Friday, October 10, 2008

When CBS4 first reported on the idea dreamed up by a startup in Boulder and CSU engineers of producing oil derived from fast-growing algae and turning it into biodiesel, project leaders just starting to figure out if it would actually work.

Colorado State University`s Engines and Energy Conversion lab and Solix Biofuels Inc. are now much closer to large scale production of the fuel source derived from some of the fastest-growing organisms on the planet.

Project leaders say algae is the fuel crop of the future. It can produce 100 times more oil than crops like soybeans. Soybeans, canola and other soil-tilled crops are currently being used to produce biodiesel. Cooking oil is also powering some vehicles.

Prof. Bryan Willson showed CBS4 an algae generator at the lab that runs on sunlight and carbon dioxide (a photo-bioreactor system).

"You can see the bubbles. We`re bubbling a mixture of air and carbon dioxide," he said. "It`s a system we put together to grow algae at very high rates under the conditions we need to accumulate significant amounts of oil."

Eventually the algae ends up as a concentrated green paste. Once the water is removed it is roughly about 1/3 oil.

The idea is to build acres of algae generators close to a carbon dioxide source like a power plant or brewery.

Doug Henston, Solix`s CEO, told CBS4 they are experimenting with better ways to grow extra oily algae and pushing to cut the cost of producing a barrel of algae oil so it can be competitive with the wholesale price of crude petroleum.

"Where our current technology is, were probably competitive somewhere around $150 a barrel," he said.

"Somewhere between $70 and $100 a barrel ... we`re trying to push down towards that range because in the long term you`ve got to be able to compete with the current energy markets."

Next spring Solix and CSU plan to make their first large algae farm with acres of larger generators.

They are hopeful that in less than 3 years algae will be in commercial production, powering vehicles with algae biodiesel.

The researchers say growing algae uses much less water than traditional crops and it doesn`t matter if the water is fresh or salty, clean or dirty - it all works for growing this new source of biofuel.


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