Fuel prices increased three times in Mozambique this year due to high import costs. For this reason, the country is looking into biofuels as an alternative. Mozambique's ministries of agriculture and energy presented a study showing that more than five million hectares of land can be used sustainably in the production of crops that would produce biodiesel fuels. The first phase of a biofuel implementation plan was also presented, identifying the provinces of Inhambane, Zambezia, Nampula and Cabo Delgado as the first to benefit.
Summertime prompts algae company to demonstrate its technology
Quicknote bioenergy technology
PetroSun, Inc., an algae-to-biofuels company announced today that it will conduct a three-day algae-to-biodiesel demonstration at its facilities near Auburn, Alabama. The event is currently being scheduled for early August 2007 and will be by invitation only. Participants will be required to execute Secrecy / Nondisclosure Agreements prior to admittance to the demonstration site.
The purpose of the event will be to demonstrate to the alternative energy and transportation fuel industries that the cultivation of algae, extraction of algal oil and the conversion to a biofuel are possible on a commercial scale. PetroSun will provide algal oil samples and analysis to participants prior to the event for their independent studies. A diesel truck engine will be operated during the three-day demonstration from algae biodiesel produced by the company.
Like others, we are sceptical of algae technology, with reason. Most of the algae companies have never proved that the technology works on a continuous basis and/or on a large scale. Some of them have seriously disappointed investors because their claims will never materialise and they have been postponing demonstrations indefinitely. Still other algae companies seem to drop press releases on a monthly basis, while in silence they are investing in ordinary terrestrial energy crops or announce fantasy concepts (just to get press attention). Some scientists go so far as to say that all of the algae companies' claims simply contradict the most basic laws of physics [*.pdf].
The fact is that decades of fundamental research showed that the micro-organisms can not deliver any serious amount of energy. Lots of data from the 1970s and 1980s are available that can be compared to PetroSun's trials (an overview).
Interestingly, it is no coincidence PetroSun's trials take place in the hottest and sunniest summer month of the year. Like any photosynthetic organism, the amount and intensity of sunlight determines the amount of energy that is produced in its cells.
For algae, biomass productivities can be very high in summertime (with peaks of up to 37.5g/m²/per day), but drop in wintertime to negligable productivities as low as 3g/m²/day. Very few trials have ever been successfully carried out for longer than a year (most cultures became contaminated or unstable after a few days or weeks and had to be discontinued). When grown continuously during an entire year including during the autumn, winter and spring months with their low productivities, and in optimal, sunny locations (like the Negev Desert), maximum average productivities recorded in the many trials of the 1970s and 1980s were 51.1 tons of biomass per hectare, well below the productivity of ordinary terrestrial energy crops like sugarcane. Average yields were around 30 tons/ha/year:
biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: algae :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: efficiency ::
With these data in mind, it will be interesting to see how well PetroSun's algae perform. The researchers from the past have often written that the maximum yields (50 tonnes/ha/year) were too low to make algae based biofuels competitive with oil at record oil prices (which stood at US$ 80/barrel back then). Costs had to come down by a factor of between 5 and 20. Since the discontinuation of most algae-biofuel research in the 1990s, there have been no major biotech breakthroughs in the field.
PetroSun's trial is important but it must be stressed that a three day trial says nothing about the capacity of the technology to grow algae continuously for a whole year, and year after year, including during the winter season that seams to be a major barrier to algae-culture.
It is not clear whether PetroSun's trials will be with algae grown in open raceway ponds or in closed photobioreactors. If the latter is the case, we can dismiss the technology out of hand immediately. There was a scientific consensus in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, both in Europe, the US and Japan, that such expensive bioreactors can never be cost-effective. Open ponds were seen as the only viable option, but came with many drawbacks (such as contamination with rival organisms and pollution).
PetroSun, Inc., an algae-to-biofuels company announced today that it will conduct a three-day algae-to-biodiesel demonstration at its facilities near Auburn, Alabama. The event is currently being scheduled for early August 2007 and will be by invitation only. Participants will be required to execute Secrecy / Nondisclosure Agreements prior to admittance to the demonstration site.The purpose of the event will be to demonstrate to the alternative energy and transportation fuel industries that the cultivation of algae, extraction of algal oil and the conversion to a biofuel are possible on a commercial scale. PetroSun will provide algal oil samples and analysis to participants prior to the event for their independent studies. A diesel truck engine will be operated during the three-day demonstration from algae biodiesel produced by the company.
Like others, we are sceptical of algae technology, with reason. Most of the algae companies have never proved that the technology works on a continuous basis and/or on a large scale. Some of them have seriously disappointed investors because their claims will never materialise and they have been postponing demonstrations indefinitely. Still other algae companies seem to drop press releases on a monthly basis, while in silence they are investing in ordinary terrestrial energy crops or announce fantasy concepts (just to get press attention). Some scientists go so far as to say that all of the algae companies' claims simply contradict the most basic laws of physics [*.pdf].
The fact is that decades of fundamental research showed that the micro-organisms can not deliver any serious amount of energy. Lots of data from the 1970s and 1980s are available that can be compared to PetroSun's trials (an overview).
Interestingly, it is no coincidence PetroSun's trials take place in the hottest and sunniest summer month of the year. Like any photosynthetic organism, the amount and intensity of sunlight determines the amount of energy that is produced in its cells.
For algae, biomass productivities can be very high in summertime (with peaks of up to 37.5g/m²/per day), but drop in wintertime to negligable productivities as low as 3g/m²/day. Very few trials have ever been successfully carried out for longer than a year (most cultures became contaminated or unstable after a few days or weeks and had to be discontinued). When grown continuously during an entire year including during the autumn, winter and spring months with their low productivities, and in optimal, sunny locations (like the Negev Desert), maximum average productivities recorded in the many trials of the 1970s and 1980s were 51.1 tons of biomass per hectare, well below the productivity of ordinary terrestrial energy crops like sugarcane. Average yields were around 30 tons/ha/year:
biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: algae :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: efficiency :: With these data in mind, it will be interesting to see how well PetroSun's algae perform. The researchers from the past have often written that the maximum yields (50 tonnes/ha/year) were too low to make algae based biofuels competitive with oil at record oil prices (which stood at US$ 80/barrel back then). Costs had to come down by a factor of between 5 and 20. Since the discontinuation of most algae-biofuel research in the 1990s, there have been no major biotech breakthroughs in the field.
PetroSun's trial is important but it must be stressed that a three day trial says nothing about the capacity of the technology to grow algae continuously for a whole year, and year after year, including during the winter season that seams to be a major barrier to algae-culture.
It is not clear whether PetroSun's trials will be with algae grown in open raceway ponds or in closed photobioreactors. If the latter is the case, we can dismiss the technology out of hand immediately. There was a scientific consensus in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, both in Europe, the US and Japan, that such expensive bioreactors can never be cost-effective. Open ponds were seen as the only viable option, but came with many drawbacks (such as contamination with rival organisms and pollution).
2 Comments:
this trial will amount to nothing...all of these publicly traded penny stock algae companies are nothing but traps for naive investors. the only companies that have any chance of achieving commercial success in algae are the venture backed companies that have actual scientists
"the only companies that have any chance of achieving commercial success in algae are the venture backed companies that have actual scientists"....
umm, like Greenfuel? :)
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