News Items/Book Info
Industry Talk--Modern Energy Featuring Michele Ashby, CEO, MINE LLC
For this week's Industry Talk, we asked Michele Ashby, CEO of MINE LLC, for her thoughts on the prospects of the alternative energy industry.
The Modern Energy Matchmaker by Michele Ashby
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Modern Energy matchmakers: Dan Gregory
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Natural Gas Week
CURRENT: Algae-Based Biofuels Become Serious Contender
Monday, August 24, 2009
"Algae has those benefits -- no one really eats it, and it has the potential to not use as much land.With corn and soy biodiesel, you may get 50 gallons per acre, but with algae it is estimated you could get between 1,000 and 10,000 gallons per acre."
-- Anthony Marchese, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University.Algae has typically been grouped with more marginal biofuel crops, as an environmentally friendly idea that has yet to prove itself as a viable source of energy.
However, over the last several months, the energy industry has seen algae-based biofuel technology emerge from the shadows of what could be, to something that is starting to get a lot more attention.
This attention has sparked the interest of major energy companies, such as Royal Dutch Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, which are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in further developing algae-based biofuel technology.
The potential for algae-based biofuels to become a mainstream fuel for all vehicles and provide a reliable electricity source has researchers moving away from corn and other food crops as a viable biofuel option.
Algae could also go head to head with natural gas as it, too, expands its share in US power generation portfolios and makes major inroads toward becoming a viable transportation fuel (NGW Jul.27,p1).
"Right now, it's pretty evident that corn ethanol is not going to do it for us," said Anthony Marchese, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University. Marchese leads the department's research in energy conservation and algae-based biodiesel research.
Producing ethanol from corn or soybeans not only takes exponentially more land than algae, Marchese said, but takes away from crops being used to feed people.
Also, algae-based biodiesel has the potential to be used in a variety of engines powering airplanes to large trucks, whereas corn- or soy-based ethanol is not suitable for engines needing a more high-energy fuel.
With various processes for creating algae-based biofuels being investigated, hundreds of companies have started focusing on different ways of investing in the technology.
Algenol Biofuels, a small start-up, has teamed with giant Dow Chemicals to build a demonstration plant that would use algae to turn carbon dioxide directly into ethanol as a vehicle fuel or as a feedstock in plastics manufacturing.
Solix Biofuels, a small algae-based biofuel company founded by Marchese's colleague Bryan Willson, has constructed the Coyote Gulch Demonstration Facility. The two-acre facility in southwestern Colorado produces 6,000 gallons of algae oil annually on the land belonging to the Southern Ute Indians, who are also partners in the project.
On the power side, W2 Energy, a green energy company, has begun construction on a commercial scale "non-thermal plasmatron," which would generate syngas from algae grown in the company's algae bioreactor plant to fuel a power-producing turbine.
Generally, most of the companies investing in algae-based biofuel technology have been exploring ways of either turning algae into ethanol or biodiesel.
However the major oil companies jumping on the algae bandwagon are less interested in algae-based biodiesel than in converting algae oil into renewable diesel, a more sophisticated process.
Exxon Mobil recently took the idea of turning algae into fuel one step further, when they teamed up with Synthetic Genomics (SGI), a biotech company founded by genomics pioneer Craig Venter.
Exxon and SGI launched a $600 million research and development effort to create an algae-derived refinery feedstock capable of producing transportation fuels.
The Exxon-SGI research project is the single largest biofuel deal in the world.
However, Exxon and SGI are also taking their research in a unique direction by genetically modifying the algae so it secretes a pure hydrocarbon, in essence, secreting a fuel.
SGI also is looking more at biomanufacturing rather than farming and harvesting algae.
Marchese said that while it makes sense to look at genetically modifying algae, the overwhelming majority of companies are concentrating on the most efficient and environmentally friendly processes for harvesting algae and extracting the oil.
Nonetheless, companies that are investing in algae-based biofuel technology should take note of the failed corn ethanol boom, said marketing analyst Michele Ashby, chief executive of MINE, an international professional services organization.
"We had a huge interest in inflow of capital into the original ethanol with corn, with a lot of support going in there," Ashby said. "And they did not hit a brick wall until somebody recognized this could affect the food source".
The media's food-for-fuel coverage "freaked people out," Ashby said, so there needed to be a period of time after the ethanol corn craze for people to become more educated.
On the plus side, that failed first round for corn ethanol led to the current interest in algae-based biofuel technology, she said.
Oil & Gas Journal
Energy’s buzzwords are changing
Sept. 2, 2009
Part of my job as an Oil & Gas Journal reporter is to watch alternate energy sources evolve into commercial ventures. Clean technology used to be a common phrase among analysts, but another phrase appears to be in the making.Michele Ashby, a former mining analyst and chief executive officer of MINE LLC, organizes investor meetings, including one called the Modern Energy forum. Modern energy is an umbrella term for all types of energy that will be needed in the future, Ashby said during a recent telephone call from her Denver office.
"This includes solar, wind, wave, hydro, biofuels, biomass, geothermal, nuclear, magnetics, energy storage, conservation, and new ways of generating and conserving energy we have yet to discover", Ashby said.
Increasing demand for modern energy means venture capitalists and other investors are asking for more information about what is available, how much it costs, and its carbon footprint, she said.
How are fossil and nonfossil companies and investors learning about one another? Through conferences and green energy networking events, Ashby said. She said Denver has 14 different organizations for green networking.
Ashby believes oil companies will help integrate nonfossil fuels with existing fuel distribution and marketing systems. She foresees oil more companies investing in and collaborating with modern energy companies.
A recent example is ExxonMobil Corp.'s $600 million investment into the development of algae-based biofuels. About half of that money goes toward internal expenses within ExxonMobil and half goes to Synthetic Genomics Inc.
The initial collaboration, expected to last 5-6 years, will study methods of growing algae and producing hydrocarbons that can be processed by a refinery into transportation fuels.
"Modern energy is a new market place with thousands of private companies and a few hundred public companies,” Ashby said. “Oil and gas companies have got the money to invest."
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