How Algae Find Totally Awesome Homes
Have a wonderful strain of algae, but struggle to find a project location that optimizes climate, inputs and infrastructure?
With Zillow not yet providing real estate services for choosy microbes, PNNL and Sapphire Energy come to the rescue.
The Digest has often criticized synthetic biologists, in genetically enhancing microbes, for failing to endow them with the most obviously important traits: the ability to speak and listen. Oh, the things we would ask algae.
Are you warm, are you cold? You’re looking a little chubby, time for some liposuction? Where do you like to live? Or, for college-bound algae, “which campus is right for you?”
On the housing front, we were heartened this week to learn that the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in partnership with Sapphire Energy, have published “Siting Algae Cultivation Facilities for Biofuel Production in the United States: Trade-Offs between Growth Rate, Site Constructability, Water Availability, and Infrastructure,” in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
They highlight a new process for rigorously identifying and evaluating sites for commercial algae production facilities.
Algae are picky, picky, picky
The problem is a relatively acute one, given that many of the typical constraints for agriculture don’t apply to algae, and several unique ones do.
For example, plants get their CO2 from the atmosphere — by contrast, we generally have heavy supplementary CO2 feeds for algae to boost yields. On the other hand — in case of Sapphire Energy, for example, there’s no need for potable water or nutrient-rich soils. Others need fresh water; some need warmer climates — the variables are numerous and complex.
According to PNNL research engineer Erik Venteris, a member of the PNNL team who undertook the next-gen siting tool project with PNNL project manager Mark Wigmosta, there are nearly 100,000 potential sites for algae farms, which can be narrowed down to a narrow set using the tool – meaning that less time is spent weeding out weaker locations, and more time spent on detailed, local analysis.
Authors of the paper also include scientists Andre Coleman and Richard Skaggs of PNNL and Robert McBride of Sapphire Energy.
Previously, as you may recall, PNNL developed the Biomass Assessment Tool (BAT) with funding from the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The collaboration with Sapphire, which funded the latest study, allowed PNNL to hone the tool and apply the technology to a real-world industrial setting
How to please your algae in choosing a new home
As any realtor specializing in microscopic clientele might tell you, “location, location, location” is what it’s all about, and that generally means a warm and sunny climate (for outdoor algae), available water, economically available land with soils good for construction, and proximity to transportation and utility infrastructure.
In addition, local factors such as regulatory constraints, tax incentives, receptivity of local populations and ecological constraints apply.
Do discerning algae generally prefer a home on the Gulf Coast?
The analysis found impressive productivity potentials for cultivating green algae along the Gulf of Mexico, especially on the Florida peninsula. While there are sites with potential nationwide, the research indicated that the southern coast of Texas, Louisiana and southern Arkansas are particularly attractive locations for a commercial site for algae production when including other criteria, like access to infrastructure.
The researchers warm that “the ultimate choice of sites is highly dependent on the algae strain that is intended to be grown.”
Kudos for the new tools from ABO and Sapphire Energy
ABO was ebullient this week about the new tool. “Effectively siting algae cultivation facilities for commercial biofuel production is critical to the success of every commercial algae project,” said Margaret McCormick, chair of the Algae Biomass Organization and CEO of algae company Matrix Genetics. “The biology is so complex, existing ‘off-the-shelf’ measurement tools fall short. Because this analysis considers numerous variables along with real-world algae cultivation data, it offers project developers a much more complete and rigorous evaluation of sites.”
And the Sapphirians were buzzing too, like proud parents. “By combining Sapphire Energy’s knowledge and experience gained from operating the world’s first commercial demonstration algae production facility with PNNL’s rigorous tools and analysis, we were able to identify potential sites for the commercial production of algae biofuels in the United States,” said Tim Zenk, vice president of corporate affairs at Sapphire Energy. “This public-private partnership serves as an example of how collaboration can advance not only scientific understanding, but commercial development of new technologies with critical benefits for our nation and the world.”
Category: Top Stories
