A South Carolina company has a patent pending on a new method for growing, harvesting and extracting oil from microalgae, promising dramatic cost savings and greater yields over existing algae production technologies.Renewed World Energies (RWE) says company president Richard Armstrong and chief technical officer Tim Tompkins have come up with a system efficiently remove nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide from flue gas (compressed CO2 can also be used) emitted from the power generation industry, resulting in clean air, and producing high quality, commercially valuable algae biomass and a highly nutritious livestock feed source:
“Being at the forefront of an innovative technology that promises change for the better across so many spectrums is inspiring,” states Richard Armstrong, president of Renewed World Energies. “We are seeing our goals come to fruition with a viable alternative that unites green and market standards and a day when dependence on foreign oil is a distant memory.”
Richard and Tim’s vision is being realized and met with fervent anticipation. In preliminary prototype testing, results promise dramatic cost savings and greater yields over existing algae production technologies. RWE has just constructed a new facility in Georgetown, South Carolina and is already negotiating beta test agreements with several universities, biodiesel companies, nutraceutical companies and energy/power generation plants.
RWE has made a conscious effort to “be green.” The site selection of their facility was based on being within a 50-mile radius of their system and is located on unused farmland, to reduce transportation and land use costs. The facility is situated on roughly five acres of industrial property, which is located near a major US highway, and 4 miles from the port of Georgetown.
The facility will have two acres of commercial algae growing systems, plus smaller test plots.
My Best Regards to
5 comments:
Dear Abdelfattah,
It is very nice and good step to find such organisms used in energy production. But I have a question, What are the advantages of algae for fuel production? I search on this answer on your site but I didn't find the answer. Thank you.
Dr. Mohamed M. Ibraheem
Dear Brther Dr Abd elfattah,
Really, I appreciate you and your website which is rich in wonderful and useful information about energy production from microorganisms. But I have just an enquiry, what is the estimated percentage of Biofuel obtained from algae? Is this percentage high or low? Please kindly, I am looking forward to receiving any information about that. Thanks a lot.
Your brother,
Dr Mohamed El-Esawi
Ireland
Dear Brother Dr Abd elfattah,
Really, I appreciate you and your website which is rich in wonderful and useful information about energy production from microorganisms. But I just have an enquiry, what is the estimated percentage of Biofuel obtained from algae? Is this percentage high or low? Please kindly, I am looking forward to receiving any information about that. Thanks a lot.
Your brother,
Dr Mohamed El-Esawi
Ireland
Dear Dr. Mohamed,
The algae that are used in biodiesel production are usually aquatic unicellular green algae.
This type of algae is a photosynthetic eukaryote characterized by high growth rates and high population densities. Under good conditions, green algae can double its biomass in less than 24 hours (Christi, 2007; Schneider, 2006).
Additionally, green algae can have huge lipid contents, frequently over 50% (Christi, 2007; Schneider, 2006).
This high yield, high density biomass is ideal for intensive agriculture and may be an excellent source for biodiesel production.
Gal oil/Acre/year Crop
48 Soybean
113 Peanuts
124 Rapeseed
287 Coconut
635 Palm Oil
15000 Algae
Best Regards
Abo-Mohra
Dear Dr. Mohamed M. Ibrahim,
Algae as a source of biofuel or biodiesel have the following advantages:
1) They do not require arable land for cultivation; this means that algae cultivation does not need to compete with agricultural commodities for growing space.
2) The water used in algae cultivation can be fresh water or saline, and salt concentrations up to twice that of seawater can be used effectively (Brown and Zeiler, 1993; Aresta et al., 2005); this means that algae need not compete with other users for fresh water.
3) Algae also have a greater capacity to absorb CO2 than land plants (Brown and Zeiler, 1993).
4) Algae also not prone to photosynthetic inhibition under conditions of intense sunlight (Brown and Zeiler, 1993).
5) After oil extraction from algae, the remaining biomass fraction can be used as a high protein feed for livestock (Schneider, 2006; Haag, 2007); this gives further value to the process and reduces waste.
I agree with “Algae has a chance to save the planet” Dr. Michael Fertik
Thank you very much for your comment.
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