DARPA: Biofuel from Algae Could Cost Only $1 Per Gallon
By next year, this jet could be fueled by 50 percent algae biofuel. (image: chamorrobible.org)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an office of the US Department of Defense, will soon be producing jet fuel made from algae at a price comparable to that of petroleum-based fuel, the UK Guardian reported on Saturday. DARPA could be months, not years, from producing an algal biofuel that is price-competitive with fossil fuels. According to Barbara McQuiston, special assistant to energy for DARPA, “Oil from algae is projected at $2 per gallon, headed towards $1 per gallon.”
The oil produced by algae still needs to be refined into jet fuel, which can be done while still keeping the price under $3 per gallon. McQuiston said an additional refinery will come on line in 2011 and be capable of producing 50 million gallons of algae-based jet fuel a year.
Research into algal biofuels has received massive funding from the US government and Exxon, but DARPA’s breakthrough in achieving a cost-effective method of production still came as a surprise. The director of the Algal Biomass Association, Mary Rosenthal, was taken aback by DARPA’s accelerated timeline and said she expected algal fuels to become competitive “in the next two years.”
DARPA’s work is part of the US military’s efforts to reduce costs and improve the flexibility of its supply chain by relying more on renewable sources of energy. The military aims to get half its energy from renewable sources by 2016, and the US Air Force wants to test 50-50 blends of biofuel and petroleum-based fuel by 2011.
As has been the case for many technological advancements throughout history, the military’s breakthrough advancement in algal fuels could soon benefit American civilians and heating oil users in particular. While the viability of biofuels from algae feedstocks has already been proven, other obstacles preventing biofuels from being widely available and cost-competitive with petroleum fuels have yet to be overcome. DARPA’s announcement signifies the existence of technology to manufacture biofuels at a competitive price point which, in our free-market society, means it is only a matter of time before that same technology makes its way into the private sector.
When that time comes, heating oil users can expect major changes in their heating fuel: higher concentrations of biofuel (from algae and other feedstocks) in heating oil at similar or even significantly lower prices than 100 percent petroleum heating oil.
Cleaner, greener fuel available at lower prices in the next few years; now that’s good news for everybody.
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-28 says: says:
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Rick Rhoadarmer says: says:
I suspect that Mason Hamilton also believes it was Al Gore, rather than DARPA, who invented the internet and that 9/11 was an inside job.
Twitter Updates for 2010-02-23 says: says:
[...] from Algae Could Cost Only $1 Per Gallon: http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/darpa-biofuel-from-algae-could-cost-only-1-per-gallon215/ [...]
Douglas Brown says: says:
This is what can put the US back into the energy producing category again, and make us an industrial leader once more. We have the necessary land area and resources to devote to this industry.
Contrary to one post I’ve noted here, the algae is not grown out in the open environment but in closed loop systems to prevent contamination from wild algae. It poses no danger to the environment, and indeed actually sequesters atmospheric carbon.
In a year of dismal news, this is a ray of hope for the future.
Casey says: says:
Lets be reallistic, algae is the new technology of the 21st century with more to offer than fuel, but at the same time let,s be a little wiser and learn from our recent mistakes. I’m talking about the Great Lakes crisis involving the asian carp that was brought in by misguided farmers in the midwest to eat the algae and clean their ponds. Then the Mississippi river flooded and the rest is history. Now we are beginning to hear of killer algae taking over lagoons in southern California. Now add that to unexspected flooding and what do we have? Because algae is a living organism that can change and take on a life of it’s own I think it is only responsable reasoning that we aught to consider abandoning open ponds and focus on American companies such as Biocentric Energy(BEHL) proclaimed as a leader in research an developement,(Oil&Gas Review-Jan 2010 pg.44,Extreme-Biodiesel,ect.) and hailed by the National Algae Association as the Wall Mart of algae. Biocentric Energy(BEHL) already has a low cost,enviromentally safe enclosed loop system ready for market and in its design is already custom tailored for delivery and use by the US millitary as it comes packaged in 20′x8′ containers. The system comes complete with monitoring equipment,computers,a library,a chemitry lab and medical facilities. ready to be loaded into C130 air craft to be delivered anywhere in the world and a trained squad can easily set up a ten acre system in less time than it would take to fill it with water.
