India on a national strike over rising fuel prices, the Gulf of Mexico oil
spill disaster, and other oil-related woes could be worries of the past if
diatom "oil cows" deliver expectations of billions of gallons of fuel annually.
Indian scientist T V Ramachandra, Canada-based Richard Gordon and their
colleagues have upgraded the increasing global interest in harvesting fuel from
algae, the small organisms found widely in water, from oceans to the yucky,
green slime on ponds.
The Ramachandra-Gordon plan uses solar panels to mass-cultivate genetically
modified diatoms - one of the smallest and oldest type of algae - that secrete
a gasoline type of oil. The diatoms can be "milked" regularly, as cows for
milk, for their oil to use as fuel.
The diatom milking process promises billions of gallons of fuel
annually, according to Gordon. "It's a distributed production of gasoline
(worldwide), and I have estimated that 10 square meters per person of diatom
solar panels may suffice," he said in an e-mail to Asia Times Online. "Diatoms
can generate oil independence, is sustainable, and have no net atmospheric
carbon dioxide production."
World demand for oil is about 87 million barrels a day, according to the
International Energy Agency. Algae-based sources could become front runners as
an alternative fuel supply. Governments and leading companies worldwide are
starting to invest billions of dollars in researching and developing algae, or
oilgae as it's being hailed, as a cheap, environment-friendly fuel. It's being
called the third-generation biofuel.
On June 28, the US government delivered a high-profile testimony to oilgae,
with the Department of Energy (DOE) releasing a study, "National Algal Biofuels
Technology Roadmap". The report included a year of public feedback.
The DOE also announced US$24 million in research funding for the Arizona-based
Sustainable Algal Biofuels Consortium, the San Diego-based Algal Biofuels
Commercialization and the Hawaii-based Cellana LLC Consortium.
India is already exploring algae for fuel self-sufficiency. In July 2009,
Minister for Power Jairam Ramesh told the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit
that his ministry was focusing on using “super-critical technology” to
producing micro-algae for oil. Kolkata-based Sun Plant Agro is running a pilot
project to produce micro-algae fuel from carbon emitted by the Kolaghat thermal
power plant.
Also in July last year, ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil company, announced
a $600 million investment to research and develop algae-derived oil. Related
algae technologies like diatom solar panels could find bigger backers.
"We're trying to find an investor in the long term prospect of diatom solar
panels," said Gordon, who does his research at the University of Manitoba,
Canada. "I would estimate that five to 10 years of research and development are
needed, but at much lower cost than the $600 million that Exxon says in TV ads
that it has invested in algal fuels."
Exxon, of course, would find the $600 million a cheaper, wiser investment than
the billions of dollars in clean-up bills that BP faces in the Gulf of Mexico
oil spill.
A month before Exxon announced its investment, Ramchandra, Durga Madhab
Mahapatra, and Karthick Band, from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,
and Gordon published their paper "Milking Diatoms for Sustainable Energy:
Biochemical Engineering Versus Gasoline-Secreting Diatom Solar Panels” in the
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research journal.
Diatoms, estimated to be 250 million years old as a species, have been
considered as possible biofuel since the 1940s. More than 200,000 species of
diatoms, not at all fussy about their residential addresses, thrive in a wide
range of habitats from seas, rivers, deserts and also clouds.
Their name originates from the Greek word meaning "to cut in half". They are a
single cell organism with two parts enclosed in a silica wall. Since they
consumes carbon dioxide, diatoms are also seen as a big solution to global
warming. Researchers estimate that diatoms remove as much carbon from the
atmosphere as rain forests combined. Some call diatoms "trees of the ocean".
The solar panel route to milking diatoms for abundant environment-friendly oil
is actually a back-to-the future process. Scientists say much of the world's
petroleum originated from diatoms and their oil glands. The solar panel process
helps speed up the oil production from millions of years as a fossil fuel to a
day or even hours.
Diatoms are estimated to double in quantity in a few hours, offering 100% to
200% oil yields, more than the same quantity of other biofuels such as soya
bean, maize and palm oil. So diatoms escape being blamed for gobbling up
agricultural land, unlike other biofuel sources such as jatropha, and for
diverting food such as soya, maize, beet and corn from dining tables.
Not everybody is convinced about diatoms and algae being 21st century fuel
gods. Pioneering Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, for instance,
dismissed algae fuel as a unfeasible pipe dream. He said his company, Khosla
Ventures, had studied two dozen algae business plans and did not find one that
was viable.
Dr Gordon, however, feels the algae-fuel turnaround can happen suddenly. "In
World War II, the USA achieved independence from natural rubber, embargoed by
the Japanese invasion of the South Pacific," he points out. "The US took one
month to decide what to do, established 51 production plants for artificial
rubber, and achieved full production within 1.5 years, before stockpiles gave
out."
Gordon's more immediate grumble is of fluctuating oil prices affecting
consistent investment in algae-fuel research. Investors pump in funds for
alternative fuel research when crude prices soar, and back out when oil prices
fall.
"I don't know if ultimately algal fuels will outperform other alternative
transportation energy sources," Gordon says. "What is certain at present is
that fluctuating crude oil prices alternately raise and dash the hopes of those
working on alternative fuels, because investors want their cash returns in
short order, and are not willing to invest in oil independence." In the 1990s,
Japan buried a $132 million algae project when oil prices dived to $10 per
barrel.
But nearly two decades later, Japan is again rushing into algae fuel research.
Toyota and 40 other Japanese companies and institutions are participating in a
$16 million national study of algae as fuel and chemicals. Bloomberg news
agency reported that more than 70 major players worldwide are developing algae
as fuel.
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