March 4th, 2009

Next, Dillon leads us into the adjacent laboratory. Here, algae grows in the dark in large tanks while electronic devices spew out readings on temperature, PH, carbon source rates, and nutrients. “Right here on this device, you can pull a sample, and actually plot oil production,” Dillon said, showing me a graph printing out of one of the machines.

Just like fossil fuels, biofuel starts with crude oil. But you can’t drill algal crude out of the ground; you have to grow it. University research labs and algae oil startups are growing their green stuff in one of two ways – using sunlight or, as in Solazyme’s case, fermenting it.

“Fermentation has been around ever since the Babylonians learned how to make beer. It’s old technology. What’s new about what we’re doing is we’re using algae to make oil instead of yeast to make alcohol,” Dillon said.

Solyazyme’s researchers are genetically modifying algae to consume common feedstocks, like switchgrass, sawdust, or even glycerol waste from chemical plants; then fermenting it to get it to grow as fast as possible. If the algae consume more feedstock than they can use, they produce oil as a way to store the excess energy. It’s that crude oil that can be refined into biodiesel.

“It’s around a thousand times cheaper per gallon to make the oil by feeding it biomass than by growing it in the sun,” Dillon said.

The final stop on our tour is the warehouse in which the company keeps its oil inventory. Because Solazyme’s facility used to be an ice cream factory, thousands of gallons of algae oil are stored in 42-gallon drums in the former walk-in freezer. From here, the crude oil is refined into “Soladiesel” for vehicles, jet fuel (last fall, Solazyme’s jet fuel passed eleven tests for aviation-quality fuel, though it hasn’t been used to power a plane yet), food products, and high-end cosmetics.

On the way out, Dillon lets me sample Solazyme’s “healthy beauty serum” – a clear, odorless, pleasantly viscous substance that soaks into my skin immediately, supposedly imparting the same natural sun protections microalgae develop in the wild and attacking my crows’ feet with algae-powered antioxidants.

Would you use skin cream derived from Texas crude? I thought not.

Even though at the moment oil prices aren’t as painful as they were last summer, it’s only a matter of time before we as a nation are going to have find our way toward an independent and renewable energy future. President Obama’s upcoming budget proposal to Congress includes a call for government investment of $15 billion a year to support clean energy technologies, including “advanced biofuels”. So while you can’t yet board a flight powered by pond scum, if Harrison Dillon has his way, the renewable energy market could soon brew into a full-scale algae bloom.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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