Larry says: says:
Post didn’t show the link to the bio-friendly airliner that will use this algae based jet fuel. http://www.burnelli.com
More on Valcent’s algae story:
http://blog.valcent.net/?p=375
Valcent is also in the forefront of vertical farming as seen in this clip at the Paignton Zoo in the UK:
http://blog.valcent.net/?p=727
Larry says: says:
Let’s hope all the nay-sayers are wrong and DARPA “has” found a way to create inexpensive biofuels out of algae AND that they will share it with the general public for commercial use.
To get the quantity and purity of the algal species needed, whoever takes this on commercially will need the right system. Pond growth is a ridiculous waste of space and water and is not sustainable. Growing in the dark takes sugar which raises the prices on food products. Even Sapphire Energy, backed by Bill Gates, uses open ponds. This doesn’t seem sustainable with the necessary land useage required for conversion of even 10% or our national trasportation needs.
Below is a company, Valcent, who designed a closed loop system that has the potential of making 100,000 gallons of biofuel per acre per year. It protects the chosen algal species, uses 1/5th the water, uses non-arable land and can even be built within cities around around CO2 polluting facilities and use the CO2 to accellerate algal growth. I haven’t seen a better idea yet. (Hope to use it in a new jet airliner of the future from the linked website.)
With this ability we would need a growing area equal to only 1/10th the area of New Mexico to fulfill the transportation needs of America. Check out the videos below or YouTube Valcent algae.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miNn8DyKSC0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odsoE7du22A&feature=related
You can read about Sapphire’s system here.
http://www.sapphireenergy.com/news-article/66661-sapphire-energy-addresses-water-use/21224-news-coverage
They claim it’s a “closed loop” system but if you have open ponds with high amounts of evaporation and algal contamination floating into your open ponds, this IS NOT a closed loop system. They also talk of a hundred acre facility up and running and a few thousand acres of land in the wings. This is just scratching the surface of the need. Where will they get the land and the water to sustain 10s of thousands of acres of open air algal growth? I just don’t see it Bill. You should change teams to Valcent.
admin says: says:
Thanks for your comment, John, and I’m sorry to have misled you or other readers. It’s true, the statement from DARPA quoted above projects unrefined oil from algae at $1 per gallon. Just as it costs money to refine crude oil into heating oil or gasoline, to refine oil from algae into diesel or into jet fuel, as DARPA has proposed, will add to the cost. However, I still refer to crude oil as “oil,” and “biofuel” seemed like an appropriate umbrella term to refer to “green crude,” the unrefined oil from algae.
The $1-per-gallon price point remains astoundingly low, even if it’s for oil that still needs refining. Consider that there are 42 gallons in a barrel of oil, and crude oil has traded between $70 and $85 for months now. DARPA is saying they will be able to produce oil from algae at roughly half the cost of today’s barrel of crude. Hard to believe, but even energy analyst Robert Rapier–who’s very skeptical of DARPA’s claim–confesses that perhaps some credulity is in order when weighing the claims of the agency that invented the Internet.
John Cochran says: says:
The title of this article is somewhat misleading, since it is the unrefined oil from algae that may some day be $1 per gallon, not the diesel fuel refined from the oil.
Jeff says: says:
Commercial Aviation has been successfully testing alternative source fuels for the past 2 years. The engine makers have approved of the blends using algae, jotropa, and other sources. This is a reality in the commercial world. The government just needs to get out of the way.
