My headline could have been, "SA TV Show Shoots Holes in Algal Biodiesel Firm - Casts Doubt on Whole Industry". I don't want to descend to that level of muckraking journalism. But bad news makes news, and "De Beers Fuels" of South Africa is making news. Some observers have called the company a sham, a scam, or a fraud perpetrated on the public. "Investors" reportedly paid about 6 million SA rand (please don't ask me what the exchange rate is) for a franchised plant to be built (in the future). To date none have been constructed, and according to a spokesman for GreenFuel Technologies (who licensed their "bioreactors" technology to De Beers) it was unlikely that any full scale production facility would be ready before early 2009.
I have criticized what I considered ill-considered and overzealous organizations with environmental concerns shooting down and shutting down legitimate, equally well intentioned projects to provide biomass based alternative energy sources. It is in that spirit that I decided not to mention the name of the "investigative" television show that "exposed" De Beers (again, remember, this is not related to the diamond De Beers folks). However, it was also reported (at the end of the Engineering News article cited above) that GreenFuels had cancelled their cultivation “technology” license to De Beers.
The shocking part: I think the license cancellation is a blessing in disguise as far as the future health of De Beers Biofuels is concerned.
The not so shocking part may be that (although they were there, and I was not) the television show may have already determined the future of De Beers, a long series of court battles from investors to recover their funds. Whether or not De Beers legitimately intended to build plants, the dark cloud of suspicion cast over them is likely to cripple any possibility that they ever will be able to build algae production or biodiesel-from-algae extraction plants. Remember, they are the ones who ordered 90 high pressure machines from GreenStar another US firm, and it was at the delivery of the first of those that Greenstar announced the deal for the additional units.
Okay, I have trouble remembering which is which, so once again, quickly, GreenStar makes biodiesel extraction technology, GreenField makes growing tubes they call "photobioreactors" to cultivate algae in water with the injection of carbon dioxide.
Now, assuming (and assuming is a dangerous sport)(at very least if can make bungee jumping extremely dangerous) that De Beers Biofuels is not just a scam, there is still some 6 million times 18, or more, Rand of investor funds floating around somewhere. And if the firm has not been so crippled by bad publicity that they cannot ever continue as an operating company, then we [especially those who have invested in the company] should consider the comments of one man who knows a bit about the subject of algae and biodiesel.
"... and bizarre contraptions (e.g. closed photobioreactors).[specifically referring to GreenFuel Technologies triangular polyacrylic tubes, of which, elsewhere, he says:"(>$100+/m2) for such applications is totally absurd."]
There are no silver bullets, no winner-take-all technologies, no technological fixes, the solution to our energy and environment crisis can only come from, in order, 'demand' management, efficiency improvements, and new energy supplies, to which, maybe, algae processes can contribute."
This statement comes from a man with substantial, impressive credentials on the subject of algae and energy. He is:
If by any chance you decide to read the DOE ASP report (linked above) Dr. Benemann cautions that the introduction by NREL (not him) was “optimistic” and that you need to keep in mind that they had just spent US$ 100 million on research, then closed down the project.
Dr. Benemann also is critical of Professor Briggs of the University of New Hampshire's projections for biodiesel yields: "There is no basis for the projections he makes for very high biodiesel production rates." However Dr. Benemann ignores that Professor Briggs mentions future hybridized, or otherwise-species-improved, algae in making such projections. On the other hand, Professor Briggs says (elsewhere) that GreenFuel's expectation of 45,000 barrels of oil per acre are far beyond his estimate of 15,000 that he believes may be practicable. In fact, Michael Briggs' cost assumptions are based on the NREL estimate of 5000 gallons per acre per year (while doubling previous cost assumptions as well).
Dr. Benemann, however does point out that if construction costs could be something less than $10/sq.meter that he thinks we might have something viable. Well, that works out (strangely enough?) to roughly 1/2 the costs that Professor Briggs was using in his calculations. It would seem that, not coincidentally, Prof. Briggs roughly doubled Dr. Benemann's assumption of $1/sq.ft. or $40,000 per acre, since Prof. Briggs also relies, at least in part, upon Dr. Benemann's prior NREL Aquatic Species Program report.
