San Diego Unveils Algae Coalition To Advance "Green Gold" Research
By Greg Johnson April 28, 2009
Algae cultures that could lead to green oil products are being grown in a UC San Diego laboratory.
They call it "green gold," and its proponents are betting that the light, sweet crude oil that can be extracted from farm-cultivated algae will help the world to cut its dependence upon dirty and increasingly expensive gasoline and diesel fuels that are extracted from fossil fuels.
And, on Tuesday, San Diego -- which envisions itself as the green equivalent of the traditional oil industry's Houston -- unveiled a "broad-scale research effort" to turn that dream into a reality.
Though no dollar figures for financial support were discussed during Tuesday's press event on the UC San Diego campus, the research effort will build upon the creation earlier this year of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology. The center was created to facilitate green fuels research being conducted by 272 scientists at UC San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute and other San Diego universities, research organizations and for-profit companies.
SD-CAB estimates that algal research in San Diego County already generates $16.5 million in payroll and $33 million in overall economic activity. Tuesday's announcement of an even broader research and development effort was made by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox.
"By sharing and facilitating the interactions of these multiple researchers through this center, we hope to make sustainable algae-based fuel production and carbon-dioxide abatement a reality within the next five to 10 years," Fox said. "This consortium will strengthen our ability to obtain grants and attract resources to the area. Algal biofuels will allow us to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and other economies, and will provide opportunities for a new economy and workforce."
It is a tall order, but San Diego claims to have the R&D nucleus needed to move toward that goal.
The Xconomy blog counts at least nine algal research efforts under way -- including work being done by defense contractors SAIC Corp. and General Atomics (which is better known as the creator of the unmanned Predator aircraft in service in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan).
We wrote about one of those companies (Sapphire Energy) last May, as well as a California Energy Commission grant to another company (albeit, not in San Diego) that is pursuing algal research.
Algal researchers believe that cultivated algae will become an economically viable alternative to large-scale production of such resource-intensive plants as corn and cellulosic crops (including trees, non-edible parts of plants and grasses). Both corn and cellulosic crops require substantial amounts of fertile land, fresh water and petroleum-based fertilizer.
What's more, the end product from corn and cellulosic crops -- ethanol -- is a lower-energy fuel than the algal hydrocarbons that can be converted directly into gasoline or diesel fuel that, proponents maintain, can be delivered to service stations through the existing refinery infrastructure.
Algae can also be used to produce hydrogen or biomass, which can then be turned into methane. Proponents also note that production of 140 billion gallons of algae-derived fuels would yield about one trillion pounds of protein that could be used to feed livestock, chickens or fish. The production process, they add, can "eat up" such environmental contaminants as wastewater.
Here's how biofuels consultant William Thurmond (who in May will publish "Algae 2020") describes the process:
"Most microalgae use photosynthesis to harness sunlight and carbon dioxide, and store energy inside the cell as lipids (the source for oil) and carbohydrates. Algae can be converted into biodiesel, ethanol, biocrude and aviation fuels. Among biofuels projects, algae is commonly grown in closed and open ponds, and in translucent containers called photobioreactors. In both cases the growth of algae requires a source of carbon, light, nutrients and warm water."
So if all an algae farmer needs is sunshine, carbon dioxide and non-potable water, what's the hang-up?
Green gold at present is too costly to be competitive. It can cost as much as $30 to extract crude from algae. That dollar amount must fall to about $2 per gallon in order to become a viable alternative to petroleum. And that's going to take time.
Or not. In an April 16 press release, Sapphire Energy claimed that its green crude could be part of the energy mix within three years. "We've worked tirelessly, and the technology is ready now," said Brian Goodall, a Sapphire Energy vice president. "We've already successfully tested our fuel with two commercial airlines and within the next three years we'll be producing enough to help meet the growing demands of industry and the military."
And General Atomics has said that, within three years it will have a 40-acre demonstration plant in operation that will produce algal fuel for $1 per gallon.
SD-CAB said that its scientists will grow much of their algae in the Imperial Valley, which has plenty of land, sunshine and non-potable water available (not to mention one of the country's highest unemployment rates).
"Algae and biofuels have been identified as one of the key emerging industries in the region," said Timothy Kelley, president and CEO of the Imperial Valley Economic Development Corporation. "We feel that the addition of Imperial Valley will allow the algae industry to attain full production earlier than expected."
But progress won't necessarily come easily on the technology front.
Voice of San Diego, a non-profit, online newspaper reported earlier this year that Uncle Sam studied algae from 1978 to 1996 only to determine that "even with aggressive assumptions about biological productivity, we project costs for biodiesel which are two times higher than current petroleum diesel fuel costs."
SD-CAB and the broader civic/business/research coalition announced on Tuesday clearly hope to prove that prediction to be outdated.
The online newspaper also noted that green gold could face an even bigger hurdle as the technology bumps up against the political might of corn-growing states that have persuaded many politicians that corn-based ethanol is the preferred alternative when it comes to weaning the U.S. off of foreign oil.
Even if the algae industry can prove that its technology can be competitive pricewise, proponents agree that the new sector will need government subsidies, perhaps in the form of incentives, to move into mass production.
Greg Johnson, Contributor
Photo courtesy of UC San DIego
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