Blatant Reality

Back in December it was announced that the US military will help fund some research in creating algae biofuels, particularly aviation fuel.  Now, seven months later, an AP article interviews some of the researchers who received the military’s funding.

In this fairly lengthy interview, the tone is optimistic but at the same time reserved. For example, upbeat statements like these:

Work at the lab is part of a Pentagon project aimed at fast-tracking research to eventually produce algae-based biofuel that costs less than $3 per gallon, can be produced at a rate of 50 million gallons per year and meets strict military standards.

 

“We believe it’s possible. We wouldn’t invest in it if we didn’t,” said Jan Walker, a spokeswoman for the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, the Defense Department’s main research arm.

Are often followed with statements like these:

Back at the Utah State lab — where algae are shaken, stirred and stressed in the name of science — Muhs tempers his excitement over the potential of the green slime with a dose of reality. Algae fuels could be a transition-type fuel in the coming years but aren’t the singular savior to weaning modern society from petroleum.

 

“It’s not a silver bullet,” he said.

However, it is reasonable for scientists to be cautious about being too optimistic. By adding a dose of caution, these scientists will hopefully soften the blow of any setbacks their research may experience. Without it, funding could potentially be pulled if they experienced any setbacks in their research.

It is always better to be a little pragmatic in your predictions and wow your investors with the outcomes than overly optimistic in the predictions and not quite research your goals.

I mentioned in a post a couple days ago that President Obama is named in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and there was a particular scene where his foreign policy seemed to be bashed. Well, I got the transcript to this particular scene for you to enjoy:

[As armed troops in Hummers surround Autobots and Major Lennox’s men, Lennox starts to yell at those surrounding his men to stand down.]

 

Major Lennox: Drop your weapons! Drop your weapons! Tell them to lower their weapons. Tell them to lower their weapons now!

 

Army Officer: Major, there is nothing I can do. Talk to him.

 

[Galloway, special envoy from President Obama, steps out of a Hummer]

 

Galloway: Your NEST team has been deactivated. You are to cease anti-Decepticon operations and return to Diego Garcia pending further orders.

 

Major Lennox: No, we take our orders directly from chairman Morshower.

 

Galloway: I will see your chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and raise you a President of the United States.

 

[Galloway shows Major Lennox papers from the President]

 

Galloway: I have operational command now.

 

Galloway: An alien blood feud has been brought to our shores for which our soldiers are paying the price.

 

[Galloway looks towards the Autobots]

 

Galloway: The secret is out! This is our war now and we will win it as we’ve always have… with a coordinated military strategy.

 

One of the Autobots: This fool is terribly misinformed.

 

Major Lennox: You’re going to need every asset we’ve got…

 

Galloway: What we need is to draw battle plans as we explore every possible diplomatic solution.

 

Major Lennox: Like what? Handing over the kid?

 

[Pause before Galloway answers]

 

Galloway: All options are being considered.

 

[Galloway turns and walks away]

 

Random foreign military personnel: Whatever the Decepticons are after, this is just the start.

 

Major Lennox: There is no negotiating with them…

 

Galloway: I am ordering you to stand down. You won’t be needing this anymore.

 

[Galloway rips on insignia patch off of Major Lennox’s uniform]

 

Galloway: Get your assets back to base. Take that pile of scrap metal back to Diego Garcia too. Let’s go!

 

[Major Lennox stands by USAF Master Sergeant Epps as Galloway drives away]

 

Master Sergeant Epps: I really don’t like that guy. A$$…hole.

If you haven’t watched the movie or don’t know you the characters are, click here for a list of the cast.

As I stated in my previous article, Galloway is ultimately proven wrong and the military saves the day, seemingly without the approval of the president. If that isn’t a slight against the president I really don’t know what is.

I have seen that some are afraid in the alternative energy movement that big name companies getting involved and partnering with smaller renewable energy companies will somehow corrupt or sidetrack overall the movement. With the recent partnering of Algenol and Dow Chemical, I’m sure this sentiment will be echoed somewhere.

However, at least in algae, I don’t see these kinds of partnerships as a corrupting factor. Massive amounts of funds are needed to continue algae research and sometimes these large corporations are the only ones willing to give funding. If $ = advancements, then these companies will most likely lead the pack. While the direct technological advances these partnerships produce might not be available to the entire algae field, they will at least illustrate to other companies what can be accomplished.

In the algae field, proving the economical feasibility of algae biofuel production is still the number one priority. If one of these partnerships brings this about, it will have massive benefits to the entire field.  Investors will most likely  be more willing to invest in smaller algae companies if they know what can be accomplished.

