Posts Tagged ‘biofuel’

Las Cruces Bulletin photo by Samantha Roberts

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Samantha Roberts

You have to see it to believe it. The research on algae biofuel at Sapphire Energy could change the world, literally. Research and development measures at the compound could lead to replacing millions of gallons of transportation fuel a year with pond scum.  Currently, New Mexico is a leader in the world in terms of algae-based production because of its environmental conditions.

“Algae like the hot weather and lots of sunshine,” said Tim Zenk, vice president of corporate affairs for Sapphire Energy. “It even likes the slightly cooler temperatures during a New Mexico winter.”

“Algae also like brackish water,” said Denise Gitsham, Sapphire’s director of corporate affairs and legislative council. “Southern New Mexico has an abundance of salty water perfect for algae growth. And we are only using land that can’t be used for other purposes. We are not competing for drinking water or agricultural land. “We are creating the first above-ground renewable oil field.”

These reasons have led Sapphire Energy to name Las Cruces as its research and development facility, a component that will remain when the Columbus, N.M., site, which is currently under construction, is completed. Sapphire Energy started in 2007. The company has 155 employees across three facilities and more than 50 employees in Las Cruces.

“Sapphire purchased 10 acres at market value and promised to invest $6 million and create 30 jobs in three years,” said Christine Logan, economic development administrator for the City of Las Cruces. “In exchange, the city made 90 acres available at no cost. Sapphire surpassed their (promise) short of a year and a half.”

Las Cruces serves as a testing and development center, operating plot farms. The area is small in comparison to commercialization of the algae product and what will be done in Columbus but large by world standards, Zenk said. “We understand the business principles to make commercialized algae biofuel successful,” Zenk said. “We know we have to be concerned about crop protection, (fuel) extraction and crop yield as well as the biology and engineering behind the process. “Historically, 99 percent of crude oil has come from diatoms and algae. If Mother Nature can do this naturally, then so can we in petri dishes. And then take that to small ponds, to large ponds and to commercialization.”

Currently, the Las Cruces facility is operating at four different levels – petri dishes, small ponds, runway ponds and large ponds. The Columbus facility will have more large ponds connected back to back. “Our (final) goal is to produce 5,000 gallons of oil per acre per year,” said Bryn Davis, New Mexico operations manager.

Once the biofuel is capable of being produced on a large scale, Zenk said Sapphire’s initial target client will be the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). “The DOD has led the way for every energy change,” Zenk said. “There is strategic planning going on right now for the next (energy) transition. There will be an opportunity to be at the forefront of this technology, and a big proposal will soon be released by the U.S. Navy asking for large scale efforts to supply biofuels.”

The Navy is going to look at communities with the technology and the community support. They don’t want to push a technology on a community that doesn’t want it. Therefore, it is very important for the Las Cruces community and southern New Mexico to rally around our efforts and see the benefits for all sectors.”

Zenk said the request for information was due at the end of September. “The (request for proposal) will be released around the beginning of next year,” he said.

The Columbus site is expected to open by the spring or summer of 2012 with 100 acres and will spread over 300 acres upon final completion in 2015. Columbus is expected to produce 100 million gallons of diesel fuel per year. At phase three, the Columbus site will be a demonstration facility that Sapphire hopes to use as an example, attracting investors.

“At that scale, the site will demonstrate operations for a larger facility,” Davis said. Davis said there is little time to talk about algae because developments are happening so quickly. “We are competing with other nations,” he said. “When we broke ground in Las Cruces, I was already shopping for the land in Columbus. We have to think about the next step because there is not a lot of time.”

“China’s No. 1 objective is to develop a new source of energy,” Zenk said. “It is us versus them. We can fight over energy or develop a new source. It is the only hope for our military.”

New Mexico State University also has a large role to play in Sapphire’s success.

“Our goal is to create a center of excellence with advanced biofuels,” said City Councilor Nathan Small.

Currently, more than $15 million has been invested into the Las Cruces community, and Sapphire Energy has hired more than 50 people – many NMSU and Doña Ana Community College graduates – for the Las Cruces facility. Spin-off business will also be created through growth of Sapphire and commercialization of the algae biofuel.

