Colorado State University, Solix Biofuels Inc. Part of $44 Million Consortium Announced Wednesday by Energy Secretary Chu (January 2010)

Read the original article at http://www.news.colostate.edu/Release/4977

From Colorado State University, January 13th, 2010:

Colorado State University and Solix Biofuels Inc. will help advance the nation’s algae-to-oil industry as part of a $44 million consortium coordinated through the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the collaboration – called the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts - as part of an $80 million investment in advanced biofuels research.

Colorado State and Solix are the only Colorado-based entities in the collaboration, which is also the only consortium funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to focus solely on algae. Chu also announced Wednesday a separate consortium led by the Golden, Colo.-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory involving the Colorado School of Mines.

Solix is an alternative energy technology company developing the technology production platform for the large-scale commercialization of microalgae-based fuels and co-products. The privately held company is a spinoff from Colorado State University through the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory.

Working on the grant from Colorado State are Anthony Marchese and Ken Reardon from the College of Engineering and Shawn Archibeque from the College of Agricultural Sciences. The three will investigate such issues as reuse of biproducts from the algae-to-oil process and the properties of algae-produced fuels and whether they can easily replace gasoline and petroleum diesel, said Marchese, who is leading the CSU portion of the grant.

“Colorado’s New Energy Economy is creating jobs and increasing our energy security by developing domestic fuels and the technologies for cleaner, better transportation,” said Gov. Bill Ritter. “Congratulations to Solix Biofuels and Colorado State University for being selected to participate in moving algae-to-oil technologies from lab to market.”

“Colorado State University sits at the cutting edge of the research into biofuels and particularly the investigation of algae into biodiesel,” said Bill Farland, vice president for Research at Colorado State and former top scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency. “More than 100 professors at the university participate in the exploration of clean and renewable energy solutions on our campus with the intention of tackling such huge global problems such as sustainable sources of fuels.”

“Advanced biofuels are crucial to building a clean energy economy,” said Secretary Chu. “By harnessing the power of science and technology, we can bring new biofuels to the market and develop a cleaner and more sustainable transportation sector. This investment will help spur the creation of the domestic bio-industry, while creating jobs and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.”

The National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts will develop a systems approach for production of algae into biofuels such as renewable gasoline and bioproducts including animal feed. The group intends to host multiple test sites that would help to significantly increase production.

Other partners in the alliance are: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Arizona, Brooklyn College, New Mexico State University, Texas AgriLife Research -Texas A&M University System, University of California Los Angeles, University of California San Diego, University of Washington, Washington University in St. Louis, Washington State University, AXI, Catilin, Diversified Energy, Eldorado Biofuels, Genifuel, HR BioPetroleum, Inventure, Kai BioEnergy, Palmer Labs, Targeted Growth, Terrabon and UOP.

“We are playing a major role on the production side,” said Doug Henston, chief executive officer of Solix. “How do you produce the oil? CSU and Solix are playing major roles in the team that’s going to develop this industry.”

The consortium announced Wednesday is the second partnership Solix has with Los Alamos. In September, the company signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement that grants Solix access to use and expand upon LANL’s technology, specifically the patented acoustic technology that is beneficial to Solix’s algal oil extraction process.

Henston added that Solix is close to releasing its next generation production system.

Reardon op-ed article on algal biofuels in Denver Post (August 2009)

Read the original article at http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_13010486

From the Denver Post, August 9th, 2009:  

The algae solution
Colorado researchers are looking at biofuels as new sources of energy
By Kenneth F. Reardon

In their search for new, sustainable sources of clean energy, scientists and engineers are leaving few stones unturned.

Solar and wind have great potential, but neither will replace the gasoline and diesel that we use in our cars, trucks, and airplanes. That's where biofuels come in. The best known are ethanol from cornstarch or sugar cane, and biodiesel from cooking oil.

But there are other options. One of the best sources of biomass for this new generation of biofuels may be surprising: algae. And Colorado is on its way to becoming a world leader in the research and development of algae biofuels.
 

