From Algae to JP-8
Pentagon's DARPA Funds Efforts To Make a Green Jet Fuel
It's no secret that jet fighters can fly on fuel extracted from algae. What's not yet known, though, is how to squeeze oil from algae at a reasonable price.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. military's high-tech research branch, has two teams of technology companies working to solve that problem.
One team, headed by General Atomics, says they've already cut the cost of algae-based oil from $30 a gallon to about $6 or $7 a gallon. But the price needs to get closer to a dollar to make it competitive, said David Hazlebeck, the chemical engineer and biofuels program manager who is heading General Atomics' efforts.
Hazlebeck has visions of shallow ponds turned luxuriant green by algae fattened on carbon dioxide and sunshine.
An acre of the right kind of algae could produce 5,000 to 15,000 gallons of oil annually, he said. That compares with about 50 to 150 gallons per year that can be squeezed out of an acre of corn or soybeans.
Some types of algae are 50 percent to 70 percent triglycerides, the basic component of vegetable oil. General Atomics and its team of subcontractors are testing 300 types of algae to isolate a half dozen that seem best suited for producing fuel, Hazlebeck said.
The idea of algae-powered planes and vehicles is not new. The U.S. Energy Department began research on producing transportation fuel from algae in 1978.
In 1996, the agency abandoned the research after concluding that algae-based fuel would cost at least twice as much as petroleum-based fuels. At the time, oil was selling for about $20 a barrel.
Last summer, oil pushed past $145 a barrel, rekindling interest in algae-based fuel.
The U.S. military, which burns 144 million barrels of petroleum-based fuel a year, is especially interested in finding alternatives.
In December, DARPA awarded General Atomics a $20 million contract to work on ways to reduce the cost of turning algae into jet fuel.
The fuel would "meet all the specifications" of military JP-8 jet fuel, and in fact, "would be a JP-8," Hazlebeck said. In that way, it differs from biofuels that are alcohols added to petroleum-derived fuels.
The Pentagon agency awarded a similar $15 million contract to SAIC, which did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.
Algae seem promising for a number of reasons:
■ It's relatively easy to grow. Water, sunlight and carbon dioxide are about all it needs. And unlike food crops, it doesn't need clean water. Brackish water, salt water, even waste water will do, according to the Energy Department. And algae farms need not be built on arable land. Nonproductive land, even desert will suffice.
■ Algae grow fast. Some types can double their mass several times a day, the Energy Department discovered.
■ And growing algae for oil does not contribute to the food-versus-fuel dilemma created when crops such as corn, sugarcane and soybeans are used to make biofuel.
To meet algae's need for carbon dioxide, Hazlebeck said algae farms could be built near power plants, cement kilns, fermentation facilities and coal-to-liquid fuel plants, all of which produce a lot of waste carbon dioxide.
In that way, algae could help reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil and reduce globe-warming carbon dioxide emissions.
Growing algae isn't entirely trouble-free, however. Ponds must be protected against undesirable species of algae, wide swings in temperature and predators such as zooplankton that dine on algae.
Extraction Costs
But the biggest challenge will be developing cost-effective methods for extracting the oil from algae, Hazlebeck said.
Some processes extract oil from algae by squeezing it out with a press. Others use solvents to remove the oil.
General Atomics plans to use solvent extraction, Hazlebeck said. At present, that costs about $2 per gallon. The aim is to reduce the cost to about 30 cents, he said.
After the oil is extracted, it has to be turned into jet fuel. That's done through fairly standard hydrocarbon processing, Hazlebeck said.
San Diego-based General Atomics is working with about 20 subcontractors, including four universities, bio-science companies and bio-energy firms, Hazlebeck said.
"We're using parallel approaches in every area," from growing algae to extracting its oil, to try to find the most cost-effective techniques, he said.
DARPA's not the only organization with a growing interest in algae.
Aircraft-maker Boeing heads the Algal Biomass Organization, a Seattle-based trade association that promotes the development of algae-based fuel and other algae-based products.
Organization members include airlines Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand, cargo carrier FedEx, the Air Transport Association, a number of alternative energy companies and others.
Last May, an alternative energy startup, Sapphire Energy, announced it had produced 91-octane "green gasoline" from oil extracted from algae.
Meanwhile, oil giant Chevron and the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory have entered into a joint research effort to identify algae strains that can be economically harvested and processed into transportation fuel, including jet fuel.
And Shell, BP and other big energy co-mpanies have begun their own algae oil research projects, Hazlebeck said.
The Energy Department predicts it will take five to 10 years of research to reduce the price of fuel from algae to make it competitive.
"It's a very big challenge," but it's "pretty likely" to succeed, Hazlebeck said.
Even as the price of petroleum sinks?
"In the '80s, there was a lot of interest because the price of oil was so high. Interest dropped off when the price of oil fell because it was cost-driven," Hazlebeck said. "Now there's more interest in oil independence and sustainable fuel from an environmental standpoint."
Building a domestic source for fuel would create "trillions of dollars in economic activity" for the U.S. economy and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and the need for U.S. military involvement in unstable, oil-rich regions, he said.
"That would be a tremendous payback," he said. ■
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