Algal Biofuels: Opening up the Market Opportunity – Sample Pages
Andrea Marandino Edited by Danny Dicks David Martin and Simon Sherrington InnovationObservatory ObservatoryLtd Ltd Innovation February May 2009 2010
Table of contents Copyright and terms of use
2
Disclaimer
2
Table of contents
3
0
Executive summary
5
1
Fuel from algae – introduction
6
2
The potential benefits of using algae to create biofuel
7
2.1
Algae thrive in a wide range of locations
7
2.2
Algae have higher yields than traditional oilseeds
7
2.3
There are opportunities for high-value co-products
9
2.4
Algae can be used to make jet fuel
9
2.5
Algal oil production may bring additional environmental benefits
9
3
The process of creating biofuels from algae
11
4
Algal fuel development
12
5
6
7
4.1
Significant US R&D support is benefiting specific companies
12
4.2
European government support is less dramatic
13
Direction of technological development
14
5.1
Open systems are cheap but susceptible to contamination
15
5.2
Closed bioreactors are more controllable, but costly
20
Tubular photobioreactors
20
Flat panel photobioreactors
21
Low-cost photobioreactors
21
Barriers to commercial-scale production
25
6.1
Growing algae requires control of multiple variables
25
6.2
Harvesting involves significant cost and energy use
28
6.3
Extraction is a hot technology topic
28
Market prospects
30
7.1
Viable business models have been slow to emerge
30
7.2
There is much work to do in genetic and metabolic engineering
31
Algal biofuels: opening up the market opportunity
7.3
Photobioreactors and biorefineries are developing fast
31
7.4
There will be significant market growth in the medium term
32
8 Company profiles
9
34
8.1
Algenol Biofuels
34
8.2
Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation
35
8.3
Aurora Biofuels
36
8.4
Bodega Algae
36
8.5
Diversified Energy Corporation
37
8.6
Global Green Solutions Inc.
38
8.7
LiveFuels
39
8.8
OriginOil
39
8.9
Sapphire Energy
40
8.10 Solarzyme
41
8.11 Solix Biofuels
42
8.12 XL Renewables
42
Conclusions
44
Products and services from Innovation Observatory
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Algal biofuels: opening up the market opportunity
0 Executive summary There are many potential benefits from the development of new ways of selecting, growing, harvesting and processing species of microalgae. One of these is the possibility of producing biofuels (biodiesel, ethanol and other liquid fuels) using relatively little land (compared with traditional biofuel feedstocks) and in a way that would reduce the emission of carbon: growing algae can make direct use of CO2 emitted from other processes as an input, holding out the possibility of carbon-negative production processes and carbon-neutral biofuels. Before the production of fuel, though, development of algae-related technologies is likely to support production of higher-value, lower-volume products – indeed some of these products are already produced from algae – these higher-value co-products are likely to be needed in order to support the commercial production of biofuels. The technical and commercial challenges of using algae to produce transportation fuel are formidable – for instance, growing algae effectively is a complex process requiring attention to multiple factors (see Fig. 0) and there are also difficulties in harvesting and oil extraction.
Water
Minerals
CO2
Light
Land requirements
Strain selection
Predators and parasites
Temperature and climate
Figure 0: Important factors associated with mass cultivation of algae [Source: Innovation Observatory, 2010]
Equally formidable R&D resources being deployed to overcome the challenges. A large amount of development support money is being invested, and many companies are innovating. This report examines the potential and the barriers to the development of algal biofuels, and concludes that with attention paid to a co-product strategy and colocation at CO2-generating or waste water sites, there is potential for dramatic growth in the volumes of algal oil being produced over the next 15 years. However, it is difficult to see those volumes becoming greater than a fraction of one per cent of current liquid fuel production in that time scale.
© Innovation Observatory Ltd 2010
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Algal biofuels: opening up the market opportunity
Sample table extract 1: Characteristics of some algae fuel species
Species
Characteristics
Botryococcus braunii
XXXXX
Dunaliella tertiolecta
XXXXX
Euglena gracilis
Euglena has a lipid content of 14–20% by dry weight. The ASP Program of NREL noted that “Euglena is unique compared to most algae of interest to the ASP as potential producers of biodiesel. Euglena produces both lipid (primarily in form of the wax ester myristyl-miristate) and carbohydrate as storage products”
Isochrysis galbana
XXXXX
Nannochloropsis salina
XXXXX
Neochloris oleoabundans
XXXXX
Scenedesmus dimorphus
XXXXX
Tetraselmis chui
XXXXX
Sample table extract 2: Open pond algal biofuels companies’ facilities
Company
Location
Facilities
AlgaeFuel
Concord, California, US
XXXXX
Aquaflow BionomicsNew Zealand
Harvests algae from the settling ponds of effluent management systems and other nutrient-rich water, typical of industries that produce a waste stream including the dairy, meat and paper industries. It commissioned a prototype commercial plant in March 2008 that has a flow of 5 billion litres per year
Aquatic Energy
Lake Charles, Louisiana, US
XXXXX
Aurora Biofuels
Alameda, California
XXXXX
Carbon Capture Corp.
