20 May 2009

Algae to biofuel: A regional cause

An effort to turn algae into biofuels is now a part of a regional partnership in the San Diego, Calif. region.

The San Diego region, now home to more than 500 biotechnology companies, could become a major center for renewable energy development, as scientists from UC San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute, and other local research institutions join in a broad-scale research effort to develop advanced transportation fuels from algae.

A researcher in Susan Golden’s lab at UC San Diego examines streaks of algae.

The San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology’s (SD-CAB) goal is to create a national facility capable of developing and implementing research solutions for the commercialization of fuel production from algae.

“By sharing and facilitating the interactions of these multiple researchers through this center, we hope to make sustainable algae-based fuel production and carbon dioxide abatement a reality within the next five to ten years,” said University of California San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox.  “This consortium will strengthen our ability to obtain grants and attract resources to the area. Algal biofuels will allow us to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and other economies, and will provide opportunities for a new economy and workforce.”

Last year, venture capitalists invested $175.9 million in the U.S. to develop biofuel from microalgae, according to Biofuels Digest. The industry publication said $100 million of that amount went to Sapphire Energy, a San Diego-based biotech company working to convert algae to an environmentally friendly biofuel for use in automobiles and airliners.

SD-CAB scientists will grow large quantities of algae in the Imperial Valley.

“Algae and biofuels have been identified as one of the key emerging industries in the region,” said Timothy Kelley, president and chief executive of the Imperial Valley Economic Development Corp. “We feel that the addition of Imperial Valley will allow the algae industry to attain full production earlier than expected.

“Algae production can occur at every level in Imperial Valley from the biosciences to the production and processing of algae for bio-fuels and food products,” added Kelley.

Scientists regard algae as a promising source of renewable alternative transportation fuels. They are the fastest growing organisms for turning sunlight into chemical energy and can grow on land that will not compete with food production, as do traditional row crops such as corn when used as a biofuel source.

Microalgae, including single-celled algae and cyanobacteria, grow quickly, need relatively lower nutrient inputs, and derive their energy from sunlight. Researchers can grow them at a very large scale and take carbon dioxide from the air as part of their growth process, making carbon sequestration another beneficial by-product. Compared with crops normally used to produce vegetable oil, such as soybeans or palm, algae can generate from 10 to 50 times the amount of oil per acre.

Furthermore, local experts on algae say growing algae does not require the use of arable land required for production of food crops. Algae can grow in salt or brackish water, so they will not adversely impact limited fresh water resources. They can grow at very large scale, the same as agricultural crops, and because they use nutrients efficiently and can extract nearly all the nutrients they need from wastewater, they need very little fertilizer.

“What’s needed to make algae a commercially viable source of biofuel is for scientists to identify and optimize microalgae to enhance their yields and their production of biofuel,” said Stephen Mayfield, an expert on the genetics of algae who is a professor at The Scripps Research Institute and associate director of SD-CAB. “That’s why the basic biological research of the institutions on the Torrey Pines mesa and the collaboration with local biotechnology industries within SD-CAB is so critical to the success of this effort.”

For related information, go to www.isa.org/environment.