Unlike other alternative energy operations that require large tracks of land, algae fuels can be grown on the small scale level, thus hindering any large corporation from ever completely cornering the market. Therefore, no matter if a large corporation becomes the first to develop an algae fuel (while somehow tainting the environmental applications of it), other smaller, more environmentally-minded algae companies will still be able to find niche markets and flourish.

In the market that algae biofuels will be catering to, I feel that there will be room for the large corporations as well as the small companies to coexist.

In yet another sign that the algae world is being taken seriously, Dow Chemical and Algenol have announced a partnership. This partnership will aim to produce ethanol from algae and be based in Freeport, Texas.

The project will use Algenol’s technology that calls for carbon dioxide and saltwater supplied to algae in photobioreactors to produce the biofuel.

 

Also contributing are the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Georgia Institute of Technology and Membrane Technology & Research, Inc.

 

Dow said the project aims for “a breakthrough process for ethanol production” that does not use food sources such as corn.

 

The United States is the world’s top producer of corn-based ethanol, but critics say this diverts needed food supplies and land resources for fuel, raising food prices on world markets.

 

“This project and the innovative technology involved offers great promise in the battle to help slow, stop and reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Andrew Liveris, Dow chairman and chief executive officer.

In my most recent Celsias.com article, I review Mark Edwards’ book Crash! The Demise of Fossil Foods and the Rise of Abundance. Here is the review in its entirety:

A month ago, I wrote a review on Mark Edwards’ book Green Algae Strategy which discusses the potential of algae as a fuel and food source. Recently, I finished reading Edwards’ most recent book Crash! The Demise of Fossil Foods and the Rise of Abundance which looks at the sustainability of our current food production system and offers algaculture as an alternative.

 

Crash! is comprised of two distinct parts. The first half of the book deals with why our current farming practices are not going to be sustainable in the long run or possibly even in the short run. Edwards makes the argument that many of the resources that help make farming affordable today will soon become too expensive/inaccessible for many farmers to continue.

 

One critical resource for farmers that may soon become inaccessible/unusable are aquifers, natural underground reservoirs. For example, Edwards takes a looks at several US aquifers that have experienced massive withdrawals well over the natural replenishment rate. In particular, he discussed the Ogallala Aquifer located in the US that has in some places collapsed due to low levels of water and left many farms without a water source.

 

Edwards also points to many important natural resources that may have only a few decades left of reserves in the world. He argues that many mineral resources like potassium and phosphorus which farmers rely on as fertilizers are running low in known reserves. As the supply of these minerals becomes more and more constricted, countries that export them may decide to horde instead of selling them which will send the price of the remaining mineral stocks skyrocketing.

 

The consumption of these fertilizers has also increased over the years, which has helped attribute to the rise in prices. Edwards stated that fertilizer consumption over the past decade has increased by roughly 30% worldwide and by 56% in developing countries alone over the same time period.  Edwards continues by stating that this increasing consumption trend isn’t good news for an industry that has seen the price of fertilizer rise in the past year from $400/ton to $1,000/ton, a 250% increase that has attracted the attention of Congress.  He argues that these prices could eventually force many farmers out of business.

 

Leading into the second half of the book, Edwards illustrates how algae and SAFE (Sustainable and Affordable Food and Energy) production can ensure that agriculture as we know it will continue and not, well, crash.  He discusses the many applications of algae such as using it as a very nutritious feed stock for animals, using the oil to create green diesel for tractors, and using the remaining biomass as fertilizer for traditional crops.

 

Since the threat of depletion of important fertilizer minerals is one of Edwards’ arguments for changing the way crops are grown, he argues that algae can be used to help recapture these minerals in farmland runoff. This reuse of the minerals will lessen the burden of continually mining new resources and potentially help shrink “dead zones” by lessening the mineral waste in rivers going to the Gulf and other areas.

 

From a conservative standpoint, there are several things that worth highlighting. One is that he states a lot of “gloom-and-doom” facts about how our current agriculture practices will lead to a collapse in food worldwide, but he never argues that we can’t overcome this threat. Instead he poses that while the current production practices are unsustainable, the world will be able to sustain the food supply and avert an agricultural crash by switching to the SAFE solution.

 

Crash! presents many solutions to help prevent the agricultural calamity Edwards warns about, solutions that both conservatives and liberals can support. For example, Edwards argues against many government farming subsidies. Conservatives and liberals would both support the end of subsidies for inefficient programs like ethanol that waste natural resources and taxpayer money. It is arguments like these that I feel will help to bridge the gap between conservatives and liberals on some of these environmental issues.