La Jolla, California, US
XXXXX
Cellana
Hawaii, US
XXXXX
Infinifuel Biodiesel Dayton, Nevada, US
XXXXX
Ingrepro
XXXXX
Borculo, The Netherlands; and
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Algal biofuels: opening up the market opportunity
Renewables
a subsidiary in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kai BioEnergy
San Diego, California, US
XXXXX
Kent Bioenergy
San Diego, California, US
XXXXX
PetroAlgae
Melbourne, Florida, US
XXXXX
PetroSun
Scottsdale, Arizona, US
XXXXX
Seambiotic
Tel Aviv, Israel; and a subsidiary in New York, US
XXXXX
Š Innovation Observatory Ltd 2010
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Algal biofuels: opening up the market opportunity
Sample company profile: Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation Aquaflow is a small New Zealand-based company founded in 2005 and focused on building scalable production systems. The company’s approach is to harvest and convert wild microalgae which occur naturally in effluent management systems to biofuel. In addition to the refining of ‘green crude’ into fuels and chemicals, it provides the potential for other revenue streams, notably remediation and cleaning of waste water. According to Aquaflow director Nick Gerritsen, many of the companies seeking to make biofuels from algae are investing in culturing species with high lipid yield. However, Aquaflow regards this form of algae production as more expensive and, therefore, faces difficulties scaling the cultivation successfully to reach the commodity levels required for fuel production. Instead, the company has chosen to exploit wild microalgae found in polluted water sources. Open pond municipal waste facilities, for instance, provide a large surface area for the algae to use sunlight for photosynthesis, and also provide the essential nutrients of nitrogen and phosphorous for the algae to grow. In natural environments, many different algae species are found and populations rise and fall. To Aquaflow, this makes the algae production more robust as the system is not prone to total loss if one species competes for nutrition more successfully – a risk in culturing single algae species. Water is pumped through the Aquaflow harvesting unit, which achieves 70–90% recovery of biomass material on a continuous basis. Harvesters can be transported inside a 40-foot container. Multiple container-based units can be deployed depending on the site water remediation requirements. Aquaflow has Figure 5: Aquaflow system in operation [Source: been working closely with Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation, reproduced with UOP, a Honeywell company permission] in the US, to look at refining the ‘green crude’ into diesel and jet fractions. Aquaflow has operated a prototype commercial plant since March 2008. It has achieved continuous harvesting of tonnes of wild algae at the Marlborough open sewage ponds. The pond has an annual flow of 5 billion litres and serves a population of 27,000, processing a mix of municipal and agro-industrial waste, including that from a significant wine industry. Capital is the main barrier to Aquaflow’s commercial-scale production, according to Nick Gerritsen. The company is currently building a significant portfolio of intellectual property that will hopefully allow it to undertake commercial activities well beyond New Zealand around 2012.
© Innovation Observatory Ltd 2010
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Algal biofuels: opening up the market opportunity
Copyright and terms of use This report is published by Innovation Observatory Ltd, Silvaco Technology Centre, Compass Point Business Park, St Ives, Cambs., PE27 5JL, UK. Tel: +44 1480 309341 Email: sales@innovationobservatory.com Web: www.innovationobservatory.com. Registered in England and Wales at Charter House, 3rd Floor, 62-64 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1LA. Company registration number 5598542 © Innovation Observatory Ltd 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written consent of the publisher. Innovation Observatory grants customers a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the report within their organisation only, including within closed computer systems, for internal use. The report shall not be distributed in any form to people outside a customer’s organisation.
Disclaimer This document, including any figures and tables, has been prepared by Innovation Observatory using all reasonable care and skill, and independently of any client-specific work. Opinions expressed are those of the report authors only. Innovation Observatory shall not be liable for loss or damage (including consequential loss) whatsoever or howsoever arising from the use of this publication by the customer or any third party. Terms appearing in this report may be proprietary and these are acknowledged through the normal UK publishing practice of capitalisation. The presence of a term in whatever form does not affect its legal status as a trademark. All reasonable attempts have been made to seek permission from authors and publishers to reproduce extracts from academic work cited in this report.
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