A key element in their disagreement is whether algae must be cultivated in closed environments or open field settings. The following picture is from Dr. Benemann's website for Biofixation.
Dr. Benemann is optimistic that with inexpensive, open-field cultivation and with co-product revenue (animal feed, fertilizer, or carbon sequestration credits from electric utility companies) that algae cultivation can be economically viable. I'll be asking him for his report this week. It promises to be very interesting reading.
However, back to our "black sheep" problem, De Beers, it seems to me De Beers may have liberated themselves from a highly restrictive contract that might have doomed their operations financially, if there were committed to using the photobioreactors without exploring more economical means and methods. As I mentioned in a prior column, someone, somewhere has reported that GreenField Technologies is now considering open-field cultivation, but the images of their impractical [expensive] polyacrylic tubes is all I can find for them. De Beers, if it pursues some form of open-field cultivation has a reasonable chance of a prosperous future. (Assuming they aren't all in court or in jail.)
Open-field, reminds me of open borders, and the video I just saw on my wife's computer during my five minute break. A neighbor and friend sent us the link to Lou Dobbs latest rant about the Bush Administration's "Amnesty Bill" as Lou calls it, the Immigration Reform Act, according to President Bush and friends. It is actually moderately amusing to watch Lou rant on about this. It is my quick judgment that both sides of Congress in both Houses don't want this bill to pass. They don't want to be saddled with bearing the burden of "guilt" associated with passing a law that satisfies no one, and angers a good number of the political backers in both Democratic and Republican camps as they all face the re-election campaigns next year. (Yeah, yeah, I know, some of that is already well underway, especially in the Presidential candidate nominations.) But the ridiculously generous provisions of the current bill (assuming Lou Dobbs is neither lying, nor misunderstanding its provisions) appear to me to be likely to be amendments from both sides that are designed to guarantee that this bill will never pass. President Bush is determined to get it to the floor again, but I don't see Congress being willing to dance with this pig.
Okay, and the "more good news" item to close with is that another company, Solix Biofuels of Fort Collins, Colorado notes that algae are, "found almost everywhere - oceans, ponds, swimming pools, and common goldfish bowls." Although someone deprecatingly called the image on Solix's homepage "photoshopped in" and it obviously is not a photo, but a computer generated image, it does not look that far from the real photo above of algae cultivation in Hawaii. What might have been off-putting about the image was if someone might believe it was intended to represent the high plains of Colorado. It looks to me, however, more like the Southwestern desert of Arizona, very near the border with California, an excellent venue for this type of cultivation. Not that Arizona desert is devoid of freezing temperatures, they happen occasionally, but because of the more than 300 days of sunshine we have around here. Colorado River water in that area is currently being used to grow citrus trees in lush abundance, though by itself, that segment of the river will never supply the entire 15,000 square miles of algae that Professor Michael Briggs estimates will be needed to entirely replace American crude petroleum consumption. It could be, however, a very good start.
The heart of the matter, in the case of Solix Biofuels, seems to be (in addition to the traditional claims of superior breeding stock, and botanical and engineering expertise) the technology. That is to say that they have developed what appears to be a hybrid design (not a hybrid species) for their cultivation environment that combines the best of both worlds. The Flash animation on this page at their web site has one picture that is a big clue. It appears too quickly to study in any great detail, but combined with the other images in the montage, it suggests a protected environment of very inexpensive construction. If they have a handle on the challenges of harvesting, too, they could have a real winner here.
Love
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
p.s. I MUST apologize for the misspelling of "nuclear" in the title of last week's column, which was, in truth, not so much a misspelling as negligent editing on my part to not notice the typographical scramble I created. Doubtless, for anyone that cared, you were able to decypher the puzzle without referring to your Jean Le Carré (although Americans may have to “decipher” my British spelling of “decypher”)
