President Announces Funding for Algae Biofuel Breakthroughs
February 23, 2012
AlgaeIndustryMagazine.com
President Obama has announced new funding to catalyze breakthrough technologies for biofuels—as part of his all-of-the-above energy strategy to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and provide American families new choices for vehicles that do not rely on conventional gasoline. Through its Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E), the Department of Energy will make $14 million available to support research and development into biofuels from algae.
The Energy Department’s $14 million funding announcement to develop transportation fuels from algae builds on an Administration-wide commitment to biofuels research, development, and demonstration that includes support for the construction of commercial-scale, next-generation biorefineries. Part of the Department’s sustained investment in biofuels technologies focuses on unlocking the potential for homegrown transportation fuels from algae which, according to the administration, have the potential to replace up to 17% of the United States’ imported oil for transportation. The Department is currently supporting more than 30 algae-based biofuels projects, representing $85 million in total investments.
Through the new funding announcement, the Department will seek proposals from small businesses, universities, and national laboratories to modify existing facilities for long-term algae research and test new production processes that could lead to commercial biofuels made from algae. Specifically, the new projects will establish and operate research “test beds” for algal biofuels that can facilitate development, test new approaches to algae production, and discover innovative ways to minimize the water and nutrients needed to mass produce algae for commercial biofuels. These advanced research projects will aim to significantly improve the sustainability of algae-based biofuels and accelerate technological breakthroughs. These awards represent the first phase in a total $30 million investment in algal biofuels in fiscal year 2012.
The competitively selected projects will receive up to $14.3 million in fiscal year 2012 funds, with an additional $6.7 million available in fiscal year 2014 funding, subject to Congressional appropriations, for projects that meet rigorous performance criteria. Applications are due on April 18, 2012. For more information and application requirements for the Funding Opportunity Announcement, please visit the Funding Opportunity Exchange website.
ABO Launches AllAboutAlgae.com for Consumers
February 7, 2012
AlgaeIndustryMagazine.com
he Algal Biomass Organization has introduced a new website showcasing the potential of algae-based products to provide sustainable and scalable sources of food, energy and fuel. The website, AllAboutAlgae.com, was developed in concert with the National Biodiesel Board and provides information, videos and photos about algae-derived products including biodiesel, aviation fuel, biochemicals, animal feed and nutritional supplements.
The site allows users to navigate between basic and more complex aspects of algae. It answers questions about what algae are and their unique characteristics as a feedstock for fuels, food, feed and other products. It includes reviews of the history of algae research, state-of-the-art technology and the latest efforts of the industry to begin large-scale production. Users can review photos of operations, video interviews with industry and academic experts, an algae FAQ, and a quiz that tests their algae knowledge.
AllAboutAlgae.com was funded, in part, by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Ocean robots could sail seas and farm fuel from algae
Ocean robots could sail seas and farm fuel from algae
By Jeremy Hsu
The biofuel farm contained only a small wind turbine, solar panel and container of green scum packed within a tub-size frame floating on the water. But its design could someday spawn fleets of robotic farms that harness the ocean winds and sunshine to make cheap, algae-based biodiesel fuel for cars, trains and aircraft.
That vision set forth by BEAR Oceanics aims for self-sustaining robot farms capable of steering clear of boats or ships as they rely solely upon wind and solar power to grow algae year-round. The robotic farms would turn algae sludge into 5 gallons of biofuel per day with a sped-up version of the geological process that created Earth’s fossil fuels — all without the risks of drilling for oil or fracking for natural gas.
“At this point, you’ve turned biomass into a biofuel, and you haven’t used any chemicals, so that you don’t have a toxic waste stream,” said Rudy Behrens, an engineer at BEAR Oceanics. “We can do this on a large scale without disrupting the food chain or creating a hazard.”the environment,” Behrens explained. “You certainly don’t have the problems of using bioengineered organisms.”
Then it’s time for harvest. A mild electric current bursts the algae cells to release lipid oils that will eventually turn into biodiesel. The robotic farm ends up with something like hydrogenated vegetable oil floating on the surface, even as the remaining sludge gets recycled into growing more algae.
