Replenish Energy Sees Microalgae as the Key to Puerto Rico’s Energy Independence

Quick! What’s the most efficient renewable energy source? Solar? Wind? Geothermal? Well, according to Replenish Energy, the answer is microalgae.

Bet you didn’t see that one coming! These tiny life forms can generate 48,000 kiloWatts of electricity per million dollars of capital invested, compared with 470 kW for solar panels and 1,300 kW for wind turbines. Microalgae also outperform all other land-based biomass with a fourteen times greater yield per acre than sugarcane ethanol and a two hundred times greater yield than soybean oil.

Replenish Energy, based in Puerto Rico, cultivates micro-algae in saltwater ponds for the production of pure vegetable oil, a bio-fuel used directly in nearby electric power plants. The process is a combination of low-tech organic agriculture coupled with microbiological science that creates a biofuel that can yield both power and food. The business will also enable sustainable farming of fish and seafood while lowering the cost of island power and reducing air pollution.

The microalgae create renewable, carbon-negative fuel to either substitute or blend with fuel oil or diesel at well below current petroleum prices. Microalgae oil is also a carbon sink; it consumes more CO2 than is released by burning. Puerto Rico imports 31 million barrels of oil annually and depends on oil for 98% of its power. Replenish sees the microalgae as a $1.7 Billion market opportunity.

Replenish Energy is a venture of Bio-Lipids of Puerto Rico Incorporated, a private innovation company developing bio-fuel for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), and for industrial partners such as the Bacardi Corporation. The Replenish Energy initiative has built alliances with community and environmental groups, and employs the scientific support and technical advice from the University of Georgia’s engineering faculty.

The company will create pilot plant operations on a 320 acre abandoned shrimp farm in Dorado, Puerto Rico. The plant will take advantage of the ocean seawater filtered through shallow wells and the year-round 12+ daily hours of sunlight-- and will draw from the organic wastes and CO2 produced by the nearby Bacardi Rum Distillery. These factors create near-optimum growing conditions for micro-algae photosynthesis. This energy model can be replicated throughout the world.

Recently, attendees at the Cleantech Open Expo and Awards Gala chose Replenish Energy as the winner of the 2009 Global Ideas Competition. Rosa Hilda Ramos, a program volunteer for Replenish Energy, accepted the award, saying, “What we have created is a perfect carbon-capture methodology. No toxins are used at any point in the process; a useful biofuel is created, along with a biomass that can be used to create humus or feedstock. Better still, Replenish Energy requires zero dedicated land for agriculture and no freshwater. It’s a fantastic solution that directly addresses a challenging ecological problem for our island.”

Separately, The Economist magazine has selected Replenish Energy as a top-10 finalist in the “Innovative Solutions in the Energy Sector” competition; the award will be presented at the 2009 Carbon Economy Summit in Washington, D.C.

Image courtesy of the Fraunhofer Institute