Some of the most important research on using algae as biofuel was performed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden from 1978 to 1996, and has recently been restarted. And key projects are underway within the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (Colorado State University, the Colorado School of Mines, and the University of Colorado at Boulder, and NREL) as researchers are working to find the best species of algae, to learn to grow and improve their harvest, and to convert them to fuels more efficiently.
 

The production of a biofuel begins with a plant or materials derived from plants, such as paper. This biomass is then converted through fermentation or a chemical process to a fuel that can be used in the engines of cars, trucks, ships, and airplanes, as well as in electrical generators. Biofuels hold the promise of reducing greenhouse gas levels since plants grow by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and biofuels also have the potential to be a renewable, non-extractive, domestic source of energy.

Ethanol and biodiesel have helped the nation make a start toward replacing petroleum-based fuels with renewable alternatives. However, these biofuels represent only a small percentage of the current U.S. consumption of gasoline and diesel. Furthermore, there are concerns about our ability to significantly increase the fraction of our fuel supply that comes from corn grain or oilseed crops, in part because of the amount of water and arable land required.
 

Like plants, algae are photosynthetic, using sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow. Biofuels research focuses on microalgae — microorganisms that are about one-fiftieth of a millimeter in diameter (about a quarter the diameter of a human hair) and can grow much more rapidly than plants in fresh, brackish, or salt water. Under certain conditions, some species of microalgae can accumulate oils to an astounding degree — levels as high as 75 percent of their dry weight have been reported. The idea for using algae as a source of biofuels is to grow large amounts of algae, harvest the cells, extract the oil, and convert that oil to a diesel-like fuel. Researchers are also evaluating the possibility of fermenting algal biomass to other biofuels or converting it to electricity. Since the algae grow in ponds or in closed containers (photobioreactors), an algae "farm" could be located on land that is not suitable for crops, and linked to combustion power plants and other sources of carbon dioxide.
 

Solix Biofuels, a Colorado State University spinoff company, is among the leaders in this new industry. Solix has focused on the development of more efficient and economical photobioreactors for the cultivation of algae. The company recently announced the start of operations at an algal biofuel facility on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation near Durango, with the goal of demonstrating its technologies at commercially feasible production levels and costs. Another Colorado company, A2BE Carbon Capture, is focused on the commercialization of algal technologies for the removal of carbon dioxide from stationary industrial sources. Companies like these, supported by the research at Colorado universities and NREL, are examples of the New Energy Economy promoted by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and President Barack Obama.
 

Since the world consumes oil at an astounding rate — more than 1000 barrels of oil every second, or more than 86 million barrels a day — the potential of a biofuels industry based on algae is enormous. More than 100 companies have been started around the world in the past few years. Despite this potential, significant investment in research and development is required to help this technology become commercially viable at the very large scales that are required. Replacing just 10 percent of the U.S. diesel market with algae-derived biodiesel means growing several million tons of algae each year. We can't yet do that cost-effectively, but it's important to remember that there was once a time when the petroleum industry was small and early engines were developed to run on ethanol and turpentine because gasoline was expensive and not readily available. Huge investments and diligent research resulted in the current scope and efficiency of the modern petroleum industry. Since the early 1980s, our country's investment in renewable energy has been minuscule. Considering the potential of algae and other sources of biomass for biofuels, and the need to develop clean energy alternatives, it's time to reverse that trend.

Kenneth F. Reardon directs the Multidisciplinary Approaches to Sustainable Bioenergy Ph.D. training program, funded by the National Science Foundation, and is one of the directors of the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels.

Reardon Presents Invited BioEnergy Lecture in UK (January 2009)

In January, Dr. Ken Reardon, Director of the MAS BioEnergy program, traveled to the University of Sheffield, where he was the invited keynote speaker at the Institution of Chemical Engineering’s Young Researchers Meeting. The event, sponsored by the IChemE’s Biochemical Engineering Subject Group, featured oral and poster presentations from PhD students at universities around the UK. Dr. Reardon’s presentation was entitled “Biofuels: Challenges for the Development of Sustainable Energy Production”.

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