Plant Would Let Algae Turn Carbon Dioxide to Fuel - NYTimes.com
We actually sent the initial link in this dispatch to you more than two and a half years ago, in a report now accessible on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site, via the link:
Plant Would Let Algae Turn Carbon Dioxide to Fuel | Research & Development.
But, herein, since Dow Chemical, of Michigan, is a company whose name should be familiar to everyone who's managed to climb down off the mountain in the last fifty years or so, we wanted to readdress the same topic; especially since there have been some further developments in this Carbon Dioxide recycling endeavor, as we document with additional links and excerpts, following some expanded "refreshers" excerpted from that original article, as follows:
""Algae Farm Aims to Turn Carbon Dioxide into Fuel
The New York Times; June 29, 2009
Matthew Wald
Dow Chemical and Algenol Biofuels ... are set to announce Monday that they will build a demonstration plant that, if successful, would use algae to turn carbon dioxide into ethanol as a vehicle fuel or an ingredient in plastics.
Because algae does not require any farmland or much space, many energy companies are trying to use it to make commercial quantities of hydrocarbons for fuel and chemicals. But harvesting the hydrocarbons has proved difficult so far.
The ethanol would be sold as fuel, the companies said, but Dow’s long-term interest is in using it as an ingredient for plastics, replacing natural gas.
The process also produces oxygen, which could be used to burn coal in a power plant cleanly, said Paul Woods, chief executive of Algenol, which is based in Bonita Springs, FL.
The exhaust from such a plant would be mostly carbon dioxide, which could be reused to make more algae.
“We give them the oxygen, we get very pure carbon dioxide, and the output is very cheap ethanol,” said Mr. Woods, who said the target price was $1 a gallon.
Algenol grows algae in “bioreactors,” troughs covered with flexible plastic and filled with saltwater. The water is saturated with carbon dioxide, to encourage growth of the algae. “It looks like a long hot dog balloon,” Mr. Woods said.
Dow, a maker of specialty plastics, will provide the “balloon” material.
The algae, through photosynthesis, convert the carbon dioxide and water into ethanol, which is a hydrocarbon, oxygen and fresh water.
The company has 40 bioreactors in Florida, and as part of the demonstration project plans 3,100 of them on a 24-acre site at Dow’s Freeport, Tex., site. Among the steps still being improved is the separation of the oxygen and water from the ethanol. The Georgia Institute of Technology will work on that process, as will Membrane Technology and Research, a company in Menlo Park, Calif.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, an Energy Department lab, will study carbon dioxide sources and their impact on the algae samples.
(Dow and Algenol have a very credible support team lined up, it seems.)
Algenol and its partners are planning a demonstration plant that could produce 100,000 gallons a year. The company and its partners were spending more than $50 million, said Mr. Woods, but not all of that was going into the pilot plant. The company had applied to the Energy Department for financing under the stimulus bill, but would build a pilot plant with or without a grant, he said.
With a stimulus grant, he said, the division of spending would be slightly more than 50 percent from the private sector, although the normal level was 20 percent. The project would create 300 jobs, he said, adding that Algenol and Dow were “incredibly hopeful” of getting the grant, partly because they had a combination of an innovative start-up company, a major company with extensive experience in industrial processes, a university and a national laboratory.
At Dow, Peter A. Molinaro, a spokesman, said that the ethanol was “intriguing to us as a feedstock, because the chemistry is simple.” Dow is already working on using ethanol from Brazilian sugar cane as a replacement for natural gas as an ingredient in plastics.""
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Now, lest you thought, upon receiving our original report, that such plans were nothing but ephemeral speculation, as can be learned via:
Construction Begins On Algenol Biofuels Algae Bio-Refinery | Joseph Baker; "October, 2011; Algenol Biofuels Incorporated has begun constructing a pilot-scale integrated bio-refinery in Florida. Two years after annpuncing a partnership with the Dow Chemical Company, Algenol has moved from a relatively unknown developer of algae-based biofuel toward a company commanding the world's largest most advanced integrated biofuels research and development complex. Located on 36 acres in Lee County, Florida, the facility will employ 3,000 patented photobioreactors that use algae to convert carbon dioxide into ethanol. At the heart of the process, dubbed "Direct To Ethanol", is the photobioreactor. Made from special plastic developed by Dow Chemical, the reactors house seawater, algae and carbon dioxide. The final ingredient is sunshine which allows for the algae to perform photosynthesis which converts sugars to ethanol in each algal cell. Algenol claims that "Direct To Ethanol" can produce 6,000 gallons of ethanol per acre per year. With this new pilot-scale facility the company hopes to prove the technology is viable on a commercial scale. To this end, it has partnered with the Linde Group to develop technology to capture and transport the carbon dioxide. Algenol has also teamed up with Valero Energy Corporation to create potential production and distribution infrastructure. When construction is complete, the Pilot-Scale Integrated Bio-Refinery will have an estimated production capacity of 100,000 gallons of ethanol a year. The project will cost approximately $50 million, half of which will be covered by a $25 million Department of Energy grant Algenol received in December of 2009";
they have actually begun construction of the plant that will, through Algae, convert industrial exhaust gas Carbon Dioxide into "$1 a gallon" Ethanol, that Dow Chemical says they will use "as an ingredient for plastics, replacing natural gas".
