Hope Blooms, and Green as Money

Imagine an Algae ETF one day -- perhaps a speculative one in the next couple of years -- even though only a couple of public companies today are trying to cultivate algae for energy. The potential of this energy source seems to exceed anything I've read about, within the realm of credibility.

Here's the dream:

• Given the right conditions, algae can double its volume [within days]. Unlike other biofuel feedstocks, such as soy or corn, it can be harvested day after day. Up to 50% of an alga's body weight is comprised of oil, whereas oil-palm trees--currently the largest producer of oil to make biofuels--yield just about 20% of their weight in oil. Across the board, yields are already impressive: Soy produces some 50 gallons of oil per acre per year; canola, 150 gallons; and palm, 650 gallons. But algae is expected to produce 10,000 gallons per acre per year, and eventually even more.
• "If we were to replace all of the diesel that we use in the United States with an algae derivative," says Solix CEO Douglast Henston, "we could do it on an area of land that's about one-half of 1% of the current farm land that we use now.

Algae is being grown today in large arrays that require sunlight, CO2 (which might even be taken from power plant exhaust instead of hitting the atmosphere), water at precise temperatures, conditions and volumes (a lot of volume for now, unfortunately), and the collection of biproducts that need to be fully accounted for. Costs of managing the process are far too high to be competitive with ethanol and oil, but coming down. Ultimately, the final product could be far, far more more productive, efficient, and environment-friendly than ethanol.

It's an industry that the U.S. leads in, judging from various sources I've read (even blog postings from Asia asking for help in getting started, citing vast quantities of pond scum!)

Here's a summary of some of the activity, gleaned from recent articles. Most of the data is from this article, from earth2tech.

Companies (nearly all private and most in early stages)

• Aquaflow Binomics - sources from algae-polluted waters (publicly held - New Zealand). Used its algae-based biodiesel to run a Land Rover driven by New Zealand's Minister of Climate Change, and has been working wtih Boeing on algae-to-bio-based jet fuel.
• Algae @ Work - formed by a splinter from Solix
• Aurora Biofuels - says can create biodiesel fuel with yields that are 125x higher and have 50% lower costs than current production methods. A developer is UCal Berkeley professor Tasios Melis.
• Bionavitas - says has technology for high-volume production.
• Blue Marble Energy - uses algae from polluted water systems.
• Bodega Algae.
• Cellena - joint venture between HR Biopetroleum and Shell.
• Global Green Solutions (see Vertigro, below)
• GreenFuel Technologies - announced construction of a commercial scale algae plant
• International Energy - claims to harvest oil without killing the algae stock
• Inventure Chemical - planning tests for 3-15 million gallons of biofuel/year
• Live Fuels - plans to commercialize its particular technology by 2010.
• Mighty Algae Biofuels
• PetroSun - announced it will be taking its pilot algae farm commercial on 4/1/08. Publicly held.
• Seambiotic - Israeli startup, working with Inventure Chemical, and Israeli Electric Company
• Solazyme - has done a deal with Chevron
• Solena - talking with Kansas power firm Sunflower to build a 40mw power plant run on gasified algae
• Solix Biofuels - says construction to begin shortly on a large-scale bioreactor
• Sunflower - Kansas power firm
• Valcent (see Vertigro, below)
• Vertigro (joint venture by Global Green Solutions and Valcent Products)
• XLTechGroup's PetroAlgae LLC

Some investors and partners include:

• Auttomatic CEO Toni Schneider
• Blue Crest Capital Finance
• Boeing (see Aquaflow note, above)
• Brighton Jones Wealth Management
• Cedar Grove investments
• Chevron (see Solazyme note, above)
• Engine and Energy Conversion Laboratory at Colorado State University
• Gabriel Venture Partners
• HR Biopetroleum (see Cellena note, above)
• Imperium Renewables (biodiesel maker)
• Inventure Chemical, and Israeli Electric Company (see Seambiotic note, above)
• New Belgian Brewery
• National Biofuels Energy Laboratory at Wayne State University
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and University of Hawaii - access to 3,000 strains of algae that's considered a core research tool
• Noventi
• Oak Investment Partners
• Quercus Trust
• The Roda Group
• Sandia National Labs
• Shell (see Cellena note, above)

There is bare-bones website, Oilgae.com, that seeks to become a hub of information for the industry.

And there are plenty of hard-core scientific skeptics, but their objections leave me guessing that those barriers could fall quickly in a world of entrepreneurs and major corporations who know that significant energy breakthroughs could create unparalleled fortune, fame, and contribution to sustainable life on earth.