Southern California Gas Co. and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego announced July 30 that they have entered into an agreement focusing on the design of an innovative system in which algae consume carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas combustion and cost-effectively convert it into valuable byproducts such as biomethane, biodiesel and animal feed.
For several years, researchers at Scripps, a member organization of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, and a number of commercial companies around San Diego and elsewhere, have been studying how algae can most efficiently be developed into a clean, renewable biofuel to one day replace non-renewable fossil fuels. Taking this research a step further, Scripps' researchers hope to leverage algae's natural ability to absorb CO2 in the environment and convert it into oil rich biomass or biomethane or refined into fossil fuel replacements. After extracting the oils for biodiesel, the remaining biomass can be sold as a safe, protein-rich animal feed.
The new collaboration between Scripps and SoCalGas includes an investigative research and systems engineering study to explore how algae production systems currently in development could most effectively capture industrial CO2 emissions. Targeted CO2 sources include: natural gas power plants, large engines used in natural gas compression and water pumping and boilers used to produce steam for industrial processes such as enhanced oil recovery.
Australia also has a new algae-based biofuels facility. The Algae.Tec advanced engineered algae to biofuels facility Shoalhaven One in New South Wales was officially opened August 2. Algae.Tec is an algae to biofuels company with what it describes as a high-yield, enclosed and scalable algae growth and harvesting system. The showcase facility is connected into the Manildra Group waste carbon dioxide, which is used in the algae growth process.
See also, “Algae may hold the answer to fuel and carbon problems of the future,” IPPSO FACTO, April 2012.