Unfortunately, the algae energy industry is haunted by exaggeration and irrational excuberance. There is definately a potential within algae biofuel, but the overly optimistic views are not particularly helpful to create credibility for the industry.
One might ask how many photons per (acre-year) are needed to make 20,000 gallons of any biofuel? Perhaps, Jan-Hendrik is alive and well and in Cambridge? For some background on issues, one might look at “Closed photobioreactors as tools for biofuel production ” Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2009, 20:280–285, which notes a photoconversion efficiency [PCE] of about 9%, and states: for reaching the ceiling of 9% PCE, photo-bioreactors have to be almost ideal concerning mass and light transfer. That is, of photosynthetically active photons in sunlight [PAR, 400-700 nm], only about 9% go into photosynthesis. Then, one must consider “how many” photons are needed per molecule of biofuel.
“The majority [of the efforts] are a gigantic hassle of time and capital because they’re trying to make coal out of diamonds,” said David Andresen, a clean-tech investment banker at Oracle Capital Securities. “There’s such a high level of scientific illiteracy in the investment community that you can really wow investors.”
Both sides of an argument must be heard. It is easy to only listen to the side of the argument that supports your hopes or beliefs (confirmation bias).
That is why we have started to list writers and websites that have a more skeptic view on the prospects of algae energy. Not healthy questioning skeptics like we all are and should be, but “convinced negatives” would perhaps be a more accurate description of the types of commenters we are talking about. (Nothing negative, we appreciate all sides of the debate!)
Anyway, we think all arguments should be heard and have decided to dedicate a page where we list all the counter-arguments and their associated sources.
All with the aim of full disclosure, and bringing real facts and knowledge to the table, without hype, neither positive, nor negative.
Origin Oil’s President and CEO, Riggs Eckelberry, will presentwill present an algae productivity model to “industry leaders and fellow members” at National Algae Association’s quarterly conference in Houston on September 18, 2009.
This sounds hugely interesting! Anyone going to the conference? Will it be possible for non-members to have a look at the model?
“A good baseline model for productivity of industrialized algae is critical to the billions being invested in the algae segment,” said Eckelberry. “It is our intention to share as much of this as we can to foster collaboration and help quantify industry productivity, raw material requirements including energy, capital requirements and potential ROI.”
The conference will be held on September 17-18, 2009 at the Sheraton North Houston in Houston, TX. In support of its recent response to The Department of Energy’s National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap, “Algae: The New Oil” will cover a full range of subjects focusing on the commercialization of the algae production industry, including research, growing, harvesting, extraction and by-products, as well as project financing issues and grant-writing techniques. Among those presenting will be industry peers from LiveFuels, Inc., Alfa Laval Group, Phycal and Algaeventure Systems, Inc. For more information or to attend the seminar, visit www.nationalalgaeassociation.com.
We promise to synthesize information in this and quite a few other articles within shortly and put it into our “Algae biodiesel production cost database”.
The Oil Drum | Cost Viability and Algae
Robert Rapier recently drew attention to the demise of GreenFuel Technologies, the company founded on ideas from MIT and Harvard and supported by millions of dollars in venture capital funding. One of the creative ideas that the company has was to located their plant at existing power stations so that the carbon dioxide generated in the flue gas could be fed into the bio-reactors holding the algae, with the gas also keeping the algae at an optimal growing temperature. It was a company that was in the vanguard of promoting the use of algae in both carbon dioxide collection and liquid fuels production.
We are collecting and synthesizing publicly available information about production costs of algae based biodiesel. The database will soon be made available and with the help of our readers and partners, it will hopefully grow in size, completeness, and relevance as time goes.
The deal has been reported elsewhere. The film is well made and conveys a great story, with one extremely crucial point missing: What does this diesel cost per gallon?
