New Belgium Brewing Co., which is based in Fort Collins Colorado, is now teaming up with an energy startup to begin producing biodiesel from algae. For starters, New Belgium is the company responsible for bringing you Fat Tire, a great US microbew, and is possibly the only US brewery that is 100% wind-powered. Personally, I'm a big fan of the Sunshine Wheat brew as well. Anyway, here's the local newspaper link, describing the partnership between Colorado State University Scientists and New Belgium. link
One of the big questions surrounding the whole biofuel debate is the current system of emphasizing/subsidizing ethanol production in the US, even though it's clearly not efficient enough to become a long-term fuel stock. We need something that has fewer agriculture costs(pesticide, fertilizer, herbicides, water, etc) and a faster growth rate. This is where the alternatives such as switchgrass, sugar cane, hemp, etc come into play. Given current working rates of 50-100 gallons of oil/acre from soybeans, there is a consensus that the number per acre must be drastically increased for cost effectiveness. This quote from the article sums up the current state of Biofuels in the US:
The United States consumes 60 billion gallons of petroleum diesel fuel annually. At maximum, animal fats, rapeseed and soybean oil can generate 4 billion gallons, according to data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "If you were to take all the oil in the U.S. and convert it to biodiesel, you'd still only make a small dent in the diesel market," said Al Darzins, group manager of the National Bioenergy Center at NREL.
This doesn't mean that it isn't smart, on many levels, to utilize the wasted oils we already have to produce Biodiesel and WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil fuel). But it takes Big Ideas to stir folks into action, and this algae idea has lots of potential.
According to company scientists, this process could produce up to 100times as much oil as soybeans do. A two-year old company called Solix is teaming up with New Belgium, who is providing the CO2 leftover from fermentation, and CSU to work on the algae-based biofuel.
Of course, those familiar with these types of ventures understand that the unfree market that currently exists makes it harder for green business to get off the ground. Companies that release more CO2 into the atmostphere without regulation, as they do here in the US, are essentially receiving a subsidy. A national emissions-cap law is very needed, so we can attempt to construct a carbon-credit system and make the market work for at least some good, instead of unchecked growth.
This idea would be profitable on two levels for New Belgium if it succedded, assuming that a carbon cap is enacted, because it would allow them to sell carbon credits to other companies (like Death-Mart)