European Algae Biomass Association says commercialization 10-15 yrs away; US say 2-3 yrs: who’s right?
The European Algae Biomass Association debuted, and immediately offered a more sober view of algae's time to commercialization as a fuel than has been heard from US developers
In Italy, the European Algae Biomass Association officially launched yesterday with a decidedly pessimistic outlook for commercial-scale algae bioenergy production. New EABA Executive Director Raffaello Garofalo said that it will take 10 to 15 years for algae to reach industrial-scale production, and that, at present, making biodiesel from algae costs 10 to 30 times the cost of making biodiesel from traditional feedstocks.
Garofalo told Reuters that the new association has 54 members and that he saw a price of $500-$550 emerging for the algal fuel market, in the long-term, after other fractinos of algae biomass were sold for animal feed or to the nutraceutical markets. Garofalo referred to pilot projects in Portugal and Italy but cautioned against expectations of quick breakthroughs in the path towards algae commercialization.
This outlook contrasts with a more upbeat assessment from the United States, where Sapphire Energy has projected that it will reach 1 Mgy in production in 2011 and 100 Mgy by 2018, while Solazyme has projected reaching 100 Mgy by 2012 or 2013. Biofields has projected production in Mexico of 250 Mgy by 2013 based on the Algenol process, and PetroAlgae has indicated it expects reach commercial-scale production volumes (below 100 Mgy) in 2011 based on its licensing activity to date. Aurora Biofuels has projected the development of “$1.30 at the gate” fuel by 2013.
A Hot Topics update on algae is here.
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Joelle Brink | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
I’m not qualified to offer an opinion, but Vinod Khosla, who is interested in algae, has said commercialization and scalability are still some years off and for the present he is still investing in cellulosic ethanol.
jerusalem | Jun 7, 2009 | Reply
The formation of “low value” compounds like biofuels from algae is not economically viable. The cell concentration obtained is too low. Dr. J.S. Rokem, Jerusalem
femtobeam | Jul 11, 2009 | Reply
The problem areas of economic viability and cell constituents can both be overcome quickly by solving the toxin and centrifugal systems problems of alga mass production. Genetics are leading the way toward cells capable of producing much more concentration of desired properties already. Cellulosic ethanol is a scam to subsidize farmers who do need subsidizing but not at the expense of animal and human food production at low costs. Cellulosic ethanol requires expensive procedures for separation of plant constituents and breaking down lignin. There simply is no substitute for fast production of single cell algae and other single cells which require little in the way of expensive processing, for biofuel feedstock. With the Femtobeam LLC process of preventing toxins and growing biomass with tailored 100% PAR flat total surface emission lamps, all of the barriers are now removed to feedstock for fuels and feed of all kinds with a higher yield for the farmer… who now has a natural fertilizer and lower prices for food and medicinal feedstock too. Protecting farm subsidies while preventing a solution with algae is counterproductive for all. This is the current position of the USDA, however. On the other hand, open pond algae production is toxic and full of gas and has variable results from microbial processes, ruining the centrifuges. Toxins are an ecological disaster in that the problem can grow quickly into a bio hazard on the ground and a huge methane producer in the atmosphere. One has only to read the article about the boy who went swimming in one and was almost eaten by microbes to know how dangerous it is. Toxic algae should be strictly forbidden as a source of cheap infant and baby formula. Regulatory intervention is needed in this area.