If the US AF is paying hundreds of $$/gallon, typical government waste!
anonymous says: says:
The US Government has spent over $2.5 billion dollars on algae research in the last 35 years and all we have to show for it are shelves full of useless patents. Algae have been researched at universities and in laboratories in the US for over 50 years, financed in significant part by government funds. One of the largest problems is that the research has been done in laboratories and at universities, using federal funds, and there is fear at that level that commercialization will ‘ruin it for them’. What it will ruin is the steady stream of ‘free’ money flowing from the DOE, NREL, the DOD, DARPA and other Washington-based agencies to University Row. It was most disconcerting to hear from more than one agency that the funds it awards are, by Congressional mandate, restricted to research. If we could invest one years’ worth of awards into commercialization instead of research, we could easily move this industry into commercialization. The research would be needed to improve technologies, but Microsoft and the American Petroleum Industry, among others, can confirm that this is a necessary component of any industry growth.
According to my sources. another large problem is, in order to be a grant award recipient, the algae technologies must be investigated and approved by NREL, and that NREL is not particularly supportive of the private initiative. NREL is the same government agency that ran out of money and stopped the otherwise successful Aquatic Species Program after 18 years of federal funding. After the Consortium grant announcement, sources at various government agencies, including NREL itself, shared the fact that grants would only be awarded to proposed groups that included government agencies in their consortia. The truth of that statement lies in the fact that one of the groups that recently received an award is led by NREL and the other by the David Danforth Plant Science Center, and includes two national laboratories (one of which is also a participant in the NREL award) and 11 universities. According to its website, “Scientists at the Danforth Center receive more than half of their funding from federal agencies via competitive grant programs, with the rest of the funding coming from private companies and foundations. In addition to the USDA and the NSF, other federal granting agencies that fund research at the Center include the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency…”. In the last 2 years, it has received grants from the Department of Transportation and the National Sciences Foundation relating to biofuels, in addition to housing one of the DOE’s Energy Frontier Research Centers.
Federal agencies are incapable of commercializing anything. The only ones that are even remotely designed to earn money are those that regulate the financial institutions, and we all know that the American banking system has failed us miserably. Until someone in Washington who has power and authority to stop this steady stream of funding to nowhere, listening as the algae researchers continue to claim that they are 3-5 years away from completing their research, it’s too expensive and they need more time and money, they will receive grant money from the DOE, NREL, DOD and DARPA. Nothing will ever get commercialized at the university level. Until there is an industry, there is no value to the results of the research. Until development of this industry is taken out of the hands of the research community, and put into the hands of the business, not corporate, community, this industry will never support reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
The question you need to be asking is ” Does the US really want to get off of foreign oil or do we want to continue to fund the algae researchers at the universities.” The problem is we can grow, harvest and extract algae today with all “off-the-shelf” proven technology. We no not need genetic modification at all when there are existing algae strains currently on the market with 30-60% oil content. Algae production requires far less land and water than any other terrestrial crop (see page 194 of the DOE’s National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap), which has the farmers in an uproar right now. The ethanol credits went away, allegedly shutting down an industry – can it really be that without the tax credit, years of time, effort and expense will be for naught, leaving us with unedible genetically modified corn fields? The DOE is still awarding grants for algae pond research when it was established years ago that all algae ponds get contaminated and will never produce enough algae to get us off of foreign oil. Stop wasting monies on research. We need algae production!
Mason Hamilton says: says:
Yeah right! This is pure PR for government contracting. Last month I was at a a AIAA (American Institute of Aerospace and Astronautics) meeting and talked to a US Air Force rep who said they had been able to purchase “a grand total of 5 gallons of algae oil” over the past year and he that he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell me for how many thousands of dollars they had paid for it. Several months ago the Navy admitted in the press having paid $800/gal for algae oil for some of some of their tests.
Does this sound like we are close to $2/gal algae oil aviation fuel to you? Remember that at scale algae oil production will have to rely on petro-chemical fertilizers (read natural gas and oil) and those fertilizer prices rise with the price of oil. I want to see some published audited production costs on their breakthrough and then I will believe DARPA. Until then - “No published costs = no credibility.” Not projections - everyone can make projections - and usually does.
Better yet show us how much algae oil that has been produced and sold under $20/gal. I’m all for cleaner and sustainable fuels, but this is starting to feel a lot like typical other government BS. We have US citizens dying daily in the middle east because of oil scarcity. Surely if we have the technology we ought to be putting it into production yesterday.