NASA’s got a new way to get biofuel from algae

Jonathan Trent thinks he’s found a solution to today’s problems with making biofuel from algae, one of earth’s earliest life forms.

But Trent has a twist on the method also under development at a dozen cleantech startups. He told the Cleantech Group he's doing it in the ocean, in bags filled with sewage.

The lead research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., combined his expertise in oceanography, astrobiology, molecular biology and nanotechnology on a project called ”Sustainable Energy for Spaceship Earth.”

It’s being funded with $250,000 from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and is in collaboration with some Googlers themselves. The objective: to solve the dilemma of producing a “clean energy” biofuel from algae that doesn’t compete with agriculture for land or freshwater. Trent's discovery cleans waste water, removes carbon dioxide from the air and retains important nutrients.

NASA is interested in harvesting the oil that can be used as a fuel from algae because it’s focused on the planetary systems, and, Trent says NASA wants to “tap into those systems in a way that is sustainable.”

Offshore inspiration
While most companies are experimenting with algae on land, Trent’s idea takes the problem offshore.

His design uses semi-permeable membrane enclosures to grow the algae, allowing fresh water to flow into the ocean while retaining the algae and nutrients. The forward-osmosis membranes are being tested by NASA for recycling dirty water on long-duration space missions in the future.

The algae’s fertilizer, which is needed for it to grow, is nutrient-rich municipal waste water.

“What you think is waste is actually a resource,” Trent said.

See Trent in the lab »

The prototype, tested in NASA’s lab, is essentially a large plastic container or bag floating on the ocean’s surface, which means it won’t compete with the marine species for resources. The bags collect solar energy as the algae inside produce oxygen by photosynthesis. The bags are filled with the sewage that helps the algae to grow, while cleaning up the sewage in the process.

Through osmosis, the bags absorb carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen and fresh water.

“The water that leaks out through the membranes is clean, and we captured the nutrients that would be lost at sea. What’s left is fertilizer,” he said.

The temperature of the bags can be maintained, as its contents are mixed by the ocean’s waves. Trent said it’s a three-way payback:

• The algae being grown makes biofuels, fertilizers and possibly solutions such as cosmetics.
• “We have just processed our sewage to a next-higher level of cleanliness,” he said.
• The carbon dioxide could be sequestered.

The current standard
For the last 50 years or so, people have been trying to grow algae in land-based open ponds called raceways, or in closed bioreactors.

With ponds, inexpensive, shallow channels are filled with freshwater or seawater, depending on the algae type being grown. They are often situated in remote places, Trent said, with paddle wheels to keep the algae suspended and the pond aerated.

But whether its fresh or saltwater algae, it takes a lot of water to prevent the ponds from drying out or becoming too salty, conditions that kill algae because the water evaporates.

Water doesn’t evaporate in sealed bioreactors, but they are expensive to build, they are often located in desert environments that collect sunlight and heat, and they need to be cooled. Both systems also require a lot of land.

“It costs a fortune and that doesn’t work out economically,” Trent said of bioreactors.

However, a number of companies claim they have developed cost-effective methods, including Naples, Fla.-based Algenol Biofuels, which says it has found a seawater-based way to inexpensively generate up to a billion gallons of algal ethanol per year in bioreactors (see Turning algae into ethanol, and gold).

Algenol uses algae, sunlight, CO₂ and seawater in closed bioreactors to produce ethanol. The company told the Cleantech Group it does not use freshwater and does not harvest the algae, so the process is much less expensive. 

Gig Harbor, Wash.-based Inventure Chemical and Gilbert, Ariz.'s Diversified Energy also tossed their hats in the algae-to-biofuel ring, using pond methods (see Let them eat algae).

Trent said algae is the best source of oil per acre on the plant, with the potential to generate about 2,000 gallons per acre per year.

Algae may be a promising biofuel feedstock, but it's also seen as a long way from commercial production (listen to the webinar Algae: biofuel of the future?).

It’s something oil giants such as Hague, Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A), one of the world's largest distributors of first-generation biofuels, has moved into. Shell formed a joint venture with Hawaii startup HR BioPetroleum to build a pilot facility to grow marine algae and produce vegetable oil for conversion into biofuel (see Shell to grow algae for biofuel). Earlier this year, Shell dropped plans to pursue wind and solar projects, saying it wanted to concentrate on biofuels.

Meanwhile, South San Francisco, Calif.-based Solazyme teamed up with San Ramon, Calif.'s Chevron (NYSE: CVX), the No. 2 U.S. oil producer, to work on getting biodiesel from algae (see Solazyme to work with Chevron on algae fuel).

Trent's solution could be deployed in flooded coastal regions to solve fuel needs, he said, and in NASA’s case, be used for aviation fuels (see Game-changing day for jet biofuels). Polluted zones around the world could also serve as ideal controlled environments for growing algae.

Trent and his team are in the process of raising enough funds to build a demonstration plant and prove that what has worked in the lab could be a real possibility.

“We’re hoping to get people enticed,” he said. “We’re hoping to seduce people with this idea that it’s plausible.”

The project has been ranked No. 1 for a grant worth $800,000 from the California Energy Commission, which they’ll find out if they’ve been awarded on June 17.

NASA isn’t the only government agency pursuing biofuels derived from algae. A sector of the U.S. Department of Defense signed nearly $35 million in contracts with two San Diego companies to develop biofuel from algae for use in Air Force jets and Army vehicles (see US military funds $35M in research of algae-based jet fuel).

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