Posts Tagged ‘Biofuels’

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

Sapphire Energy photo

By Marvin Tessneer

Sapphire Energy has developed its West Mesa Industrial Park plant into an algae field research and development center, said Bryn Davis, New Mexico operations manager. The algae “green crude oil” production company is constructing a half-acre greenhouse that will be covered with plastic to allow sunlight to stimulate the algae. “We’ll be able to grow algae in small containers with a controlled environment,” Davis said. “This will allow us to experiment faster on a small scale at our field test site before moving outside to larger ponds.”

The process will be a blend of engineering, science and agriculture in one operation. The company has acquired 10 acres at the West Mesa Industrial Park and has the option to purchase up to 100 more acres. Sapphire has also acquired 1,000 acres in Luna County to produce green crude.

The company and contractors are reviewing designs to construct water raceways to cover from 100 to 300 acres underwater to produce algae, Davis said. Many researchers have good ideas, but they have to develop them to make them work, he said. Algae are microorganisms that use sunlight and photosynthesis to produce green crude oil.

The Luna County site will not compete with agriculture. The land is marginal and the water is brackish, but there is ample sunlight, the Sapphire information report emphasized. Producing algae green crude oil does not depend on crops or valuable farmland. It can deliver 19 to 100 times more energy per acre than field crop biofuels. The Sapphire goal is to produce green crude as a “drop-in fuel” transportation replacement fuel can be used as gasoline, diesel or jet fuel.

“There’s no need to change the energy infrastructure or equipment,” Davis said. “The fuel that we’re producing is indistinguishable from the fuels that we’re producing now.” Sapphire plans to start extracting green crude by the summer of 2012.

Algae raceways are constructed with concrete blocks that are lined with plastic. Small paddle wheels circulate the water to keep the algae from settling. Green crude is the oil that algae produce by combining sunlight and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which can be refined into fuel, gasoline, jet fuel and diesel.

Sapphire has compiled a list titled “Why Does Energy Matter So Much?” that discusses countries energy consumption. Driven primarily by transportation fuel consumption, the United States’ demand for crude oil exceeds its supply, forcing the nation to rely on imports to meet the domestic supply deficit. As the U.S. produces renewable fuels, it provides energy security and reduces carbon dioxide emissions. Algae biomass is among the renewable energy leaders.

Electric, thermal and transportation energy use in the U.S. emit about 5,890 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, and liquid fuel and coal emit 4,715 million tons per year.

By Justin Bannister, University Communications for the Las Cruces Sun-News

Photo courtesy of Darren Phillips, NMSU

The U.S. military wants New Mexico State University to find improved ways to turn algae into a sustainable source for jet fuel. The research project is part of a $2.346 million grant funded by the Air Force where NMSU will study better ways to grow algae and refine its oil while working with the University of Central Florida to determine the effects of algae-based fuel on jet engines.

“Demand for petroleum will eventually outpace the supply,” said Shuguang Deng, a chemical engineering professor at NMSU and the lead researcher on the project. “The use of petroleum-based jet fuel is not sustainable and negatively impacts the environment. That’s a national security issue.”

Deng said the U.S. Department of Defense consumes 4.6 billion gallons of jet fuel each year and all airplanes globally consume approximately 80 billion gallons of jet fuel yearly. He believes with that level of consumption, the sustainable use of biofuels for aviation has the potential to create far-reaching military and commercial development opportunities.

The researched outlined by the grant is meant to develop the technologies needed to establish a viable algal biofuel alternative for replacing petroleum-based jet fuel in the U.S. military. The main tasks focus on cultivating algae, extracting its oils and developing other useful products during this process. Researchers will also study the effects of biofuels on engine operations, the process for scaling-up operations and the overall economics of the algae production process.

Deng said the project will combine the strengths in research programs at NMSU and UCF to develop sustainable biofuels for aviation, train engineers in the field and potentially develop new business opportunities in both New Mexico and Florida.

