Editorial comment

	Vol. 230 No.3
PERRY A. FISCHER, EDITOR

Frankenslime

I’m worn out from all the bad economic news. Worse, I think that in the immediate few months, we have a bit farther to fall. But before the year is out, the experts will be proven as wrong about the strength and timing of the recovery as they were about the downturn. So in the meantime, let’s talk about something more ordinary for this column and more extraordinary for all of us: future energy supply—and by future, I mean just 5 to 15 years out.

I’ve always felt that the next big thing in energy will come out of nowhere, unforeseen by the pundits. The whalers didn’t foresee the birth of the oil industry. No one envisioned in 1940 that 359 nuclear fission plants would generate 24% of the industrialized world’s (OECD) power. In a sense, this one doesn’t fit that blindness, because a few folks can foresee a world where 10% to 20%—and possibly more—of its “oil” supply comes from biological engineering. The last time I wrote about this was in January 2005, so I’m overdue for an update.

Methanogens are tiny creatures that usually live within the Earth (and quite likely on Mars too), feeding on minerals and/or carbon and excreting methane. Ever since some of the gas that comes from coalbed methane wells was discovered to be recently made, there’s been a lot of research trying to cultivate methanogens for profit. The idea is that, once the little critters’ biology is optimized for methane production, you would grow them in tanks and then inject them into depleted coalbed wells, thus reviving the wells. You could also inject them into depleted oil wells (recall that more than half of the oil remains in the ground, which could serve as food), and thus transform oil wells into gas wells with extraordinary yield.

Luca Technologies wrote an article on the subject in World Oil in August 2005, and the US Department of Energy has funded research at universities in recent years. But as promising as these microbial developments are, even more exciting is algae as a source of fuel.

A cursory web search found an amazing 36 companies or JV-type firms actively working on slime for energy. There are algal conferences, investment groups and several dedicated websites (such as www.algalbiomass.org). Since the other bubbles have now burst, I’ve begun to wonder what the next big thing—i.e., the next dot-bomb or commodities or housing bubble—will be that we can go crazy about and over-invest. Maybe this will be it.

A back-of-the-napkin calculation shows why. First, you’ll need a very sunny place with extremely low-cost real estate. Let’s pick White Sands, New Mexico (or someplace similar, such as the deserts of Africa or the Middle East). That’s doable enough. Algae typically yields more than 10 times as much oil per acre as do soybeans. Using a yield of 6.5 barrels of “oil” per acre per day for laboratory-grade slime, let’s take a square 100 miles on a side (10,000 sq mi). The yield comes out to an astonishing 41.6 million barrels a day—twice what the US consumes and half of the world’s total production. So now you see what all the interest is about.

Now, before a few of you write to tell me that a 10,000-mile desert-based algae plant is impractical for a host of reasons, including a water source, roads, refineries, power and, of course, the inevitable hue and cry of environmentalists who would no doubt point out that the project threatens the rare One-Eyed Newt, let me say that I am not proposing such a mega-plant. I’m just pointing out the potential. But a series of plants, strung out among several, widely spaced sites, each 5 miles square (25 sq mi), is very doable. In other words, achieving 10% or more of US or even world supply is feasible. This, of course, assumes that we can find (or create) and grow the right kind of slime economically, which, in turn, depends on the price of oil.

One approach is to grow the stuff in sunlight and air (CO2). New Zealand-based Aquaflow Bionomics has a 100-acre working algal farm. Near Harlingen, Texas, PetroSun has built a 1,100-acre farm—which it hopes will be first of many. The Valcent/Global Green Solutions partnership claims the highest yield with its vertical growing system (the 6.5 barrels per acre per day example above).

The best algae can be culled from an algal culture and bred, through successive generations, to produce the oiliest slime, much like breeding miniature horses. That’s what PetroAlgae LLC is doing, having licensed a remarkably greasy type of slime from the University of Arizona. That particular algae was one result of the 18-year, DOE-funded Aquatic Species Program, which ended in 1996. PetroAlgae has 90 employees with a lab and an algae farm, and hopes to complete a 20-acre demonstration plant this year.

Another approach is to use gene splicing to create a new life form—one that is fast growing, greasy, and perhaps even transparent to allow light to penetrate to deeper water depths, thereby improving growing efficiency. Some variations on boosting algae growth include feeding CO2 from power plants and growing the stuff in clear vertical tubes, thereby increasing both the surface area available to light and harvesting efficiency. There are dozens more ideas actively being studied, mostly in private firms.

It should be mentioned that the idea of manipulating genes to create new life forms does not sit well with some folks—that’s understandable. Many a science fiction book has as its subject the dire consequences of new genetic life forms gone haywire. Thus, any protests by environmentalists and genetic ethicists to create, keep and regulate new-lifeform protocols is all to the good. It’s not beyond the pale that one tiny speck of frankenslime could destroy all aquatic life on the planet, and us along with it.

Another approach is to not rely on sunlight and CO2 at all. Rather, breed/train/create the former pond scum to feed on sugars or other carbon nutrients in steel containers and vats, the so-called heterotrophic approach. Companies like Solazyme are trying this approach.

So how does the fuel from algae measure up to its crude cousin? Actually, quite well. A recent flight test with a commercial jet used biofuel with 20% algal-derived jet fuel for one of its engines. There were no problems. Across the world, algal-based fuels are being tested and are coming out as good as or better than most crude-derived fuels. It’s just possible that slime could be the next BIG thing.
Who’d a thunk it? 

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