“We use a large amount of CO2,” Zenk said. “To produce one gallon of algae fuel, we use about 20 to 25 pounds of CO2. Finding a consistent source of carbon dioxide is crucial. The pipeline in Lea County is very valuable to us. I can also see a business in managing CO2.”

Gitsham said she expects to see more graduates of NMSU and DACC staying in southern New Mexico as a result of the work at Sapphire.

“We are still at the dawn of the algae business,” Zenk said. “The biology is only four years old, and there is still a lot more ahead of us. If someone told you they knew everything about algae biology, they are probably lying.”

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

Written by Jay Rodman

Research being done at New Mexico State University on the production of algae-based biofuels would become increasingly impor­tant to New Mexico’s – and the na­tion’s – economic prosperity, if U.S. Sen. Tom Udall has his way.

Udall visited NMSU to announce legislation he will introduce in the Senate to ensure a more level playing field for the algal biofuels industry.

Joining Udall at the news confer­ence were NMSU President Barbara Couture; Pete Lammers, NMSU re­search professor and the technical director of the university’s Algal Bio­energy Program; Jim Peach, regents professor of economics; and Denise Gitsham, director of corporate af­fairs and legislative counsel for Sap­phire Energy, Inc., owner of a large biorefinery in Columbus, N.M.

The U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 established a production target of 36 billion gal­lons of advanced biofuels by 2022, with separate volume requirements for each category of renewable fuel. It also required that life-cycle analyses be used to ensure that each renewable fuel emits less greenhouse gas that the petroleum it replaces.

Udall said he feels the renewable fuel standards established by than law go a long way toward promoting U.S. energy security through domes­tic production of fossil fuel alterna­tives. In the current version; however, mandated targets for alternative fuel production favor corn-based and cellulosic ethanol over algae-based and other “advanced” biofuels.

He expressed his belief that Con­gress should promote research and development of alternative energy sources, but that the market should determine the balance among the various alternatives. The legislation that he and Public Works Commit­tee colleague Larry Crapo of Idaho plan to introduce will mandate par­ity for algae and other non-cellulosic advanced biofuels, in terms of pro­duction requirements and subsidies under the renewable fuel standards. Comparable bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

Udall chose NMSU as the site for his announcement because of the university’s established com­mitment to algal biofuel research. NMSU recently moved into algae bio-oil production mode with a new 4,000-liter Solix BioSystems algal photobioreactor, which joined four smaller algae “raceways” at the Fabi­an Garcia Science Center in Las Cru­ces. The university is a member of the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts consor­tium, established through $49 mil­lion in grants from the Department of Energy to explore all aspects of algal biofuel production, harvesting, extraction and upgrading to diesel and jet fuels.

Prior to the news conference, Udall was greeted by Couture at the science center. He then met with a group that included other NMSU ad­ministrators, New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte, and faculty and staff members involved in algal research. They showed him the new algal photobioreactor, as well as an automated biodiesel processor, and discussed various ways NMSU’s algal technology might be integrated into dairy and livestock production facili­ties, or even inland shrimp farming.

Lammer’s stressed the impor­tance of algae research in benefiting humankind. He foresees a situation in the not-too-distant future where converting algae into fuel will not only fill a significant portion of the nation’s energy needs, but will also capture value from waste streams to create a “cradle-to-cradle” approach to industrial ecology. Lammers sees the current push to develop renew­able fuels to blend with traditional petroleum products as a turning point in global energy policy, and he believes algae can play a key role.

“I think of algae cultivation as a waste-to-energy process that will benefit the economics of existing agricultural enterprises,” Lammers said. “This is the first step in a long journey. Industrial ecologies capable of sustaining a population of 7 bil­lion people for a thousand years will waste nothing and recycle ev­erything. In the long run, that will include industrial, municipal and agricultural waste streams.”

In his news conference remarks, Udall pointed out the advantages al­gal biofuel has over other options and the advantages New Mexico has over most other states in producing it.