We've previously documented, but only once or twice, that certain strains of Algae can produce Ethanol directly, as a function of their daily photosynthetic business of consuming and utilizing Carbon Dioxide; and, have focused more attention on the potentials of utilizing Algae, and other microorganisms, to convert Carbon Dioxide into such things as Methane and "bio-lipids" that can be rather directly converted into such other, seemingly-desirable things as Diesel fuel and Gasoline, as seen, for one instance, in:
USDOE Algae Recycle CO2 into Liquid Fuels | Research & Development; concerning: "Liquid Fuels from Microalgae; 1987; National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO; USDOE; The goal of the DOE/SERI Aquatic Species Program is to develop the technology to produce gasoline and diesel fuels from microalgae".
However, Algae are versatile enough, or can be made versatile enough, to directly produce Ethanol, as well.
We will document that fact in some reports now in process. But, following, is evidence of just how sophisticated the technology for producing Ethanol from Algae, in Carbon Dioxide-supplemented bioreactors, has become; as explained by Dow Chemical's partner in their Florida Ethanol-production enterprise:
"United States Patent: 7682821 - Closed Photobioreactor System for ... Production ... of Ethanol
Date: March, 2010
Inventors: Paul Woods, et. al., FL, CA and Spain
Assignee: Algenol Biofuels, GmbH, Switzerland
(As can be learned via:
About Algenol | Algenol Biofuels "Harnessing The Sun To Fuel The World"; "Algenol is a global, industrial biotechnology company that is commercializing its patented algae technology platform for production of ethanol and green chemicals", whose "patented Direct To Ethanol(R) technology enables the production of ethanol for less than $1.00 per gallon using sunlight, carbon dioxide and saltwater and targets commercial production of 6,000 gallons of ethanol per acre per year"; and, while Algenol is actually headquartered in Florida; "Algenol Biofuels Switzerland GmbH" is a "wholly owned subsidiary" that "manages" their "international operations .. and oversees all European research, development and finance activities, as well as international licensing and project development".)
Abstract: The invention provides a device for growing genetically enhanced aquatic photoautotrophic organisms in a stable culture, causing said organisms to produce ethanol, and then separating, collecting, and removing the ethanol in situ.
Claims: A photobioreactor closed from the outside environment comprising a chamber (of described design) which comprises (and contains) an aqueous growth medium comprising a culture of genetically enhanced organisms disposed in the growth medium, wherein said organisms are selected from the group consisting of algae and cyanobacteria, and wherein said organisms produce ethanol on a continued daily basis (and) a collection trough located on the inner surface of the upper part of the chamber which collects a condensate comprising ethanol and water from the inner surface of the upper part of the chamber.
The photobioreactor ... further comprising an outlet tube connected to an opening from the upper part of the chamber for the purpose of removing O2 gas, ethanol gas, and water vapor from the headspace wherein the ethanol is further condensed and the ethanol is collected as a liquid.
The photobioreactor ... further comprising an inlet tube connected to an opening from the lower part of the chamber for the purpose of the introduction of CO2 into the aqueous growth medium.
(And, a) method of producing ethanol (and) of purifying the collected ethanol.
The bioreactor must be provided with CO2 and water to provide substrate for the photosynthetic conversion of CO2 to sugar, which is then subsequently converted to biofuel within the cells and then dispersed into the medium.
CO2 can readily be introduced as a gas, either into the gas phase or bubbled into the medium, or by means of a liquid where the CO2 is supersaturated dissolved in the liquid."
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There is quite a lot more to it, concerning the design and function parameters of the bioreactor.
And, they are a little shy about revealing the exact nature and identities of the specific Algae and/or "cyanobacteria" that "must be supplied with CO2", and will then so efficiently produce "ethanol on a continued daily basis".
We'll have a little information concerning those specifics in some reports to follow.
But, for now, it's pretty clear that Dow Chemical and their partners, Algenol, are now building a plant in Florida that will consume effluent Carbon Dioxide, and, through the mediation of cultivated microorgansims, will convert that Carbon Dioxide into Ethanol.
Now, if you're one of those people who've been hiding out on the mountain for the last half century and don't know, as above, about Dow Chemical Company, you might not know that is now perfectly acceptable, even desirable, to blend a certain amount of Ethanol into Gasoline; and, you can often purchase such blends at you local convenience store's filling station.
Moreover, as seen in our earlier report of:
Mobil Oil 1977 Coal-Derived Alcohols to Gasoline | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,025,575 - Process for Manufacturing Olefins; 1977; Mobil Oil Corporation; Abstract: A lower alcohol and/or ether feed is selectively converted to a mixture of light olefins, including ethylene and propylene, by catalytic contact of the feed ... with certain crystalline aluminosilicate zeolite catalysts exemplified by HZSM-5 (and) wherein said feed comprises methanol or ... wherein said feed comprises ethanol";
the technology exists to convert Ethanol, as made herein by Algae from industrial effluent Carbon Dioxide, directly into the actual components of Gasoline blending stock.
Or we could, as Dow Chemical intends, use the CO2-based Ethanol as a raw material, "as a replacement for natural gas", in the making of "plastics".
And, again, all of that can start by using Algae to convert Carbon Dioxide into "$1 a gallon" Ethanol.