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SMART money is on algae as sources of biofuels.
J. Craig Venter, the scientist
who decoded the human genome in the 1990s, called algae “the
ultimate biological system, using sunlight to capture and convert
carbon dioxide into fuel.” (New York Times, July 14).
His company, Synthetic Geno-mics,
partnered with Exxon Mobil to develop the technologies to harvest
hydrocarbons from algae.
Earlier, on June 29, Dow
Chemicals and Algenol Biofuels joined forces to demonstrate that
algae could be used to turn carbon dioxide into ethanol for
transportation fuel and an ingredient in the manufacture of plastics
to replace natural gas, both at a competitive price.
Algae are a group of primitive
plants that grow in ponds, lakes, and shallow seas. They have no
true vascular system and only rudimentary reproductive organs. In
size, algae range from a single cell to seaweeds many meters long.
Unlike the other ethanol
feed-stocks—corn, sugarcane, sweet sorghum—algae do not need
land and relatively little space.
They can be grown in tanks or
bioreactors filled with salt water that has been saturated with
carbon dioxide. Through photosynthesis, the algae produce
hydrocarbons, oxygen and fresh water. The oxygen will be used to
make coal burn more cleanly that in turn will produce very pure
carbon dioxide to grow more algae and “very cheap ethanol,”
according to Paul Woods, the Chief Executive of Algenol Biofuels. (NYT,
June 30).
Harvesting the hydrocarbons is
the problem. Methods to separate oxygen and water from the ethanol
are still being developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology and
Membrane Technology and Research, a company located in Menlo Park,
California.
The Exxon Mobil/Synthetic
Genomics consortium aims for scale. Emil Jacobs, the president of
Exxon’s R&D department, put it this way: “Scale was first.
For transportation fuels, if you can’t see whether you can scale a
technology up, then you have to question whether you need to be
involved at all.” Jacobs thinks that fuels produced from algae are
“at least five years away.” (NYT, July 15).
The molecular structure of fuels
derived from algae is similar to that of petroleum and therefore is
compatible with existing transportation infrastructure.
The role of Synthetic Genomics is
to bioengineer new strains of algae that will absorb large amounts
of carbon dioxide and to mass produce cost-effectively the cellular
oils or lipids that can be processed into fuels and industrial
chemicals using existing refining technologies.
This is key because “algae
treated like a crop to be grown and harvested is a process that can
be expensive and time-consuming,” Venter said.
Synthetic Genomics has already
engineered algae that produce oils in a continuous process. The next
step is scaling it up.
Both partnerships are convinced
that algae as sources of biofuels and chemicals are scientifically
and commercially viable.
Exxon estimates that algae could
yield 2,500 US gallons per hectare per year compared with 700
gallons for palm oil, 500 gallons for sugar cane, and 300 gallons
for corn.
Dow and Algenol are more sanguine
in their estimates. The demonstration plant with 3,100 bioreactors
on 10 hectares that they are putting up in Freeport, Texas could
produce 100,000 gallons of ethanol a year.
By Exxon standards, the
investment is small—about $600 million in the next five
years—$300 million for in-house studies, and $300 million to
Synthetic Genomics, that could be increased “if research and
development milestones are successfully met.”
Dow/Algenol are hoping for a
research grant from the US government. Since this is the type of
R&D that President Obama had in mind for energy, they are
“incredibly hopeful” that they will get it.
We should watch these initiatives
with great interest. I hope—not incredibly—that our Department
of Science and Technology and Department of Energy should begin
their own R&D on algae-based ethanol. Our inland waters are full
of the needed raw materials. If we succeed in developing the
technology we will not only reduce our dependence on imported
petroleum but also conserve farmland for food production.
opinion@manilatimes.net
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