Comparing algae to corn grown for ethanol and to soybeans used for biodiesel production, Udall explained that algae production requires much less land, can be accomplished with lower quality water, results in the absorption of large amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide – and it is not a food crop, so growing it for fuel production doesn’t impact the food supply.

New Mexico is an ideal place for algal biofuel production. It has plen­tiful sunshine, an abundance of water unsuitable for consumption or crop irrigation, and land is not scarce.

“I believe New Mexico is well po­sitioned to be a leader in this,” Udall said. “And with policies that encour­age the production of clean energy, our state can create an energy econo­my that leads the nation in develop­ing the jobs of the future.”

Udall shared the results of a sur­vey of 52 Algal Biomass Organization member companies on the issue of potential job growth from legislative and regulatory parity for algae. The estimate based on this survey sug­gested that “explosive” job growth – more than 200,000 jobs nationwide – could be expected over the next de­cade if Congress puts algae on a level playing field with ethanol and other advanced biofuels.

Peach and colleague Meghan Starbuck-Downes have studied the potential economic impact of algal biofuel production. Based on their economic model, they estimate that for every 100 million gallons of algal biofuel produced in the state, there would be 450 jobs created, includ­ing direct, indirect and induced jobs. State revenues would likely be boost­ed by $8 million to $9 million.

“New Mexico is an energy state with vast reserves of oil, natural gas, coal and uranium,” Peach said. “Wind and solar are significant parts of the state’s energy industry. Nearly all energy analysts agree that we need to develop all forms of energy. The algal biofuels industry could be­come an important part of the state’s energy portfolio and could have sub­stantial economic impacts.”

Sapphire Energy photo

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Marvin Tessneer

Sapphire Energy has started construction on pond structures eight miles west of Columbus, N.M., in Luna County to produce algae for what is known in the industry as green crude, which can be refined into fuel. AMEC, the prime contractor, is putting up structures that will contain 100 acres of ponds to grow algae, also known as “pond scum,” for green crude.

“This is the first phase of our plan to build 300 acres of a green crude production field,” said Bryn Davis operations manager at the Las Cruces Sapphire office. “This will affect fuel production in New Mexico and ultimately throughout the world.”

Sapphire uses the intense desert sunlight and groundwater to produce the algae. The company owns water rights it acquired with the desert land it has purchased. Since the water is saline, the green crude production will not compete with agriculture, Davis said.

Petroleum is 200 million to 300 million year- old algae that is pumped out of the ground, according to Stephen Mayfield, a Sapphire researcher based from San Diego.

Mayfield was a key player during the start­up of Sapphire Energy, Davis said.

“Algae already make oil that looks like crude oil,” Mayfield said. “The oil we extract from algae goes directly into a refinery and gets converted into diesel or gasoline.”

“We’re on line to start producing algae in Luna County at the end of next summer,” Davis said. “That’s the goal, but it’s always changing and progressing.”

When asked how long it would take until drivers would be able to fill their storage tanks with algae biofuel, Mayfield said, “We’re probably 10 years away. Many scientists said the biofuel is worth the wait because there will not be much choice as the world’s population increases along with the need for oil.”

The green crude possibilities are so promising, the federal government and venture capitalists are investing millions of dollars in the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, where Mayfield is the director.

The facility has received a $4 million state grant to train workers in the biofuel industry, Mayfield said in a Sapphire news release.

Algae grow fast in ample sunlight and small amounts of water. It can produce about 5,000 gallons of fuel per acre in a year. The best places to produce the green crude are deserts in New Mexico and the algae research farm in Imperial Valley, Calif. where the land is cheap and doesn’t compete with food production, Mayfield said.

“The enormous advantage that we have is, unlike corn, when you can get one crop a year, which is used to make ethanol, we can get one crop a week,” Mayfield said.

Green crude critics argue that algae-oil is too expensive, putting the cost at $24 per gallon.

“Technology and innovation will drive the price down while gas prices will continue to rise,” Mayfield said. “Within a decade, algae will be a less expensive fuel and the answer to independence from foreign oil. The country that controls energy controls the world. If we can’t find a domestic source for energy to power this country, we will have serious economic problems in the next 10 to 20 years.”

