Algenol Biofuels announced plans for a pilot algae-biorefinery to produce ethanol from captured CO2. The demonstration plant will have the capacity to produce 100,000 gallons a year, with desired cost of the ethanol at $1.00 per gallon.
Algenol Biofuels
Paul Woods, CEO of Algenol, said in a recent press release, “this project sets the stage for commercial scale production by proving two critical principles: first, that ethanol can be made economically without consuming fresh water or displacing valuable farmland better suited to food and feed production; second, that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide can be reduced by capturing CO2 from a variety of industrial sources and using it to produce fuel that can displace conventional, high carbon gasoline.”
The project will move forward in partnership with Dow Chemical Company, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Membrane Technology & Research.
Propel’s fueling platform currently delivers advanced low-carbon fuels including biodiesel from waste stream feedstocks like recycled fats and oils, and locally grown, marginal land crops like camelina. The fueling platform is designed with the flexibility to accommodate low-carbon fuels today, as well as future fuels such as algae- and cellulosic-based fuels, hydrogen and electric chargers. As petroleum extraction becomes more harmful and invasive, today’s alternative fuels are already more sustainable, with next generation fuels on the horizon providing even greater benefits.
2 responses so far ↓
Roy Bauer // July 15, 2009 at 6:01 pm |
its a good first step. But would it be easier to make oil or biodiesel than to make ethanol.
Quentin Smith // July 16, 2009 at 2:10 pm |
Roy, have you considered the more difficult problem of distributing the fuel and getting mass adoption by consumers in the near term – I would think this is a bigger problem than fuel manufacturing difficulties. Ethanol can be blended directly into gasoline which has massive existing infrastructure (California blended on average 6% by volume ethanol in its gasoline in 2005). Regular cars can use as much as 24% ethanol fuel without any modification (many people are doing this in the Midwest at blender pumps). If you want to go higher – up to 85% ethanol, Flex fuel cars cost about the same to manufacture as regular cars – the main difference is some seals on the fuel pump. So there’s a low transition costs associate with ethanol. Finally, RFS2 legislation mandates a much higher amount of ethanol at 36 Billion Gallons per Year by 2022 than biodiesel. Some interesting reads/sources for more background: Energy Victory – Robert Zubrin, also check out California Energy Commission presentation at http://www.energy.ca.gov/2007publications/CEC-999-2007-006/CEC-999-2007-006.PDF.