LiveFuels: Using Fish to Harvest Oil From Algae

Menlo Park, Calif. based LiveFuels, which received $10 million in funding two years ago and has been in business since 2006, is headed by the husband-wife team of David Jones and Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones.

LiveFuels has adopted a different approach to extracting oil from algae at its 9 five acre ponds in Texas, which it hopes will bypass the traditional challenges associated with algae. The two main issues are harvesting the algae from the water and then extracting oil from the algae - also, the pumps and centrifuges that do this work consume a lot of energy. While other companies work on perfecting the way they grow, harvest and extract, LiveFuels has passed the buck to the fish.

It feeds the algae to the fish and lets the fish work on harvesting it. After the fish fatten up, they are caught in nets and 'processed' for oil and protein used in animal feed. LiveFuels is testing different breeds of fish and researching when would be the optimum time to harvest the fish.

Aside from producing algae biofuel and animal feed protein, this process will also yield phosphates from the fish bones for fertilizer, providing multiple revenue streams and tapping the algae and fish for all its potential.

Dave Jones spoke at the recently held third annual Algae Biomass Summit in San Diego, which drew over 600 participants involved in algae research and commercialization.

"We will start out with animal feed, move on to human consumption and then biofuel. We have a goal to move into open water, since the U.S has a lot of sources but the challenge is to get permitting," he said.

Like many others at the conference, he sounded a note of caution which was markedly different from the brash claims of participants at the first two algae summits. "We as an industry need to think about whether we are developing a solution that will create a bigger problem," he said, referring to the many challenges yet to be overcome in large scale algae production.

Researchers and companies in this field are still grappling with finding suitable non-arable land that is situated close to large water resources as well as carbon dioxide supply. Algae are photosynthetic and use sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow.

To view more video clips and profiles of companies at the 2009 Algae Biofuel Summit, check out:

• Sapphire Energy: Challenges with Algae Are an Agricultural Problem
  
• Solazyme Lands U.S. Navy Contracts for Algae Jet Fuel

Image courtesy of Flickr