Sapphire also operates a series of research and development ponds in the West Mesa Industrial Park that covers more than 2 acres. The research on the West Mesa in going into the second full summer, Davis said.

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Gabriel Vasquez

Momentous scientific and manufacturing advances have marked the trail blazed by American innovation over the last 200 years.

That innovation continues in the arid desert of southern New Mexico, where private and public research firms are investing their expertise and money into developing green crude from algal fuel.

Photo courtesy of Sapphire Energy

“There is a biofuels revolution in New Mexico,” said U.S. Rep. Harry Teague during a biofuels roundtable discussion Monday, Oct. 11, at the Dona Ana Community College Workforce Center. “It is an industry that has tremendous potential to grow and expand.”

At the roundtable, representatives from Sapphire Energy, the Center of Excellence for Hazardous Material Management, New Mexico State University, the state’s Economic Development Department and the Southwestern Biofuels Association discussed both economic and social implications of developing large-scale biofuel production facilities in southern New Mexico.

“We need to be making energy in America and making jobs in America,” Teague said. “The biofuels industry will help us make it in America.”

The business model for the large-scale production of algae-based biofuel is in its early stages. Already, Sapphire Energy, a San Diego-based company backed by two of the biggest venture capitalists in the world – Bill Gates and the Rockefeller family – has set up a 100 acre test-and-demonstration facility near Las Cruces in preparation for a much larger biofuel production facility.

The company plans to break ground on the 300-acre biofuel refinery in Luna County, near Columbus, early next year.

“We have a very unique technology in that it uses a combination of CO2, algae and non-potable water that delivers a drop-in replacement for transportation fuel,” said Tim Zenk, Sapphire’s vice president of corporate affairs. “We’re talking about algae oil that can be converted and refined to gasoline, diesel and jetfuel.”

Similarly, Massachusetts company Joule Unlimited Inc. is looking at New Mexico to build its first biofuel production facility. Joule President Bill Sims said the state is at the top of his company’s list. The Joule plant, at an estimated 5,000 acres, would create up to 1,500 jobs in the state, he said.

Bringing more energy jobs to New Mexico is also the focus of the Southwestern Biofuels Association, said SWBA spokesperson Maria Zannes. “We’re here about jobs,” she said. “It’s what we focused on when the SWBA first started to develop its statewide plan.”

The SWBA is working with private industry, in conjunction with academia and the state government, to develop a biofuel business model that pays off and creates jobs for New Mexico.

Meghan Starbuck, an NMSU associate professor of economics, has been part of SWBA’s primary counsel in developing that model.

“I’ve been working in biofuels for several years now, and I agree that biofuels is an important and exciting sector,” she said. “As a state and a country, it’s really vital for us moving forward and fixing the economic harm and damage of the last few years.” Starbuck calls the biofuels industry a “combination of high-tech science and agriculture,” the perfect fit for southern New Mexico.

By 2022, the biofuel industry will have to produce 21 billion gallons of transportation fuel to meet national energy standards, Starbuck said. “It will have to come from somewhere, and New Mexico is the place to start,” she said.

A “small” algal biofuel production facility that produces 100 million gallons of biofuel per year, such as the one Sapphire plans for Luna County, would generate about 454 direct and indirect jobs, Starbuck said. The value added to the state’s economy for such a facility would be about $28 million, with $8 million going directly into the state’s tax coffers, she said. Eventually, with several facilities around the state, the industry’s tax revenue could help offset the tax revenue received by the state’s oil and gas industry, which tends to fluctuate unpredictably from year to year. “If we are able to capture 25 to 30 percent of that market it has a large impact on the state,” she said.

The technology is proven, Zenk said – it’s just a matter of making it commercially viable. Already, Zenk’s company has outfitted a car with algal derived fuel that drove cross-country with no problems, and it continues to test other fuels successfully in big rigs and jet planes. “We made molecularly identical jet fuel as the kind you would normally see in a jet,” he said. “In fact, it had a 4 percent higher energy density, which means the plane can fly farther, and because it has a much lower freezing point, fly higher.”

