Algae Fuel

Algae’s combination of good yields and high lipid content has attracted energy developers to algae as a potential biofuel for decades. Lab tests show that algae has the capacity to produce 100-300 times more biofuel than soybean and 10-15 times more than oil palm per comparable land area, and at the same time sequester carbon dioxide and treat polluted water.

Recent flight experiments commissioned by Continental Airlines and Virgin have demonstrated that using a 50:50 algae-biofuel mix works.

But the high cost of production has largely deemed algae commercially uncompetitive with fossil fuel oils and other biofuels, until now.

Ultra Green’s research and development lab is well on the way to producing affordable algae fuel.

The Technology

Micro-algae are fast-growing organisms that are highly efficient in converting sunlight, CO2, and the micro-nutrients found in water into simple sugars that stores its energy in the form of lipids, or fats.

A micro-algal cell can be as much as 70 percent fat content by weight and can double in mass every 24 to 48 hours.

There are 2 main ways of producing these algae:

• The first is an open pond system. This method operates oval loops, usually made of concrete, that are slowly circulated by paddles, where algae can grow naturally in the sunshine. While the process benefits from its scalability, the pond system can be hindered by contamination, and production in the northern hemisphere is limited by the method’s reliance on sunshine.

• The second is a Photobioreactor (PBR). This offers a controlled environment for the potential production of micro-algae on a large scale. PBRs are effectively designed to mimic industrial scale vessels full of circulating, water-bearing algae with the right balances of nutrients, carbon dioxide and temperature, and can be positioned anywhere.

Whilst Open Pond algal production can be used in countries with higher annual light levels and temperatures (Southern USA, Southern Europe and Africa), Ultra Green is developing a solution that is useable in areas where natural light is limited to support energy security issues, as well as maximise the use of waste or by-products such as carbon dioxide and waste water

Technology Breakthroughs

• Ethical, mass-produced next generation biofuel
• Scalable and affordable production costs
• No valuable agricultural land required
• No fresh water needed
• Ideal use of water from rising sea levels
• Biodegradable 
• Recent experiments confirm jet engines can fly using algae fuel

'Algae can yield over 30 times more energy per unit area than other biofuel crops.'

'The United States Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles (40,000 km2). That is less than one seventh the area of corn harvested in the United States in 2000.'