To sidestep typical biodiesel production involving toxic chemicals, BEAR Oceanics turned to thermal depolymerization — a method that uses heat and pressure to turn the “vegetable oil” into proper biodiesel. Pumping the oil through a tiny opening creates tiny bubbles capable of reaching 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures of 5,000 pounds per square inch.
Turning robot dreams into reality
But all that biofuel won’t do anyone any good if the robotic farms end up wandering lost at sea. BEAR Oceanics built a robotic control system that can detect movement around itself and calculate a path to avoid any other vessels.
It can even automatically head for a “safe zone” and drop anchor if an electronic glitch occurs — a safety feature that got the approval of the U.S. Coast Guard. Now all that Behrens and BEAR Oceanics can do is wait and see whether the online crowds at Kickstarter show similar approval by donating.
“I just read about Kickstarter, and it seemed consistent with how I wanted this to be human-scale technology,” Behrens said.
A human-scale project
The first test system sank under the furious assault of a male swan caught up in the heat of mating season rivalries. Undiscouraged, Behrens and BEAR Oceanics have already built and tested a bigger, swan-proof system that resembles a pyramid-shaped greenhouse.
Now the Pennsylvania-based startup is looking for help from online do-gooders to build its first full-size robot farm. It recently posted a project on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter to ask for $2,000 in donations.
“I meant this to be a human-scale technology that people could do either as a part-time effort, or as a small business or as a major business,” Behrens told InnovationNewsDaily. “It’s meant to be economically viable at a very small scale, but you can scale it up as much as you like.”
Building a robotic farm would take an estimated $1,200 and 140 man hours. Such robots could end up churning out biodiesel for between 30 to 60 cents per gallon, Behrens said.
Turning sludge into fuel
The biodiesel relies upon a sludgy mixture of six organisms, including the blue-green spirulina algae and Azolla water fern. Such a mixture has proved capable of not only doubling its mass every 92 minutes inside a lab at Rutgers University, but also growing in the harsher environment of a Pennsylvania greenhouse from late summer through winter and spring.
“The whole basis of this system is that you use indigenous biomass, so you don’t have the problems of invasive species in the environment,” Behrens explained. “You certainly don’t have the problems of using bioengineered organisms.”
Then it’s time for harvest. A mild electric current bursts the algae cells to release lipid oils that will eventually turn into biodiesel. The robotic farm ends up with something like hydrogenated vegetable oil floating on the surface, even as the remaining sludge gets recycled into growing more algae.
To sidestep typical biodiesel production involving toxic chemicals, BEAR Oceanics turned to thermal depolymerization — a method that uses heat and pressure to turn the “vegetable oil” into proper biodiesel. Pumping the oil through a tiny opening creates tiny bubbles capable of reaching 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures of 5,000 pounds per square inch.
Turning robot dreams into reality
But all that biofuel won’t do anyone any good if the robotic farms end up wandering lost at sea. BEAR Oceanics built a robotic control system that can detect movement around itself and calculate a path to avoid any other vessels.
It can even automatically head for a “safe zone” and drop anchor if an electronic glitch occurs — a safety feature that got the approval of the U.S. Coast Guard. Now all that Behrens and BEAR Oceanics can do is wait and see whether the online crowds at Kickstarter show similar approval by donating.
“I just read about Kickstarter, and it seemed consistent with how I wanted this to be human-scale technology,” Behrens said.
New UN climate deal struck, critics say gains modest
Published : Sunday, December 11th, 2011
By : Reuters
Countries from around the globe agreed on Sunday to forge a new deal forcing all the biggest polluters for the first time to limit greenhouse gas emissions, but critics said the plan was too timid to slow global warming.
A package of accords agreed after marathon UN talks in South Africa extended the 1997 Kyoto Protocol – the only global pact enforcing carbon cuts – allowing five more years to finalize a wider pact which has so far eluded negotiators.
Kyoto’s first phase – due to expire at the end of next year but now extended until 2017 – imposed limits only on developed countries, not emerging giants like China and India. The United States never ratified it.
Those three countries and the EU held a last-ditch huddle in the conference centre before finally agreeing to wordingthat commits them to a pact with legal force, although exactly what form it will take was left vague.
Countries also agreed the format of a fund to help poor nations tackle climate change.
But many small island states and developing nations at risk of being swamped by rising sea levels and extreme weather said the deal marked the lowest common denominator possible and lacked the ambition needed to ensure their survival.
