Posts tagged algae

Algae based biofuel is a new energy source that has been getting a lot of attention lately. Certain types of algae contain natural oils that can be readily distilled into a vegetable oil or a number of petroleum like products that could serve as drop in replacements for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Dunaliella salinais a type of halophile green micro algae especially found in sea salt fields. Interestingly this algae grows bright pink and can produce up to 35% in lipids(oils) that could one day power your car. Luckly for us we have plent of salt water in the world.

(Source: futurenow321)

Sapphire Energy, the Sorrento Valley company that’s on a mission to turn algae into the fuel of the future for cars and jets, is on a roll.

And Cynthia “C.J.” Warner who joined the company in 2009 as president and was tapped as CEO this year should know.

Last month, the company completed $144 million in financing from Arrowpoint Partners and Monsanto. Original investors include Bill Gates (Cascade Investment), VenRock (Rockefeller family ventures) and Britain’s Wellcome Trust.

Next month, Sapphire launches its new “green crude farm” in Luna County, N.M., where it will begin to grow multiple acres of algae in open ponds. The goal for the demonstration plant is 100 barrels a day by 2015 and by 2018 a projected 5,000 to 10,000 barrels a day.

(Source: futurenow321)

A tiny microorganism found in Norwegian lake sludge may be related to the very oldest life forms on this planet, a possible modern cousin of our earliest common ancestor. It is not a fungus, alga, parasite, plant or animal, yet it has features associated with other kingdoms of life. It could be a founding member of the newest kingdom on the tree of life , scientists said. Life on Earth is divided into two main groups, the prokaryotes and the eukaryotes. Prokaryotes are simple life forms, with no membranes or cell nuclei; this group includes bacteria and archaea. Eukaryotes, which include humans, animals, plants, fungi and algae, have cell membranes and nuclei. This new organism is a eukaryote. More specifically, it’s an algae-eating protozoan, a type of creature that have been known to science since the Civil War but which have lacked genetic studies because they’re difficult to culture. Researchers in Norway were able to harvest them from a lake bed and breed them in the lab. This one is called Collodictyon.Researchers led by Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi, head of the Microbial Evolution Research Group (MERG) at the University of Oslo, were examining the species’ genes and morphological makeup and found it is not like anything else. It evolved a billion years ago, give or take a couple hundred million years. It could have been living the same way since then, providing scientists a glimpse of what the earliest life forms looked like. The organism is weird in several key ways. It has four flagella, for instance, which makes it different from bacteria and eukaryotes. Mammals, fungi and amoebae only have one flagellum — that’s the propeller-like feature that helps cells move (think of the “tail” of a sperm cell). Algae, plants and single-celled parasites called excavates are thought to have had two flagella. Collodictyon is somewhere between an excavate and an amoeba. Also, the organism has the same internal structure as a parasite, but it uses amoeba-like protuberances to catch its food, which are blue-green algae. So again, it combines features from two branches of the eukaryotes, further evidence that it’s a primordial creature, the researchers say. Even at its highest levels, the tree of life is mutable — the domain archaea was only recognized in 1990. So it wouldn’t be out of the question for this organism to spark an entirely new kingdom.

(Source: futurenow321)

A $10 million project aims to grow algae for biofuels inside plastic bags. Next week, NASA will show off some of its latest technology, a system for growing algae in floating plastic bags. The system is the result of a $10 million, two-year project that investigated whether the algae could be used to make biofuels, including jet fuel. The system is designed to reduce the cost of making fuel from algae by making it possible to put algae farms near wastewater facilities, which offer a large source of nutrients.

(Source: futurenow321)

Newt Gingrich may mock algae as a source of clean fuel, but the U.S. Navy’s got no problem with it. In fact, the Navy is extending its use of biofuels derived from the stuff.

Last November, a remotely controlled destroyer using a 50-50 blend of algae-derived, hydro-processed oil and a standard petroleum fuel made a 17 hour trek 150 or so miles up the California coast from San Diego to the Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme. 



That was the Navy’s largest until now. According to Solazyme, the U.S. Navy Frigate fleet ship USS Ford just sailed from its homeport in Everett, Wash., down to San Diego using 25,000 gallons of the company’s Soladiesel blended in even  proportions with F-76 military diesel.

Solazyme didn’t say exactly how far the trip was, but charts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration the distance from Seattle about 30 miles south of Everett to San Diego at 1,228 nautical miles.

The service has also tested alternative fuel in a yard patrol boat at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and in a landing craft utility off the Virginia coast.

  The other is Louisiana-based Dynamic Fuels, a Tyson Foods Syntroleum joint venture that makes its fuel from used cooking oil and non food grade animal fats. Last December the Navy said it will pay $12 million to purchase a total of 450,000 gallons of biofuels from the companies to help power a carrier group during big maritime exercises this summer.

After November’s remotely controlled biofuel test, the Navy reported “there was absolutely no difference, whatsoever, in the operation or performance of the ship” using the algae-derived fuel. Solazyme said that was the case on this longer voyage as well.

“Feedback from the ship’s engineers was favorable; the crew reported that operational performance of the  fuel system and gas turbine engines on the 50/50 blend was…comparable to operations on traditional petroleum F-76,” Solazyme confirmed in a statement.

(Source: futurenow321.blogspot.com)

Algae may be the future of oil, small single cell’s algae contains as much as 40% oil content. The advantage of this plant over more common plants is its ability to produce thousands of gallons of oil no bigger then a common pool. Here is a video detailing the process of how algae can be turned into a useable oil. One of the leading companys in this field is Solix biosystemsa leading provider large scale cultivation of algae. In 2009, Solix began operating its demonstration plant in southwestern Colorado, successfully scaling it, going from  4000 liter cultivation scale to over 50,000 liters. The facility utilizes produced water and waste CO₂ from coal and gas powered plants, demonstrating the suitability of the Lumian technology to use industrial waste streams. Check out there website of there massive algae bio-reactors

check out my blog for the video of how algae is extracted

  http://www.solixbiofuels.com/content/company

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