“Algal biofuels look very promising, but there are a lot of technical issues,” Deng said. “Algae have the highest energy content of plants. Only algae can meet the demand for a renewable energy source. I expect that in five to 10 years, we’ll start seeing algal biofuels on the market.”

Deng said researchers must increase the biomass weight of algae, increase the lipid content and focus on harvesting and extraction techniques. The work is being done as part of NMSU’s newly created Algal Bioenergy Program, a centralized effort to coordinate research and economic development opportunities related to fuels made from algae.

New Mexico is recognized as an ideal location for growing algae because it has lots of high-intensity sunshine, relatively few cloudy days and access to brackish water supplies, which can be used to grow algae.

Other NMSU researchers involved in this project include Nirmala Khandan and Hongmei Luo in the College of Engineering; Jiannong Xu and Wayne Van Voorhies in the College of Arts and Sciences; Shannon Ivey and Tanner Schaub in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; and Meghan Starbuck in the College of Business.

Release Courtesy of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson

SANTA FE – Governor Bill Richardson today commended Sapphire Energy, Inc. for a successful application to the U.S. Department of Energy for a grant to launch a new multi-million dollar algae biofuels demonstration project in Luna County, New Mexico.

Sapphire Energy has been awarded a $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy as well as a loan guarantee of $54.5 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The San Diego-based company plans to build a demonstration project in Luna County near Columbus and Deming. The company also has a research and development complex in Las Cruces.

The grant award is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the loan guarantee is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Biorefinery Assistance Program, authorized through the 2008 Farm Bill.

“Investments in advanced biofuels are crucial to improve America’s energy independence and to keep energy dollars at home,” Governor Richardson said. “This project will create jobs, invest in new technology and boost the economy in rural New Mexico.”

The project is being funded to demonstrate the technology developed by Sapphire Energy to produce a large scale algae facility which cultivates algae in open ponds to produce Green Crude which can be refined into fuels.

The project is expected to create 750 direct and indirect jobs. Sapphire has an option to buy roughly 2,200 acres of land near Columbus. With the infusion of capital from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the company plans to build a demonstration project to validate the economics of large scale algae to energy production. As part of the project the company also plans to set up an extraction facility to convert the oil from the algae into Green Crude which can be refined into a variety of fuels.

“Governor Richardson is a true advocate for smarter energy resources,” Sapphire Chief Executive Officer Jason Pyle said. “His leadership has played a crucial role in the federal grant funding for our algae-based fuel work. This is a win-win for New Mexico, Luna County, and Sapphire Energy.”

The Bi-National Sustainability Laboratory together with its principal partners and sponsoring organizations will hold a one day conference entitled: “A New Bi-National Energy Future: Biofuels and Solar Policy Summit.” High level officials, experts and individuals, representing all levels of government, industry and academic/research communities from Mexico and the US will be invited to consider critical issues relevant to creating a new bi-national energy future between US/Mexico, including production, storage, transmission, and cross-border collaborations.

On October 27^th, ISTEC (Ibero American Science & Technology Education Consortium) & MANCEF (Micro and Nanotechnology Commercialization Education Foundation) will also be holding a “Science & Technology Business Matchmaking session” This event is designed to facilitate meetings between technology-based companies, academic organizations, research centers and government agencies.

This international event offers participants the possibility to meet with business and academic contacts that come from different countries in Ibero-America with the purpose of generating relationships and business in the short, medium and long term. A difference from other business round tables and matchmaking sessions, the Science & Technology Business Matchmaking facilitates not only business-to-business interactions, but also business-to-academia connections and government-to-government relations promoting commercial and economic exchanges, as well as collaborative alliances.

This event offers an excellent opportunity to identify suppliers, potential clients and partners, introduce new products, establish alliances, and network with international peers in the technology sector expanding current market and business opportunities.

For more information please contact Scott Bryant at info@mancef.org.