Agreement on the package, reached in the early hours of Sunday, avoided a collapse of two weeks of climate talks and spared the blushes of host South Africa, whose stewardship of the fractious negotiations came under fire from rich and poor nations.
“We came here with plan A, and we have concluded this meeting with plan A to save one planet for the future of our children and our grandchildren to come,” said South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who chaired the talks.
“We have made history,” she said, bringing the hammer down on the Durban conference, the longest in two decades of UN climate negotiations.
Delegates agreed to start work next year on a new, legally binding accord to cut greenhouse gases, to be decided by 2015 and to come into force by 2020.
The process for doing so, called the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, would “develop a new protocol, another legal instrument or agreed outcome with legal force” that would be applicable under the UN climate convention.
That phrasing was used by all parties to claim victory.
Britain’s Energy and Climate Secretary Chris Huhne said the result was “a great success for European diplomacy.”
“We’ve managed to bring the major emitters like the US, India and China into a roadmap which will secure an overarching global deal,” he said.
US climate envoy Todd Stern said Washington was satisfied with the outcome: “We got the kind of symmetry that we had been focused on since the beginning of the Obama administration. This had all the elements that we were looking for.”
Yet UN climate chief Christiana Figueres acknowledged the final wording on the legal form a future deal was ambiguous: “What that means has yet to be decided.”
Environmentalists said governments wasted valuable time by focusing on a handful of specific words in the negotiating text, and failed to raise emissions cuts to a level high enough to reduce global warming.
Sunday’s deal follows years of failed attempts to impose legally-binding, international cuts on emerging polluters, such as China and India, as well as rich nations. Poor countries argue they should deserve leeway to catch up in development.
Sunday’s deal extends Kyoto until the end of 2017, ensuring there is no gap between commitment periods. EU delegates said lawyers would have to reconcile those dates with existing EU legislation.
Least bad option
India’s Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, who gave an impassioned speech to the conference denouncing what she said was unfair pressure on Delhi to compromise, said her country had only reluctantly agreed to the accord.
“We’ve had very intense discussions. We were not happy with reopening the text but in the spirit of flexibility and accommodation shown by all, we have shown our flexibility… we agree to adopt it,” she said.
Small island states in the front line of climate change, said they had gone along with a deal but only because a collapse of the talks was of no help to their vulnerable nations.
“I would have wanted to get more, but at least we have something to work with. All is not lost yet,” said Selwin Hart, chief negotiator on finance for the coalition of small states.
Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu, head of the Africa Group, added: “It’s a middle ground, we meet mid-way. Of course we are not completely happy about the outcome, it lacks balance, but we believe it is starting to go into the right direction.”
UN reports released in the last month said delays on a global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions will make it harder to keep the average rise to within 2 degrees Celsius over the next century.
“It’s certainly not the deal the planet needs – such a deal would have delivered much greater ambition on both emissions reductions and finance,” said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“Producing a new treaty by 2015 that is both ambitious and fair will take a mix of tough bargaining and a more collaborative spirit than we saw in the Durban conference centre these past two weeks.”
AMIC to Embark On Biofuel Research
The Aerospace Malaysia Innovation Center (AMIC) is set to advance the country’s competency in the aerospace sector by embarking on reserach to identify algae for making aviation fuel. Some RM 15 million has already been approved for the industry-led research and technology center for its first year of operation.
The research could lead to the country cementing a major leadership role in global biofuel production for the aviation industry. The center, developed by Malaysian industry Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) brings together stakeholders from the public and private sectors as well academic and research communities.
Funded by RM 40 million in grants from the Government, EADS and Rolls Royce, the center pairs industry demand for research and technology with local Malaysian capability from universities, including lead universty, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).
Rolls Royce and MIGHT has previously collaborated with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and University of Cambridge to conduct a collaborative research under the Offset Trent 900 program to investigate the possibilities of using biofuels for gas turbine combustion some time in 2007.
One February 25, 2008, Virgin Galactic has become the first airline to fly with biofuel when its Boeing 747-400 flew from London to Amsterdam carrying in one of its four fuel tanks a 20 % mix of biofuel derived from coconut and babassu oil.
source : AMIC
