U.S. DOE Plans to Accelerate Algae-Based Biofuel Production

This past week, at the Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy in Honolulu, Hawaii, the U.S. DOE revealed its intentions to pursue advanced biofuels and those algae-based, that can be drop-in replacements for diesel and gasoline.

Valerie Reed of the DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy spoke of the Department's emphasis on hydrocarbons and high-density biofuels over the first-generation cellulosic ones.

“We learned a lot over the past 20 years, and we believe we can apply that to a faster deployment phase,” Reed said, adding that biomass-based liquid transportation fuels are going to be the only adequate displacements for jet fuel. “This is now becoming a priority fuel we need to consider, and that’s why we’re moving into the advanced biofuels arena,” she said.

Reed highlighted the high productivity of algae and it’s massive presence in the ocean, pointing out that if each algal cell were lined end to end there would be enough algae to reach the moon and back 15 billion times.

She also pointed out that a troublesome algal bloom near the Olympic Stadium in China yielded more than 3 million tons of biomass in a three-month period. “Their nightmare is our opportunity,” she said. “If we can harness that type of productivity, and do so in a sustainable fashion, we can look at this in a different scenario.”

To assess the current state of algae technology and determine the next steps toward commercialization of algal biofuel processes, the DOE is developing the National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap, which will be ready for publication in late December.

Reed said major areas in algae that should be focused on are basic algal biology, cultivation and production, integration and scale up, sustainability and economic analysis.

“We’ve already gotten started in some areas of economic analysis, as we’re working with NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) and Sandia National Laboratory to look at the techno-economic modeling—where we are today in terms of what’s technically viable, how much it will cost, what the baseline is…we’re also looking at life-cycle assessments; working internationally with groups in Israel as well as Canada, to look at a number of important issues associated with establishing new algae programs.”

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