 

Overall Edwards combines some gloomy scenarios with enough upbeat solutions to give Crash! an even keel about it. He does a good job of pointing out what will happen without becoming too depressingly Malthusian in his predictions and arguably presents SAFE production as the next potential agricultural revolution.

 

If you want to view the book before you buy it, Mark Edwards has generously placed the complete book in PDF form on his website, GreenIndependence.org . You can view the book online here (FYI: This PDF file is over 3 MB in size so it may take awhile to download).

I wrote about St. Louis receiving funds for algae research in April but now we have a little more information about how much and what the money will be going towards.

Researchers at two centers in St. Louis are gearing up to launch five-year research programs on algae, backed by U.S. DOE grants. The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center received $15 million and Washington University $20 million from the DOE’s fund for Energy Frontier Research Centers. A total of 46 centers were funded from a pool of some 260 applications.

 

Danforth’s Center for Advanced Biofuels Systems will be led by Richard Sayre, who also serves as director of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels. Sayre said the new team of researchers will be studying the conversion of energy captured from photosynthesis in the single cell algae and how it is channeled into oil. With algae oil production ranging from 5 percent to 70 percent lipids, the researchers will be working to identify ways to increase oil production. “We’ll take apart the system step by step and develop mechanisms to work around the bottlenecks,” he explained. The researchers hope to identify catalysts and enzymes that could be engineered into the organism to improve oil yields.

 

Robert Blankenship, professor of biology and chemistry, will direct the Washington University Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center which will use its DOE support to delve into the science of photosynthesis and how light energy is harvested using algae as the model. Blankenship will be coordinating the efforts of 16 other principal investigators from around the world. The Washington University project will focus on the biophysics of light while the Danforth Center project focuses on biochemical conversion of that light into oil. Both programs are hiring personnel and organizing to officially launch the programs in August.

So, if I am understanding this right, the Danforth Center will looking at how oil is created and how to maximize production while Wash U will be looking at how light is captured and how to maximize that.

I am in the process of contacting both research teams so hopefully I will be able to bring you some firsthand accounts on what exactly they are doing and what they are accomplishing.

In “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”, there is a scene where the Obama Administration is portrayed as weak and, well, a modern day Chamberlain. I Twittered about this two days ago when I watched it and now it seems the media is picking up on it.

I suppose in my driveway antics, I’d run the risk of squashing an Autobot, one of the good robot aliens, as well. If either Mudflap or Skids, a pair of new characters who speak in an appallingly offensive ghetto patois, were my victims, I could live with myself. The world doesn’t need more versions of Jar Jar Binks. But what if it were the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime? Optimus truly cares about the future of the human race, unlike the Obama Administration, which Bay represents as so prissy and antiwar it just wants the alien robots off the planet. Bay’s Obama would probably drive his Prius over Optimus if he had the chance. But no problem; if you still had your hearing in the deafening home stretch of Revenge of the Fallen, you’d know that just about any chunk of metal can be brought back to life by merging the Matrix with its Spark. (I’m fairly sure this process has nothing to do with Keanu Reeves. As for the Spark, without benefit of the Hasbro manual, it’s impossible to say whether it is of the plug family or something more ephemeral like Chi.)

What the article fails to mention is that the movie clearly went out of its way to mention Obama. Here is where they scene happened:

**Warning: This is not spoiler, but will definitely reveal some of the plot**

In the movie, the Decepticons are invading the planet in Mass and the President Obama’s liaison to NEST (military group that works with the friendly Autobots to protect world) orders the group to stand down and not fight the invasion. Instead President wants to look into all options including diplomacy. They even are considering giving Sam (Shia LaBeouf’s character) to the Decepticons (which means certain death) in order to appease them.

Without giving too much away, let’s just say the “Obama way” isn’t followed and the day is saved.

The funny thing is that they don’t just make vague references to some nameless president like in most movies; they actually reference President Obama by name in at least one scene if not more.

Even though the critics are already saying this movie was a dud, I would recommend going to see it if not just for this part.

Here’s another article I wrote for Celsias.com. This one is about American BioResources, and algae company strictly focusing on developing an algae growth system. Here is the article in it’s entirety:

A little known algae biofuel company based out of Denver, CO is looking to make big waves in the coming months. They have stayed off the radar so well that if you were to do a Google News search on this company, all you would get is a mere handful of articles. However, this little over a year old company, American BioResources, is positioning itself to be one of the leaders in the algae biofuel field.

 

While the algae field has many companies all over the world developing the technology and cultivating the needed markets, American BioResources is taking a somewhat different approach than the big names like OriginOil and Solazyme. While these companies are looking to create more of a complete algae biofuel system from growth to fuel production, American BioResources is focusing strictly on the growth aspect.