Luz-Elena Mimbela, a researcher at New Mexico State University, said the science behind the algal oil extraction process is well-suited for this area. “You add nutrients such as CO2, nitrogen, phosphorous and trace metals,” she said. “You gently mix the (ponding solution) to keep algae in suspension to maximize its exposure to light. Photosynthesis does the rest.” The harvesting and concentration process is where it gets complicated, she said. “But the technology exists and is available.”

Zenk added that algal biofuel is a “scalable business, cost-competitive with oil, is fungible, has a low-carbon footprint based on its lifecycle and doesn’t compete with other agriculture products.”

Mimbela disagreed; saying that biofuel from algae is still too expensive to compete with petroleum based fuels.

Doug Lynn of the Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management in Carlsbad, which is conducting its own algal biofuel research in conjunction with NMSU, said he’s convinced “algae is going to work.”

“When I first saw this myself, it was inconceivable that we could walk away from this project considering its potential,” he said. “We have to be good farmers. We must learn how to best grow it, manipulate it and make oil.”

To learn more about algal biofuels or the SWBA, visit www.swbiofuels.org.

Happy New Year and welcome to 2010.  As we start a new year it is always important to reflect upon the past year’s events, both the challenges and the opportunities, and use these experiences to change strategies and/or direction where they are needed to become more productive and successful.

We started 2009 with what I believe were a greater amount of “unknowns” than “knowns”;  fears following a stock market crash, government bailouts, mass foreclosures, growing unemployment rates, and discussions of a recession was the topic of many conversations.   These were the challenges over the past year that all communities, businesses, and economic development agencies had to deal with, not just MVEDA.  As a region, Dona Ana County was not immune to this crisis.  We began the year at 5.5% unemployment and ended the year hovering around 7%.  However, compared to a 7.8% unemployment rate at the State level and a 9.4% rate at the national level (as of November), Dona Ana County actually fared pretty well.  And although we experienced the loss of a large employer with the Frontier Airlines’ reservation center closing here in Las Cruces, we were also balanced by increases in hiring by other service centers including Sitel, CyraCom, and Convergys.  We also experienced some decline in production/manufacturing jobs and the loss of Multi-Plastics.  However, we also experienced an unprecedented level of interest by companies in the emerging alternative energy sector which has led to some key opportunities; earlier in the year eSolar and NRG Energy announced a 92 megawatt solar project for Santa Teresa and earlier today, Johnson Plate and Tower announced their plans to build a wind tower manufacturing facility, also in Santa Teresa.    Sapphire Energy has invested $8 million in its research and development facility at the Las Cruces West Mesa Industrial Park and will invest another $100 million in Southern New Mexico to produce biofuel from algae.  Along with other alternative energy groups who have identified the region for their projects, Dona Ana County could realize up to 200 new jobs and up to $300 million dollars in new capital investments in the years to come as a result of 2009 activity.

At MVEDA, we enter 2010 optimistically.  After dropping out of the top five rankings of the best performing small cities by Forbes and the Milken Institute between 2002 and 2006, the Las Cruces NM MSA has again made the list of the Milken Institute’s top ten “Best Performing Small Cities.”  As Spaceport America comes on-line and if some of the other projects in our pipeline materialize, it should lead to regaining a top five position in the near future.

But we also realize that we have not yet fully escaped the economic crisis of the past year.  We know that economists are now beginning to talk about a recovery.  We know the current holiday shopping season experienced a 3.5% increase over last year’s holiday season illustrating an increase in consumer confidence.  We know from reports that foreclosure numbers will decrease from the levels experienced in 2008 and 2009.   We also know we have a pipeline of projects and companies that we are working with who are considering the region for growth.  We know that there is a growing alternative energy industry with its eyes on New Mexico and that MVEDA has been aggressive in gathering the attention of this industry.  But we also know that we still have a lot more to do.   But at least we enter the New Year with a few more “knowns” than the “unknowns” of 2009.