biodiesel Production

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.

Solazyme is a synthetic biology company using novel methods to produce algae biodiesel. I reported on the company back in January, when they made head turns with their algal-powered Mercedes at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. While the Mercedes was only powered by B20 (20% biodiesel), Solazyme was already highlighting the cold-weather benefits of their fuel. It looks like Wolfson was also impressed:

“The DoD’s requested testing of the Soladiesel fuel showed superior performance especially in terms of its cold temperature properties,” said Wolfson. “Greater performance in cold temperatures means our biodiesel and other algae-based fuels could help the military in remote northern locations like Alaska and North Dakota, as well as in hot climates, while reducing dependence on petroleum. We look forward to continuing to work with the DoD on Soladiesel and other algal based fuels, and are pleased to be presenting at the DESC conference.”

Solazyme has already been working with Chevron, after their “biodiesel feedstock development and testing agreement” was established in January. What isn’t apparent is when Solazyme’s algal biodiesel will be commercially available, and how it compares to other production methods (like the algae biodiesel facility that went online April 1st in Texas) in terms of energy balance, greenhouse gas emissions, etc.

Solazyme’s novel method grows algae in the absence of light. Since algae need light to make sugar to then make oil—which is how the organisms store energy—Solazyme just feeds them sugar, skipping the entire photosynthetic process.

While this achieves a 1000-fold increase in productivity, it has two obvious problems: no carbon is sequestered in the growing process, and it requires a source of sugar. That source is currently sugarcane, but Solazyme says cellulosic feedstocks could also be used at some future date.

I’m in contact with Solazyme now, and if more information becomes available I’ll be adding it in another post. See Solazyme’s press release here.

For more on Solazyme’s algae biodiesel production, see:

• First Cars Run on Algae Biodiesel; Breakthrough Production Possible
• Chevron Backs Solazyme’s Algae Biodiesel Production Process (+Video)
• Cellulosic Ethanol Sugar Diverted to Algae Biodiesel Production

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:

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.

I asked why they thought the energy balance of using that sugar for algae production vs. fermenting it into ethanol was more favorable. This doesn’t seem like the whole story, but Harrison said harvesting materials for cellulosic ethanol production requires diesel machinery, and using biodiesel in this equipment helps decrease the energy and carbon balance of the whole process. By producing biodiesel from the algae and then sending this biodiesel back to the cellulosic ethanol producers, they can close part of the loop and improve the whole process.

Hmmmm…

I intend on trying to get more details out of Solazyme, but in the mean time I’d be interested to hear your thoughts…

More posts on this topic:
Chevron Backs Solazyme’s Algae Biodiesel Production Process (+Video)
BREAKING NEWS: First Cars Run on Algae Biodiesel; Breakthrough Production Possible

The Latest on Cellulosic Ethanol:
GM Announces Biofuel Partnership: Cheap, Green Ethanol?

Photo Credit

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:

Sounds great, but the story has been frustratingly slow to divulge details. The only answer I’ve gotten to many questions (where does the sugar come from? how much water does the process use? how do you decouple photosynthesis? how much will it cost? etc.) comes from CNN:

For the time being, algae-based biodiesel remains prohibitively expensive, so the challenge for any company hoping to market it will be to lower the cost to within range of standard fuels. Wolfson said he believes Solazyme has already come a long way toward its goal of pushing the cost as low as $45 to $50 a barrel.

‘We have a high degree of confidence we can be to a commercial scale and commercial economics in two to three years,’ he said.

I’ll try and meet up with Wolfson and Dillon (founders of Solazyme) by Thursday to find out more about this process and the announcement.

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?

This is precisely what Solazyme has done: they’re feeding sugar to specialized strains of algae that can be grown in the dark.

Outside the film I spoke with Harrison F. Dillon (CTO) and Jonathan S. Wolfson (CEO), founders of Solazyme, and they told me they’re already producing “thousands” of gallons of algae biodiesel, with potential to mass produce “in the next two years”.

If you’ve been following my posts on the GM Coskata ethanol announcement, I have one thing to say to you: the plot thickens.

But it still begs the question of where the sugar going to come from. I’ll have more on this story and the film later.

More posts on this topic:
Chevron Backs Solazyme’s Algae Biodiesel Production Process (+Video)
Cellulosic Ethanol Sugar Diverted to Algae Biodiesel Production