by Tom Konrad
Celluslosic Ethanol is all the
rage. A less noticed, but significant
"Biofuel 2.0" is biofuel based on algae.
Follow the Biomass
As I have consistently argued (see these recent articles on John
Deere, Biogas,
Cellulosic
Ethanol vs Biomass Electricity, and Renewable
or Green Diesel) the people most likely to make money from biofuel are
not the processors and distributors (who compete directly with petroleum or
other fossil fuel-based products, and so have
little pricing power), but the producers of feedstock, which, like oil, is
in very limited supply, and so they will have pricing power.
When it comes to converting sunlight into biomass, algae is the most
productive type of plant. According to this chart
from Five Star Consultants
, Biodiesel from algae has the potential to
produce enough fuel to drive a Prius-type car 370,000 miles per acre per year
(MAY), compared to 2,000 to 31,000 MAY for conventional biodiesel crops, while ethanol from switchgrass could produce 32,500
MAY. Furthermore, some strains of algae are as much as 40%
oil by weight, leading to the hope of a large supply of oil which is much
easier to convert into biodiesel than it is to ferment even corn (let alone
cellulosic biomass) into ethanol.
With an order-of magnitude advantage, it would seem that algae is the green
wave of the future, and actually so productive that it could produce enough
biomass feedstock for us to continue to drive our SUVs with our current reckless
abandon.
Theoretically,
biodiesel produced from algae appears to be the only feasible solution today
for replacing petro-diesel completely... In practice however,
biodiesel has not yet been produced on a wide scale from algae, though large
scale algae cultivation and biodiesel production appear likely in the near
future (4-5 years). - Oilgae.com.
Ponds or Reactors?
There are two basic approaches to growing algae: open pond and closed
reactor. The open pond method, which is what Petrosun
Drilling (OTC:PSUD)
recently announced
they are pursuing, involves growing the algae in open ponds of water, much
like it grows in nature. Open ponds are clearly quite cheap, but they
require a reliable supply of water to replenish that lost from evaporation
(making them impractical in all but the wettest parts of the country (Petrosun's
first farm will be on the Texas coast, and use saltwater, which helps with this
problem.) The lack of temperature and weather control can further decrease
yields from the theoretical potential.
The other problem with open ponds is that it is impossible to keep other
types of algae (a.k.a. weeds) out, meaning that high percentages of oil in the
final crop will be impossible to attain. This means that biofuel produced from
pond algae will require much more extensive processing to be turned into
fuel. It's easy to grow pond scum, but turning it into something useful is
harder.
The other option is the algae bioreactor, one type of which (from Solix
biofuels) was referenced in the chart above. The Solix technology uses
closed plastic bags agitated by rollers, has climate control with the use of
controlled radiative cooling, and uses concentrated carbon dioxide emissions to
enhance algal growth. (The best
description of the technology is at Algae
@ Work, a company which was started by Solix's
former CTO seeking to apply the technology to carbon capture.)
To me the bioreactor approach (Solix's technology is only one version) seems
most likely to achieve the promise of extremely high yields, and even that is not
without problems. Large scale bioreactors are complex systems. As
such, they will be expensive and take great efforts to move from the lab to
commercial scale.
Ken Regelson, the author of the chart above, and he believes that
Solix does not have "a prayer of achieving their expected yields per
acre" but that he used the number from Solix because he has yet to get
authoritative numbers from anyone else.
What about Petrosun?
I wrote this article because readers
wanted to know about Petrosun
Drilling (OTC:PSUD), an
oil exploration company that has been promoting
their algae biodiesel
efforts since September.
Other than Petrosun, the only public companies I know of which are seriously
looking into algae based biodiesel are large conglomerates: Boeing
(BA), Chevron
(CVX), Royal
Dutch Shell (RDS-A) and Honeywell
(HON), which can take the long
view and have large research budgets to finance their efforts for as long as it
takes. If you click through the company names to the news stories, you
will note the common theme: These are all research stage projects.
Petrosun has
not filed even an unaudited quarterly report since March 2007. Given
that it is also promoting exciting technology, I detect the whiff of snake oil
salesmen. Although readers are clearly interested in this company, until
they begin to file current information, I don't consider it worth my time to
investigate further. Petrosun's main product is much more likely to be snake
oil than algae oil.
Even if Petrosun does execute on its algae farms, will there be any first
mover advantage? It seems unlikely to me; growing algae in open saltwater
ponds will depend on access to suitable land near coastlines... later entrants
who can acquire suitable land should be able to produce algae just as efficiently
as Petrosun, since they do not seem to have any special technology or expertise.
After all, the company is simply an unsuccessful oil exploration company with a
algae farm division.
DISCLOSURE: Tom Konrad and/or his clients have positions in
these stocks mentioned here: HON.
DISCLAIMER: The information and trades provided here are for informational
purposes only and are not a solicitation to buy or sell any of these securities.
Investing involves substantial risk and you should evaluate your own risk levels
before you make any investment. Past results are not an indication of future
performance. Please take the time to read the full disclaimer here.
Did you like this article?
Submitted By 
's
