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BIOFUELS: Startup claims discovery of triggering more oil from algae (Monday, August 10, 2009)
Annie Jia, E&E reporter
A tiny startup near San Diego claims to have found the solution to a long-standing problem in the quest to make algae-based biofuel economical.
Scientists at Sustainable Green Technologies say they have found a way to trigger algae to increase their oil content from 15 percent to 50 percent, without stunting growth. If algae can produce more oil without slowing growth, that means that a given acreage of land and nutrients, for example, would yield more biofuel, ultimately driving prices down.
John Sheehan, a biofuels expert at the University of Minnesota, said that it would be a "remarkable breakthrough" if the scientists are correct.
"If they've broken the trade-off between growth and productivity and high oil content, that's something that people have been trying to do for a long time," said the researcher, who used to work on the problem for the Department of Energy.
While the technology is still in the laboratory scale, the company -- which currently has four employees -- hopes it will soon be larger. The company has put in a $15 million grant application to DOE for funds to further develop and commercialize the process, which it also plans to patent. The scientists would not give details of the technology because they say it is proprietary, though they gave an overview.
To grow or to save?
The basis of the discovery involves feeding the algae a mix of chemicals that increases their oil production. The chemicals come from the waste from a separate project that the company runs to produce hydrogen from bacteria.
One day, the scientists decided to feed the bacteria's waste to the algae.
"We knew some of things that algae likes to help it grow," said Jim Siegrist, vice president of marketing and sales. "And then we noticed this explosive growth."
Scientists would not give further details about what chemicals were involved.
In the 1990s, the Department of Energy's aquatic species program spent two or three years focusing on the problem of how to increase the oil content of algae without slowing growth, Sheehan said. The problem was never resolved, and the program was shut down for reasons related to funding.
While scientists know how to make algae with high oil content, the problem is that when algae produce more oil, they slow down in their growth. That's because only so much energy is going into the algae at one time, so if it goes to oil, it cannot also be building their cells, said James Golden, a professor of molecular biology at the University of San Diego.
On the way to face the market
Siegrist said more than 20 other groups -- including Synthetic Genomics, which recently received $600 million of funding from Exxon Mobil for algae-to-fuel research -- have been working on this problem, mostly using genetic methods. In contrast, Sustainable Green Technologies uses "natural" methods in its technology.
While he would not go into further detail, Elmar Shmid, chief science officer of the company, said that what makes the technology unique is that "it is a waste stream from a prior fermentation process."
Golden, an algae expert who is not familiar with the company, said that the description of the technology from the company's press release sounded "reasonable," but that he could not comment more specifically without knowing the details.
He said that bacteria will sometimes turn to oil production when they receive chemical signals that their environment is too crowded and it is time to store energy, and that it is possible that a similar mechanism is behind the company's algae technology.
"It does make sense that they might find something in the waste product of a fully grown culture that would trick the algae into thinking that they're in a very crowded environment with other organisms," Golden said. "That is logical that that's how they found something that triggered oil accumulation in their algae."
Sheehan said that without details of the science or the prospect of the research being scientifically peer reviewed, only the market could decide whether the discovery was a true breakthrough.
"If they commercialize the technology and they're successful with it, that's all the proof anybody needs," he said.
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Sustainable Green Technologies Inc. Announces Innovative Way to Increase Algae Oil Production
“We uncovered the algae oil lipid trigger almost by accident,” notes Dr. Elmar Schmid, SGT’s CSO. "We were looking for new and rational uses of a waste stream from our biohydrogen technology. We found the waste from our biohydrogen system sparked tremendous growth of our green algae, and more importantly, massively increased lipid production and storage within our algae. In other words, our algae became obese within one week! We now have a highly efficient, cost-effective way of producing large amounts of algae oils for biodiesel fuel production. On top of that, we can produce clean biohydrogen from the resulting biodiesel refinery waste!” exclaims Dr. Schmid.
SGT’s biohydrogen technology was developed by researchers at SGT isolating and characterizing hydrogen-producing microbes, SGT’s microbes can convert a variety of feedstock into biohydrogen energy, for example glycerol waste from bio-diesel production, sugars derived from sugar cane and sugar beet, office paper once it is turned into glucose by enzymes, and from brewery wastes just to name a few. The biohydrogen is used in a fuel cell to produce electricity. SGT has applied for a grant from the Department of Energy to further develop this Algae oil and biohydrogen energy system.
About Sustainable Green Technologies
Sustainable Green Technologies, a leader in biofuels and biohydrogen development based in Escondido, California manufactures and distributes bio-energy systems and technologies. For more information regarding SGT’s products and services, please contact Jim Siegrist, VP Marketing and Sales at 760-522-3087 and visit www.sustainablegreentechnologies.com.
Cell: 760-522-3087
Email: jimsiegrist@hotmail.com Web:sustainablegreentechnologies.com
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN PRODUCING HYDROGEN FROM WASTE STREAMS
Sustainable Green Technologies Inc. Historic Patents from Southern California
ESCONDIDO, Calif., March 30, 2009 – Sustainable Green Technologies (SGT) a start-up company in Escondido, California announced today that it has four patents pending with the USPTO which cover commercial bio-hydrogen generation from waste streams and enhanced green algal oil production. The patents cover two unique microorganisms, SGT-06TM and SGT-T4TM, a proprietary bio-reactor process for increased hydrogen production, and a method for increasing algal oil production. The waste streams include bio-diesel refinery waste, brewery malt waste and office paper waste. With this proprietary biotechnology portfolio, SGT will develop industrial scale bio-energy systems which will convert waste streams into bio-hydrogen and with a coupled fuel cell turn the bio-hydrogen into on site energy in the form of electricity and heat. In addition, they provide a truly innovative solution of converting system byproducts into algae oils. This breakthrough technology supports the U.S. Advanced Energy Initiative - which seeks to diversify the U.S. energy portfolio and to reduce dependence on foreign oil.
“Hydrogen holds tremendous promise as an alternative fuel. It is the most efficient and cleanest burning fuel in the universe,” notes Dr. Elmar Schmid, SGT’s CSO. "Any bio-diesel refinery, large corporation or municipality concerned with reducing waste and creating a greener planet should be using our technology. We can produce hydrogen from the glycerol in bio-diesel refinery waste, and also from the polysaccharides starch and cellulose in brewery and paper waste.”
SGT’s bio-hydrogen technology was developed after researchers at SGT isolated and characterized hydrogen-producing microbes. SGT’s microbes not only convert the glycerol of bio-diesel waste, but they also convert the sugars of enzyme processed cellulose in office paper and brewery wastes into bio-hydrogen energy. The energy is contained in a safe, flow-through system. SGT’s bio-hydrogen energy systems, called H2NECXTTM, are available for lease or purchase.
The SGT research team was led by Elmar Schmid, PhD, a protein biochemist with ten years biological research experience in academic and governmental research institutions.
About SG Technologies
SG Technologies, a leader in bio-hydrogen development based in Escondido, California manufactures and distributes bio-hydrogen systems and technologies. For more information regarding SGT’s products and services,
please contact Jim Siegrist, VP Marketing and Sales
at 760-522-3087
and visit www.sustainablegreentechnologies.com.
