Algae Oil Biodiesel

CARLSBAD: A ceremony Wednesday morning in the middle of the Pecos Valley marked the beginning of a significant chapter in energy production in New Mexico.

With the snipping of a ribbon, the Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management moved its Algae Biofuels Project from pilot scale to the commercial demonstration level.

Located on the grounds of the New Mexico State University Agriculture Science Center south of Artesia, this phase of the project expects to be in full operation by Sept. 1, producing algae that will be harvested and processed into biodiesel fuel.

The project has the potential to produce 5,000 gallons of oil per acre per year, according to Doug Lynn, executive director of CEHMM.

The center has been conducting applied research in the growth, harvest and extraction of oil from algae to find the most productive species for the production of biofuel.

Local, state and national officials were on hand to mark the project’s progress.

“The money we’ve received from the state has been a major help: the state of New Mexico has recognized that we have to have move to other (nontraditional) energy sources,” said Rep. John Heaton.

“With 5,000 acres in production, it would produce half of the diesel fuel required for (the state of) New Mexico,” said Heaton, or 25 million gallons of biodiesel fuel.

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague praised the impact the project will have on reducing the country’s dependence on foreign oil.

“The work CEHMM will do in commercial demonstration ponds will make huge advances in America’s energy portfolio by reducing dependence on foreign oil,” Teague said. “Algae is the newest biofuel to become credible.”

The project has been a partnership between CEHMM and the U.S. Department of Energy, New Mexico State University, the State of New Mexico’s Energy Innovation Fund and the city of Carlsbad, Lynn noted.

“It’s about energy, but it’s also about the economy and creating jobs,” said Doug Lynn, executive director of CEHMM.

The project will not only provide a fuel source, it will create 165 high-paying, technical jobs in southeast New Mexico, Lynn said.

Source : CEHMM Website

MAX ONE will visit algae producers to test their strains, demonstrate effectiveness

Los Angeles, CA May 20, 2010 – OriginOil, Inc. (OOIL), the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform algae, the most promising source of renewable oil, into a true competitor to petroleum, announced today that it recently launched MAX ONE, its first mobile algae extraction laboratory. A private party of investors and supporters celebrated the unveiling at the company’s headquarters in Los Angeles.

The trailer-based system will visit algae producing companies in the US to demonstrate how OriginOil’s Single Step Extraction™ process can help them harvest their algae efficiently and cost-effectively. The system is capable of extracting oil from algae at a rate of five gallons per minute, enough to demonstrate feasibility to potential customers.

“Algae can’t succeed as a biofuel without an economical and energy-efficient way to harvest it,” said Riggs Eckelberry, CEO of OriginOil. “That’s why algae companies are eager to test our process as soon as possible. Now we can pull up in the trailer, process their algae, and analyze it for them on the spot.”

MAX ONE was launched on May 17th in front of an audience of invited investors and supporters who toured the mobile system and applauded the OriginOil technology team. Photos and video of the unveiling can be found on the MAX One event page.

This is more than just a strategy to sell more extraction systems, said Eckelberry. “Every algae strain out there has its own extraction profile, and there are thousands of strains,” he said. “This is a great chance to document all the different strains which will help us roll out through partners worldwide.”

While it is currently working with pioneering producers, OriginOil plans to work in the future through country and regional partners, as well as specialized manufacturers and service organizations worldwide.

On May 18th, Eckelberry participated in an industry panel at the sold-out Algae World Summit, a conference that is focused on the algae value chain and which OriginOil helped to create. He reported on the launch of MAX ONE and on the effort to document algae strains. He called for closer industry collaboration, focusing less on the differences between companies than on their shared need to get algae production scaled up quickly to meet fast-expanding demand.

Press Release

When you think of recycling electronics, no doubt you imagine the old PC or mobile phone being disassembled, and it’s metal and plastic parts melted down to be repurposed. But for some people, it means reusing the parts to grow algae.

Students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created Bio-Grow, a device made from various computer parts that serves as a reservoir to cultivate algae.

The algae can then be used in biodiesel production, which could potentially replace petroleum in the futures.

“If someone had one of these in their homes, they would cultivate algae and extract it,” said team member and undergraduate student Megan Kenney. “Then they could take it into a gas company that was set up with an oil filtration facility and get credit off their gas.”

Kenney, along with undergraduate students Timothy Harvey, Elliot Reese and Mark Schnitzer, and graduate student Saeidreza Shiftehfar was focused on finding a way to be green, and ended up winning second place in the International Electronic Waste Competition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with their design.

“The whole point of our project was two different concepts,” Schnitzer said. “To use electronic waste and to solve a green issue in the world.”

Which is why the team chose to use old electronics to build the device called an algae bioreactor. It encourages photosynthesis, the chemical reaction that happens in plants, which uses sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into sugar.

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