One of the more perplexing problems of the advanced bioeconomy is getting algae out of the water or the water out of the algae. It simply isn\u2019t a problem in traditional, land-based agriculture and most of the nutraceutical applications of algae that were developed early on featured such high price points that it almost didn\u2019t matter what technique was used. A $20,000 price per ton can be forgiving for a lot of crude harvest and extraction ideas.<\/p>\n
For algae to become a viable technology for producing foods, feed, chemicals or fuels, where price points drop below $2000 per ton and on down to the $500 per ton levels of fuels today \u2014 the attractive aspect of algae is that it grows so darn fast, and the pesky aspect is the harvest cost. Centrifuges work fine but if algae concentrations are 1-2% then they have to move 50-100 tons of water to produce a ton of harvested algae. The energy costs are murderous.<\/p>\n
So it comes with a \u201cBig News\u201d sign hung around it\u2019s neck when open-pond algae developer Global Algae Innovations began offering for sale a membrane system that, at scale, could use just 1% of the energy needed to run a centrifuge. GAI is Dave Hazlebeck\u2019s company \u2014 not long ago, he ran General Atomics\u2019 algae projects and, if you\u2019ll recall, some of the biggest DOE algae grants were going General Atomics\u2019 way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has 100% harvest efficiency,\u201d Hazlebeck told The Digest,\u201dand brings the algae solids concentration up to 15-20%.\u201d<\/p>\n
What about fouling? we asked. That\u2019s been a problem for most membrane-based ideas that have come along.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd no fouling,\u201d Hazlebeck confirmed.<\/p>\n
NREL commented on GAI\u2019s algae harvesting system. In part they wrote:<\/p>\n
The membrane dewatering performance furnished by GAI and incorporated in the base case, specifically power demand, is significantly better than values found elsewhere in peer-reviewed literature\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n After primary settling, the partially concentrated material is sent to central dewatering for further concentration. The second concentration step takes place using hollow fiber membrane technology, which was selected primarily in light of favorable performance and cost results attributed to a commercial-scale membrane system currently installed and operating at the GAI facility. Beyond favorable operational data furnished to NREL by GAI, in general, membrane technology offers several advantages over competing dewatering strategies, including high reliability, direct scalability, and simple thermal, mechanical, and chemical management demands. Additionally, membrane technology produces a filtrate product suitable for recycle, and does not add chemicals to the algal biomass that must be removed later or may negatively impact the value of coproducts. Historical arguments against the use of membrane systems for algal dewatering primarily have been based on fouling and maintenance\/reliability issues that have been observed for other membrane types; however, GAI indicated that maintenance and fouling are not typically problematic or costly issues for their process, based on a daily cleaning protocol for the membrane modules. Still, such issues could be both strain- and location\/media-dependent and could pose challenges depending on factors such as membrane material, organic (biological) contaminants growing on the membrane surface, or inorganic (silica\/ash) contaminants depositing on the surface and blocking pores.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Although GAI is more of an algae owner\/operator, they now have the system for sale. It helps the company with cash flow, helps with potential investors who see a \u201cquick win\u201d profitable product, and expands the circle of GAI\u2019s contacts as they have heard from companies from algae remediation to algae producers and wastewater treatment operations.<\/p>\n \u201cWastewater treatment applications for smaller communities come generally from service providers, and this could work well for them and we\u2019re hearing from them. It gets out bacteria too, and can help pull out nutrition elements, so that these can be re-supplied to the pond and reduce the cost of refertilzing and re-seeding.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not projecting our models on getting the full fish meal price that you see today. It\u2019s really high now, and at $1600-$2000 ton there are a lot of fish meal customers out looking for alternatives. But there are other options besides algae that are going to be thought of to bring that price down. For example, you can take soy concentrate and use technology to remove things that make it indigestible to fish, and that would cost $1200-$1400.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, we feel that a a rush of applications will eventually bring the market price down, and our target for aquaculture is $800-$1200. We feel that algae has a long-term sustainable advantage over soy at that price. But there needs to be some work done in convincing the marketplace to fully value the advantages that algae has, which can include a superior protein profile to other feeds, and that it is more digestible than soy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll be focused on aquaculture first, but we see opportunities for algae in the broader animal feed market, even though the straight up returns in aquaculture are higher.\u201d<\/p>\n The focus for now? \u201cGetting to scale,\u201d said Hazlebeck. \u201cAs with everything in the [bioeconomy] sector, it\u2019s not enough to be environmentally advantaged, more sustainable. It has to be economic.\u201d<\/p>\n Right now the company is working at an 8-acre scale in its operating module, and Hazlebeck sees an intermediate scale-up opportunity at 20X that size, around 160 acres. What in land agriculture is known as a quarter section \u2014 and of which size there are a lot of available land parcels, we night add, because that was the traditional land grant in the old days of the Homestead Act.<\/p>\n But the full commercial size, Hazlebeck speculates, will be in the low thousands of acres.<\/p>\n CO2? That is expected to come from waste sources, and GAI picked up a $1 million Department of Energy grant last summer \u201cto increase algal biomass yield by deploying an innovative system to absorb carbon dioxide from the flue gas of a nearby power plant.\u201d<\/p>\n GAI also was a big winner this summer when the DOE\u2019s algae program announced up to $15 million for three projects announced up to $15 million for three projects that take highly productive algal cultivation systems and couple them with effective, energy-efficient, and low-cost harvest and processing technologies.<\/p>\n Global Algae Innovations partnered with the University of California-San Diego, TSD Management Associates, Texas A&M University, General Electric, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.<\/p>\n Bottom line on the economics: GAI\u2019s system is one of the most cost-efficient yet seen in the world of algae for a scaled-up system. Overall, NREL estimated that the complete scale-up cost for a 5,000 acre system would be $146 million. And an annual operating cost of $144 per ton of algae.<\/p>\n Which led NREL to consider an all-in minimum biomass selling price of as low as $490 per ton. Excellent news for chasing the nutrition market, and possibly more.<\/p>\nGAI\u2019s focus in its own operations? Animal nutrition.<\/h4>\n
The Global Algae Innovations system<\/h4>\n
The partners?<\/h4>\n
The economics and designs<\/h4>\n