30/06/2010 (Bioenergy News) - A new roadmap has been released by the Department of Energy, plotting the way forward for the development of algal biofuels in the US.

The Department believes cultivating oil-producing algae can be an important contribution to the Renewable Fuels Standard targets.

The standard requires the nation’s fuel suppliers to supply 36 billion gallons of biofuels each year by 2022, but only 15 billion gallons can come from conventional ethanol.

Certain strains of algae and bacteria have the potential to produce “significant” amounts of lipids, which can be readily converted into replacements for gasoline, diesel and jet fuels.

Although the technology is in its infancy, the Roadmap suggests that algae have the potential to produce high amounts of biofuels per acre of land, without competing with traditional agriculture and making use of waste nutrients and a variety of water types.

It states that productivity can be 15 times more than jatropha crops and five times more than palm oil plantations.

According to the roadmap, the potential for algae technology is to produce 1,000-6,500 gallons of oil per acre each year, compared to 635 for oil palm, 202 for jatropha and 102 gallons per acre per year for sunflowers.

Roadmap
The Department said its new Roadmap has been drawn up with input from more than 200 scientists, engineers and industry representatives, to provide a starting-point and informational resources for those pursuing algae biofuel technology.

It also sets out the challenges that must be overcome for algae to produce fuels that are competitive with other transport fuels.

Valerie Sarisky-Reed, acting manager of the DOE’s biomass program, explained: “It is intended to serve as a resource for researchers, engineers, and decisionmakers by providing a summary of progress to date and a direction for future algae R&D activities.”

In particular, the fledgling algal industry will require a substantial amount of new infrastructure to be developed and installed. Much of the work ahead will be to reduce the risks of investing in, building and operating such infrastructure.

A variety of possible processes is mapped out in the DOE document, including cultivation, harvesting and fuel production approaches.

Suggestions within the Roadmap is to integate algal biofuels facilities with existing wastewater treatment plant to make use of the nutrients available there, or with industrial plants that emit carbon dioxide suitable for algal cultivation.

Partnerships such as these focus the creative powers of the public, private, and academic sectors on key challenges” - Assistant Energy Secretary Cathy Zoi
The Department favours a public-private partnership approach to developing and building new algal biofuels infrastructure

Research
The DOE is putting $800 million into advanced biofuels research and development, with some of this going to algal biofuels.

As it unveiled the new Roadmap yesterday, the DOE also announced $24 million in grants for three algal biofuels projects.

An Arizona State University-led project will take $6 million to test algal biofuels as replacements for petroleum-based fuels.

Another project, led by the University of California, San Diego, will take $9 million, working to focus on the algae itself as a feedstock for biofuels production.

The third project is led by Cellana LLC of Kaillua-Kona, Hawaii, and will look at the cultivation of oil-producing algae in seawater with its $9 million grant. This will include development of pilot-scale cultivation test beds.

Announcing the awards yesterday at the BIO 2010 World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, US Assistant Secretary for Energy Cathy Zoi said: “Partnerships such as these focus the creative powers of the public, private, and academic sectors on key challenges facing the development of renewable energy for transportation.”