AuroraBiofuels.com
Aurora Biofuels Snags Exec From LS9; Makes Claims About Progress
Michael Kanellos
March 4, 2009
Read the full article here or at www.greentechmedia.com
Aurora Biofuels, which wants to turn ponds of algae into diesel, has appointed Robert Walsh as CEO. Walsh was previously the president of LS9, which wants to use genetically engineered e coli to produce hydrocarbons. Before that he worked for years in the fuel business.
Aurora is one of the 50 plus companies trying to turn pond scum into fuel. It was founded by UC Berkeley students in 2007 and says it has been making at least some algae oil since 2007. How much was not stated. The company claims it will be able to show that it’s cost competitive with fossil fuels “in the near term” and that it should be producing commercial volumes of fuel in 2012. It raised $20 million last year.
The company uses the method that seems to be most prevalent among the algae companies. That is, it grows select strains of algae in water, strains out the water, and the squeezes the oil out of the algae. An acre of algae can produce about 5,000 to 10,000 gallons of fuel a year, far higher than other feedstocks.
Sound easy, yes? Actually, it’s pretty tough. There is only one useable cell of algae for every 1,000 parts of water, according to some researchers. Economically straining out that algae is proving extremely difficult. Some algae companies even admit that to make a profit, they will have to sell the meal — the part of the cell that isn’t oil — to pet-food producers.
Solix, one of the early biodiesel companies, says it can make algae oil right now. It costs about $33 a gallon, although in a few years Solix hopes to produce biodiesel at $3.50 to $1.57 a gallon. (Solazyme, which uses a completely different process that doesn’t rely on water, says it will be cost competitive in two to three years.)
Sapphire, which hopes to make biodiesel from genetically engineered algae, recently participated in a trial with Virgin Airlines. The algae oil, however, actually came from a Hawaiian company called Cyanotech which claims to be completely against genetic engineering.
Could Aurora get there? Sure. Will it be tough? Most definitely.
