Algae Oil Fuel

MANILA, Philippines — Facing rising oil prices and a desire to improve energy independence the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) is consulting biofuel/algae experts to assess the potential for algae to become a source of biofuel in the island nation.

The DoA invited numerous experts, including Dr. Joel L. Cuello, professor of Biosystems Engineering of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering from University of Arizona in the United States; Dr. Nemesio Montano of Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippine-Diliman (UPD); professors Rex Demafelis, Lourdes Cardenas, and Nerissa Torreta of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB); Professor Caridad Jimenez, University of the Philippines-Visayas (UPV); Dr. Fabian Dayrit of the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU); and Edwin Bacani of the Congressional Committee on Science Technology and Engineering (COMSTE).

Dr. Cuello, one of the 10 members of the United States National Academy’s Committee on the Sustainable Development of Algae Biofuels, was in the Philippines to meet and discuss with research and development stakeholders the potential of algae in the biofuels spectrum.

According to Dr. Cuello, who has over a decade of experience studying algae as a biofuel, “Algae are very good candidates as feedstock for biofuels because they are renewable, meaning to say you can grow them. They also have high productivity in terms of oil, much greater than all the others”

Cuello is also excited about the opportunity for the country to use algae not only in biofuels, but in the areas of “nutraceuticals” and high-value organic fertilizers as well, pointing out that the country is a natural habitat for algae

Anthony Obligado of BAR-Technology and Commercialization Division (TCD) said the research is “a welcome and positive development.”

DAo said the presence of the scientific community in the said meeting is a manifestation of the commitment among the academes to pursue vigorously doable measures to enhance the country’s productivity.

Solazyme Inc. announced today the first successful test flight of a Navy MH60S Seahawk Helicopter fueled by a 50/50 blend of their algal based fuel, Solajet, and traditional petroleum based jet fuel.

This flight marks the first military flight in history fueled by algae based fuel products. This represets a huge step forward for the algae based biofuel market as aviation fuels are seen a the first market that algae based fuels will be able to begin displacing traditional petroleum based products.

Solazyme’s fuels represent a “drop-in” replacement for petroleum placed jet fuel, meaning that they can be used without any modifications to an aircrafts engine.

Bionavitas, Inc., a Redmond Washington based bioscience company has announced a major advance in algae cultivation technology that dramatically increases yields for large scale production.

The patent pending method is based on light immersion technology. The basic idea is to insert additional light sources inside of large algae cultures, in turn defeating the challenge of self shading. Algae by nature becomes more of an obstacle to light penetration as the thickness and saturation with oil increases. By immersing specially designed lights into the culture the company is reporting a 10-12 times increase in yield.

The technology is also being applied to closed reactor systems used to culture algae for use in nutraceuticals and other high grade products. Special high efficiency LED lights are used which red and blue spectrum of light which is more easily absorbed than other parts of the spectrum.

‘Green Crude’ manufacturer Sapphire Energy has perfected a new process allowing them to create high-octane gasoline that is compatible with existing engines. Sapphire uses a single cell algae to produce a chemical mix that contains extractable biofuel that can be used in existing vehicles.