Green Star Creates Breakthrough Micronutrient that Boosts Algae Growth
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 05.22.08
First Generation Biofuels Need to Go
While an almost universal scientific consensus is developing around the downsides of first generation biofuels (f.ex. corn ethanol), entrepreneurs and scientists are working on biofuels that require less energy inputs to make and don't compete for agricultural land with food crops. One of the most promising feedstocks is algae, with which biodiesel can be made.
One of the companies working on making algal fuels viable is Green Star, and they just announced the creation of a new micronutrient that can help boost algae daily growth rate by 34% and "increase the total biomass quantity in a harvest algae growth cycle by well over 100%."
Researchers Want to Make Biodiesel form Algae
Research took place in Biotech Research’s lab facility at the UABC University in Ensenada, Mexico.
The UABC testing has shown that 1:10,000 nutrient dilution rates were very productive (i.e. one gallon of MMB mixed with 10,000 gallons of water). Even at 1:20,000 dilution levels, the MMB was still effective.Green Star will make available 12-oz sample bottles to all universities [either at no cost or with $50 shipping fees], research institutes and commercial facilities for testing on their specific strains of algae.
This is quite a smart move. This way they can find quickly which kinds of algaes work with the micronutrient, and their product will get more scientific scrutiny from many unbiased observers.
Biofuels are Entangled in Politics
The fast second generation biofuels come to market, the faster we can convince politicians that they should drop all those counter-productive corn subsidies. The farm lobby will fight back, but if it is publicly known that a viable alternative that is both greener and doesn't make food prices shoot up exists, their position will be a lot harder to defend.
Here's a two minute video produced by Green Star about algae-based biodiesel:
Algae Biofuels
::Solazyme B100 Algae Biodiesel Goes on the Road
::15 Algae Biofuels Startups to Watch
::First Commercial Algae-to-Biofuels Facility Goes Online
Other Alternative Fuels
::Geneticist Craig Venter Wants to Create Fuel from CO2
::Syntec Biofuel: Closer to Fuel from Waste
::Iogen's Cellulose Ethanol - Straw-Powered Cars
More on Green Power's Algae Research
::Green Star Official Website
::Green Star Announces Algae Breakthrough
::Green Star Says New Micronutrient Boosts Growth Rate of Algae by 34%
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Been reading a lot about algae as a biofuel stock lately. How about algae as a feed for livestock in the short term? Seems like it would relieve a lot of the environmental pressures and food price pressures associated with that industry. Would it make make our beef taste funny?
One challenge is that as oil yield goes up, algae growth rates go down. It may be far more practical to divert a lot of fast-growing, low-oil, high-cellulose algae into a pyrolyisis gasification process, such as Coskata's. I would encourage all readers interested in alt. fuels to google up Coskata and see their plans for $1.50/gal ETOH with surplus electricity as a byproduct.
re: Josh
Depending on the type of algae, many can be eaten by animals and even people before or after the oil is extracted. Natural gas exhaust is also a great fertilizer for algae. But, if the algae is used to catch coal or oil emissions then it can't be used for food because they have mercury and other heavy metals that are toxic to higher animals and relatively hard to get rid of.
re: Scott
That's not true. Known natural algae strains yield 15-40% oil by weight and some genetically modified strains are almost 80% and the majority of the remainder is protein. In the extreme case of Spirulina it's 70% protein! It should clearly be used as food and not fuel. Algae tech could easily transform both the industrial fuel and the livestock feed markets in less than a decade.
High >15% ethanol requires new pumps, tanks and engines. Biodiesel works up to 80% in existing everything. BD also has higher energy content and is less likely to explode.
This is some great progress. It's great to see some researchers adhering to true scientific practices, i.e. letting your peers check your work. I also like the part about how this could impact corn subsidies; too bad it will probably take another 5 years (the next farm bill debate) to have an impact.
@Josh: While I am not trying to pigeon-hole you into one camp or another, I'm guessing by your comment that you are not a vegetarian. Regardless, I'd like to point out that the idea of feeding waste algae to animals who are not biologically designed to digest it is about as bad as our current practice of feeding grain to ruminants—and might have similar consequences, like the current high rate of methane emissions that result from the grain feed.
@sheepguy42: I was thinking purely in terms of reducing the resources that go into producing beef and the pollution that results. If we can produce more algae than corn with a given amount of resources, we don't need to wait until we can efficiently turn it into biofuel to benefit from it. We can feed it to livestock to reduce the "meat-footprint". Even with no change in methane emissions, this would still be an improvement.
last i heard, deBeers fuels were scammers:
'The virtual collapse of De Beers Fuel, which had promised South Africa bio- diesel produced from algae, has left a stink in the local biofuels industry.
Most investors in the company, who invested up to R6-million each in biodiesel plants, in what was trumpeted to be the world’s first fuel-franchising scheme, today have nothing but paper to show for their money.'
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=110455
In the Knightrider movie, some 20 years ago, they had industrial algae farms for bio-fuel.
Obviously it was sci-fi, but if hasselhoff did it a generation ago, why is this taking so long?
I feel humbled by the mere existence of commenters like Sheepguy42 and Ugly American - good to see that green people are getting more insightful, informed and savvy...
Keep up the good work, guys.
Best regards,
Veiko
What African natives, who live by a lake rich in
algae, dry it and use it as a fery nourishing flour ? I've read about it but cannot recall the area where it is done. They may have some lessons for us all.
Some of us pay good prices at health food stores for various forms of algae - it is quite a rich food source. Japan is ahead of us in this field -
perhaps we should look there for new ideas.
Are you guys confusing microalgae with macroalgae?
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=110455
Ummmmm. New micronutrient?
:/
What effects does this have on your car? What type of changes do you have to your diesl engine so that it can run on this algae biodisel?