Over the past several years corn based ethanol was considered a natural replacement for gasoline and other petroleum based fuels due to its simplicity and the assumption we could easily scale up production and lower oil imports. Clearly this hasn't happened, mainly due to land use issues and the impacts on food prices and CO2 emissions resulting from converting woodlands into corn fields for ethanol manufacturing.
What has been frequently overlooked and is now far down the research path is the use of algae based biofuels. In an article today on wired Sapphire Energy, one of the key research firms in this space, is promising to be able to produce 1 Billion gallons of algae based biofuel annually by 2025.
Even more impressive, this fuel is non-corrosive and can be stored and transported using the same infrastructure in place today for gasoline and airline fuels.
While Sapphire’s high-profile aviation tests have gotten the headlines, the company says that because its biofuel is a "drop in" fuel chemically identical to crude oil, it is compatible with anything on the road or in the air right now. It also plays nicely with existing refineries and pipelines. That’s another benefit over ethanol, which is corrosive and typically transported to terminals via truck or rail and then mixed with regular gasoline.
"We are 100-percent convinced that the only way to address climate and energy security is to use the same infrastructure we already have," Sapphire’s Zenk said.
Electric powered vehicles are a step in the right direction and an important part of getting off of fossil fuels, however, we will still need to power trucks, aircraft, turbines etc. Every technology that we can bring to bear to remove sooty dirty fossil fuels from their prominant role in our energy infrastructure counts.
I really hope we see investment in algae based fuels and a real attempt to turn this into the success that ethanol has proven not to be.
Wired
Two airlines have already made test flights using Sapphire’s algal fuel. In January, Continental airlines flew a 737-800 for two hours using a blend of 50-percent biofuel in one engine. The flight included a full-power takeoff and climb, cruise at 37,000 feet, descent, approach and landing and was considered a success. The second test took place on a Japan Airlines 747 powered by Pratt & Whitney engines, with a biofuel blend of camelina, jatropha, and algae.
Sapphire, which has drawn backing from the likes of Bill Gates and the Rockefeller family, isn’t shy about talking up the benefits of fuel made from algae, saying it delivers 10 to 100 times more energy per acre than corn-based ethanol, which has gone out of fashion because it’s derived from food crops. Algae also uses less water than corn and can be grown on non-arable land. Another big benefit: algae sucks up lots of CO2. According to the Biodiesel Times, algae-based biofuel is considered carbon neutral because CO2 generated in its use is offset by what’s consumed during production.
Biodiesel Times:
We found that to replace all transportation fuels in the US, we would need 140.8 billion gallons of biodiesel (a year), or roughly 19 quads (one quad is roughly 7.5 billion gallons of biodiesel). To produce that amount would require a landmass of almost 15,000 square miles. To put that in perspective, considerthat the Sonora desert in the southwestern US comprises 120,000 square miles. Enough biodiesel to replace all petroleum transportation fuels (in the USA) could be grown in 15,000 square miles, or roughly 12.5 percent of the area of the Sonora desert (note for clarification - I am not advocating putting 15,000 square miles of algae ponds in the Sonora desert. This hypothetical example is used strictly for the purpose of showing the scale of land required). That 15,000 square miles works out to roughly 9.5 million acres - far less than the 450 million acres currently used for crop farming in the US, and the over 500 million acres used as grazing land for farm animals.
Biodiesel, including algae biodiesel is considered CO2-neutral because in the process of making biodiesel it consumes CO2, either from the atmosphere or injected artificially, but in the act of usingBiofuel CO2 is then released, either into the atmosphere or into an artificial caption chamber.
Currently algae fuels are not covered by the US Renewable Fuel Standards Program, which dictates what types of alternative fuels can be mixed with gasoline to meet federal targets. This is a problem and needs to be addressed via legislation. This is likely just an oversight as this is a new technology but we do need to raise awareness of this fuel and ensure legislation is inclusive going forwards to support this industry.
Boeing forms Algal Biomass Association