Posts Tagged ‘U.S. Department of Agriculture’

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Marvin Tessneer

Sapphire Energy is constructing an integrated algal bio-refinery (IABR) to produce green crude oil on a site near Columbus, N.M., in Luna County, the first commercial facility in the country, according to a company newsletter. Sapphire, which is headquartered in San Diego, also operates a 22-acre test and development facility in Las Cruces’ West Mesa Industrial Park.

 Sapphire has scheduled a multi-year project to produce green crude. The first production phase will start this summer. By 2014, the company expects the Columbus IABR facility to produce 100 barrels, or 1 million gallons of fuel a year, according to Sapphire.

The Columbus IABR facility is expected to provide 700 jobs during construction and 30 permanent jobs for continued operations. Sapphire has designed raceway ponds at Columbus to grow algae that will cover 100 to 300 acres. In the energy business, the operation is termed “farming under water.”

Government agencies believe Sapphire is on the right track to grow and harvest algae and produce green crude. The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded the company a $50million grant and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has guaranteed a $54.5million loan, according to Sapphire.

Most people consider green mass seen on ponds “green gunk.” But Sapphire is developing that green gunk, or algae, into a renewable and sustainable transportation fuel that will help reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign petroleum.

“All of us on the research and development side are rooting for Sapphire to have tremendous success at its commercial demonstration facility at Columbus,” said Pete Lammers, New Mexico State University biochemistry professor.

Algae are a micro-organism that combines sunlight and carbon dioxide from the air as sources of energy to produce green crude oil. Scientists report algae can produce 10 times or more energy per acre than other bio-fuels crops. Algae don’t compete with food crops. Land at the Columbus site is marginal for crops, and the water is brackish and not suitable for irrigation.

The algal green crude is termed “drop-in” fuel in the industry. The Sapphire newsletter reported, “Sapphire Energy has cultivated algae that create renewable crude oil that can be processed in existing refineries into jet fuel, diesel and gasoline. These drop-in replacement fuels are molecularly identical to petroleum-based fuels and are compatible with existing infrastructure and engines.”

Release courtesy of NMSU News Center

WRITER: Mark Cramer, 575-646-1957, mwcramer@nmsu.edu

CONTACT: Steve Hottman, 575-646-9202, shottman@psl.nmsu.edu

New Mexico State University on Sept. 30 announced that its Physical Science Laboratory is partnering with the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in developing and testing DARPA’s Vulture unmanned aerial vehicle program.

The Vulture II Program, a joint venture between DARPA and Boeing, is centered around a new type of UAV with a 400-foot wingspan, weighing just 5,000 pounds. The objective of the Vulture program is to develop and demonstrate the technology to enable an airborne payload to remain on-station, uninterrupted for more than five years, performing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and communication missions. A mixture of solar cells and solid oxide fuel cells will power the vehicle. The system has potential in numerous roles: operation as a single platform, as a formation of multiple aircraft, or as a constellation providing infrastructure augmentation or recovery.

“This is really exciting,” said retired Air Force Col. T. Bear Larson, who is NMSU’s point of contact with DARPA. “We think this is a great opportunity for you guys to see some of our technology and maybe help us out in areas that you are strong in. We love the facilities out here. Everything about this is exciting to me. This technology intrigues me.”

The program technology enables a re-taskable, persistent pseudo-satellite capability in an aircraft package. It combines the key benefits of an aircraft – flexibility and responsiveness, sensor resolution, reduced transmit/receive power and affordability – with the benefits of space assets, such as on-station persistence, no logistics tail, energy independence, fleet size and absence of an in-country footprint.

“It’s quite an extraordinary accomplishment that’s going to bring plenty of attention to New Mexico State University and possibly similar agreements in the future,” NMSU President Barbara Couture said. “The initial contract is for about $2.5 million, and we expect, if this is successful, for more contracts to be down the road. This is a truly experimental aircraft. It’s going to be a very exciting, unusual mission here right in our back yard in Las Cruces.”

NMSU’s PSL will be involved in addressing a variety of technology challenges for the massive UAV, including developing energy management and reliability technologies capable of allowing the aircraft to operate continuously for five years. The Vulture program will conduct full-scale technology maturation and demonstration activities to prove out critical technologies. Its intent is to advance technology and break the mindset that aircraft are defined by launch, recovery and maintenance cycles. Program success would allow a continuous operating airborne platform to remain on-station for multiple years and would greatly increase capabilities of the Department of Defense. In addition, NMSU/PSL will apply their airworthiness assessment, risk analysis and excellent safety record with unmanned aircraft in developing a safe operation to minimize impact to other airspace users.

NMSU is the only FAA Authorized Unmanned Aircraft System Flight Test Center in the United States, allowing for UAS operations in the National Airspace System or civilian airspace.

The NMSU/PSL portion of the project will continue through the conclusion of flight testing, which is expected to last into the third quarter of fiscal year 2014. DARPA determined that NMSU/PSL was the only entity capable of meeting the unique facilities, airspace and technical expertise required to oversee and conduct the flight testing of the Vulture while also meeting airspace, available frequency spectrum and takeoff and landing requirements.

“We’re going to have a building ready in early 2013 and start assembling the vehicle out here,” Larson said. “Our intent is to fly sorties of less than three hours to understand the airframe, and then start climbing up in altitude, with the culmination a 30-day flight test to demonstrate it can fly. Then we’ll bring it back down and do a forensic analysis on all the components. We’re really looking forward to this.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has given NMSU/PSL permission to build the airport for the Vulture testing on its land at the Jornada Experimental Range, northeast of Las Cruces. The vehicle will require a 3,000-foot diameter circle for level takeoffs. USDA also partners with NMSU/PSL for its UAS program. They use a small UAS for their remote sensing program for ecological applications, including access to airspace, image acquisition, terrain extraction, orthorectification, mosaicking, vegetation classification, geometric and classification accuracies and operational workflows.

Formed though a partnership between the Federal Aviation Administration and NMSU, the UAS Flight Test Center supports the integration of unmanned systems into the National Airspace System and operates the only FAA approved UAS FTC in the U.S. With more than 13 years of experience and expertise in UAS integration, operations and research and development, it collects data during unmanned flights in public, non-restricted airspace to assist the FAA in the development of standards and regulations for UAS operators.

The UAS FTC’s agreement with the FAA allows it to operate flights in more than 15,000 square miles of airspace in southwestern New Mexico. Facilities include a 15,000-square-foot hangar at the Las Cruces International Airport dedicated exclusively to UAS operations, and office facilities and technical support are available on the NMSU campus.

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.”