Posts Tagged ‘U.S. Department of Energy’

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.”

Article courtesy of NMSU News Center

NMSU Photo by Darren Phillips

WRITER: Justin Bannister, 575-646-5981, jbannist@nmsu.edu

CONTACT: Nirmal Khandan, 575-646-5378, nkhandan@nmsu.edu

New Mexico State University is working to transform bubbling pools of algae into both a sustainable source for fuel as well as a sustainable industry for New Mexico. To complement this research, NMSU is now also growing its own algae in slime-filled vats called “raceway reactors” at the university’s Fabian Garcia Science Center in Las Cruces.

“At NMSU, we’ve developed significant expertise in the algal biofuel area over the past few years. Not many universities are doing the entire process starting from cultivation all the way to fuel testing,” said Nirmal Khandan, a civil engineering professor at NMSU.

Khandan said only a handful of universities across the country are producing their own algae for research. Once at full capacity, his group will produce four kilograms, nearly nine pounds, of dry algae a month to hand over to other NMSU researchers for their algae work.

“For a university, on a research scale, producing four kilograms of dry algae a month is on the high end,” Khandan said. “Considering we started four years ago from scratch, this is impressive. More importantly, we’re also able to train master’s and Ph.D. students in this emerging field and compete with major universities for funding in this area.”

NMSU is currently cultivating the algae in two 1,000-liter raceway ponds at the Fabian Garcia Science Center. Raceway ponds allow algae to grow and multiply while flowing in a circular pattern around the pond. Construction on another two 1,000-liter raceway ponds, as well as a 4,000-liter photobioreacter, which controls the conditions for algae growth, will be completed by April 2011.

Khandan’s students extract algae each day from the ponds while working to find the right mixture of light and nutrients for maximum yield. His student team was also one of 40 teams selected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to receive a $10,000 grant to modify and improve the efficiency of the algae extraction process. In May 2011, his team will present its design at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to compete for another $75,000 in grant money.

The green crude they extract supports research for NMSU’s two major algae-based fuel projects, a $44 million collaborative study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to commercialize algae-based fuel and a $2.3 million project with the University of Central Florida to study algae-based jet fuel for the U.S. Air Force.

NMSU has a separate partnership with the Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management, a private company, which leases space at NMSU’s Agricultural Science Center at Artesia to grow and test algae.

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

One of the tiniest plants on Earth will soon be swimming all across the dusty desert of New Mexico. That’s a result of New Mexico State University and its newly created Algal Bioenergy Program. The program is a centralized effort to coordinate research and economic development opportunities related to fuels made from algae.

“There is enormous potential for a fully functioning algal fuel industry to create jobs and generate revenue for New Mexico, and these are jobs that cannot be shipped overseas,” said Vimal Chaitanya, NMSU’s vice president for research. “This program helps the state of New Mexico, as well as NMSU, which is already considered one of the top universities in the nation for algae research.”

NMSU currently has scientists researching every step of the algae production process, including cultivating, harvesting, extracting, refining and fuel testing. NMSU is also investigating the sustainability and economic impacts of algae production, which would support a variety of products. The university is part of a consortium awarded $44 million earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Energy to study the commercialization of algae-based fuel.

Algae are essentially tiny green oil factories, continuously turning sunlight and carbon dioxide into oils, also known as lipids. Once extracted, those lipids can then be refined into oil, gasoline, diesel and even jet fuel. Unlike ethanol made from grains, algal fuels can be stored in the same tanks, shipped through the same pipelines and run in the same engines as traditional fuels without any necessary modifications.

Additionally, oil production in algae is typically 10 times more efficient than oilseed crops and algae can be grown on arid land using salty water unsuitable for other agricultural purposes.

“New Mexico is 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,” said Peter Lammers, an NMSU research professor and technical director of the Algal Bioenergy Program.

He said further research and development are needed to lower production costs while increasing the productivity of algae. The five-year goal is to deliver reliable agronomic systems and what he calls “bankable business plans” to farmers who can use them.

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.”