 

“We are focused first and foremost on being a raw materials provider,” American BioResources President Christopher Reim said. “We want to focus on growing algae; we’re not interested in going upstream and being a refiner.”

 

In their growth system, they are looking to have the ability to grow different strains of algae since each strain can offer unique benefits and applications in the fuel sector as well as others.

 

Additionally, American BioResources believe that their growth system will have a better handle on the input energy costs than other systems out there. By using a closed growth system, they have direct control over what energy goes into the system and can ensure the energy produced outweighs the input.

 

“We believe we understand something very unique about how to use the right amount of energy through artificial lighting to get very good performance of algae,” Reim said. “We think we are getting more output because we are [growing algae] 24/7 at a frequency of light that is more meaningful to photo synthetic activity [than regular sunlight].”

 

Compared to some companies out there, American BioResources is well along in the  development of their growth system. They plan to sell a prototype of their growth system by the end of this summer and have several pilot growth projects up and running by the first quarter of next year.

 

As with most algae systems, CO2 is needed for growth and American BioResources is looking to localized sources to supply their closed growth systems.

 

“Because we are looking at a distributed production capability, meaning our units could be used in many locations across the US, we are looking for a regionalized model of CO2 collection and then use.”

 

To get CO2 to their growth systems, American BioResources is not looking to revolutionize CO2 collection systems. Instead, they are looking to partner with companies that can affordably provide the needed CO2.

 

“We want to partner with regional providers of CO2 to help them become a little greener for doing so but also match that with a logistics model that makes it affordable for us to get the CO2 where we need it.”

 

Even with a successful algae production system, algae biofuel companies still have to overcome the hurdle of finding support and interest from the public. American BioResources seems to have overcome this hurdle.

 

“We have a high level of interest from a broad mix of different parties, some private, some public,” Reim said.

 

Reim explained that the United States Department of Agriculture is one entity that has shown “excitement” towards American BioResources’ developments since algae growth offers rural economic development opportunities for farmers as well as providing a realizable fuel source.

 

“Today we are constrained in part by the cost and seasonality of the other [biofuel]  crops. We think that we can break out of that [constraint with algae].”

 

American BioResources also hasn’t disregarded the altruistic and infrastructure building potential that algae can offer. Reim explained that his company is currently looking into a partnership that will ultimately help bring these growth systems to third world countries to help supply energy as well as nutritional supplements like protein.

 

“If we even contributed in a small way to the general health improvement of developing nations, we would be incredibly proud.”

 

To conclude, Christopher Reim summarized what differentiates American BioResources from other algae biofuel companies.

 

“First, we are solely about growing algae, not about being an integrated refiner of fuels that happen to come from algae. That means that we can partner with those who already have an invested interest in refining and many of which have indicated they are gearing up to take algae oil. Second, we want to focus on our ability to deliver to the market at scale. First small scale, and specifically small scale where that is appropriate, and then replicate large volumes of capacity by getting many participants, primarily from agriculture, to work with us so we bring a new crop to market.”

 

Overall, American BioResources strict focus on a growth system is important in the advancement of the algae biofuel as a whole. Since producing large quantities of algae at a low cost is one of the remaining hurdles for algae biofuels, the laser-like focus of American BioResources on the growth aspect will definitely benefit the entire algae biofuel field.

UPDATE: Christopher Reim, the President of American BioResources, posted these corrections in the comment section:

Jonathan: Thank you for a very well-prepared and written article on our company! As a matter of record, I thought I would make two corrections so we don’t offend the better sensibilities of your informed readers. (A) We do not purport to create more energy “out” than energy going “in” to our system (you just can’t touch that First Law of Thermodynamics). But we do work to create an economically justifiable output of algae from our system, which our prototypes will seek to validate through this year. (B) We are not prepared to sell prototype units or other systems this year, but given success with our validation phase through this year, we hope to go to market as early as possible into next year (2010). Thank you again for your attention and interest.

My mistake on both accounts. I went back to the original interview and discovered that I had heard wrong in both instances. Thanks Christopher for those needed corrections.

Jeffrey Decker at Renewable Energy World has a great article which overviews what is going on in the algae biofuel field. If you are interested in getting a feel for what is going on right now in the field, I would highly recommend checking the article out.

The only problem I have with the article is that they have GreenFuel Technologies as proceeding “on a steady course” when, in fact, the company has basically ceased operations. Currently, GreenFuel is selling off their intellectual and other assets which doesn’t sound like a company that is on a steady course.

Other than that, everything else looks to be in order and judging on how long and indepth the article is, the GreenFuel part may have been written before they folded.

Happy Father’s Day! Thanks to all the fathers out there for all you do.