$70.5 million awarded to Arizona Public Service to upgrade, expand algae biofuels project as Obama expands the war on carbon

In Arizona, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that Arizona Public Service has been awarded $70.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to expand its ongoing algae-based carbon mitigation project.

The project will now be tested with a coal-based gasification system that aims to minimize production of carbon dioxide when gasifying coal.

The host facility for this project is the Cholla Power Plant located in Holbrook. Funding for the project expansion falls under the ARRA’s $1.52 billion funding for carbon capture and storage from industrial sources. Arizona Public Service will scale up a concept for coproduction of electricity and substitute natural gas via coal gasification, while scaling up an innovative reutilization technology where power plant CO2 emissions are biologically captured by algae and processed into liquid transportation fuels.

APS will focus on the engineering aspects of continuous cultivation, harvesting, and processing of algae grown from power plant emissions.

According to the DOE, “Funding will enable APS to scale up its algae cultivation concept by about two orders of magnitude and scale up its hydrogasification concept by one order of magnitude. Researchers expect that the algae farm will reuse CO2 at a rate of 70 metric tons per acre per year.”

The project is also expected to provide stimulus to a region which has experienced 13 percent unemployment. The funding will be provided in increments, with the first phase released to fund a feasibility study. In the project, APS will seek to grow algae fast enough to absorb carbon dioxide released from burning biochar to make electricity – the biochar in turn will be created from syngas created from coal. said.

“Parts of this project have been done in different ways, but it’s never all be done together,” APS spokesman Stevel Gotfried told AZ Central.

The project is launched as the White House made an all-out assault on climate change, with a push on the climate bill, and the release of a 1227 page set of proposed regulations for implementing tough new auto emissions standards in 2012. The emissions standards require automakers to average 35.5 miles per gallons across their fleet by 2016, although under the proposed regulatory framework, a 1-1.5 miles per gallon credit will be allowed to automakers for each sale of a flex-fuel car.

War on Carbon background

APS background

In March, a group comprised of the University of Arizona, Arizona Public Service, PetroSun, Texas A&M, Purdue University, Renascent Energy, ABRI-Tech, Carbon2Algae and Rolls Royce are among applicants for another DOE project grant for  the demonstration of a sustainable and integrated algae-oil biorefinery.

In September 2007, Arizona Public Service Company (APS) and GreenFuel Technologies commenced a test using CO2 emissions from a coal-burning power plant to help grow algae for conversion  into biodiesel. The companies successfully tested the process at APS’ Redhawk natural gas power plant with productivity estimated at 37 times higher than corn and 140 times higher than soybeans.

CAFE Standards

In May, President Obama announced a series of auto efficiency standards, requiring an average fuel economy of 35.5 miles per gallon per automaker in 2016. The reductions will save an estimated 1.8 billion barrels of oil through 2016 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a projected 900 million metric tons. The previous policy was established through the CAFE standards passed by Congress in 2007, that required an average fuel economy of 35 mpg by 2020. By contrast, the 40MPG.org site reports that Japan is proposing to reach 48 mpg by 2010, while the EU is aiming for 44 Mpg.

In April, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that it will increase Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for 2011 model year cars and trucks. The new standards are expected to increase average fuel economy for US vehicles to 27.3 miles per gallon. The change will reduce fuel consumption by 887 million gallons and greenhouse gas emissions by 8.3 million metric tons.

In March 2008,  General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said that only “a very narrow portion of the population will make a financial sacrifice to be green. But I don’t think we can count on the majority of the American public to make a financial sacrifice….even as gasoline goes to $4 a gallon, you’re still going to see people doing the calculation. How much more do I have to pay for a hybrid system? Lutz added “Ever since CAFE legislation has been in effect, General Motors has improved the efficiency of its truck fleet by 60%, the fuel efficiency of its passenger-car fleet by 100%, and fuel use in the United States has done nothing but go up. So the idea that by legislating 35 miles per gallon, we’re somehow going to use less fuel, it would be the first time that it ever worked, because it inevitably results in people taking their fuel budget and buying a larger car.”

In February 2008, Lutz said that “global warming is “a crock of s–t.” GM’s CEO, Rick Waggoner, said that the comments did not reflect GM’s position, adding that his belief is that “the data is pretty clear that the temperature on the earth is rising.” Bob Lutz is in charge of developing GM’s flex-fuel and hybrid vehicles, including the Chevrolet Volt which is due to debut in 2010. Lutz recently said that only 1 in 12 consumers want modern diesel engines because they cost $3,000 to $4,000 per vehicle, and that the popularity of diesel engines in Germany is the result of punitive tax policies that skew the market, result in gasoline costing $8 per gallon compared to $4 for diesel fuel.

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