OriginOil Develops Portable Modular Round-the-Clock Algae Biodiesel System
OriginOil has been a busy little company.
On the heels of a breakthrough which the company claims will make algae oil farming a true competitor to petroleum, OriginOil has filed two patents that may make the production of fuel products from algae incredibly cheap and easy in the near future.
The first patent deals with a system known as the “Helix BioReactor™.” OriginOil Director of Development, Nicholas Eckelberry, had this to say about the Helix:
“The key to dependable, high algae yield is continuous lighting [to sustain growth]. In a natural pond, the sun only illuminates down to about half an inch below the surface. In contrast, the Helix Bioreactor features a rotating vertical shaft with very low energy lights arranged in [such a way as to provide constant light to all algae in the bioreactor].
This results in a theoretically unlimited number of [growth] layers. Additionally, each lighting element is engineered to produce specific [types of] light for optimal algae growth. By giving algae only the light it needs, throughout the growth tank, all of the time, we’re growing algae quickly and cost-effectively.”
The second patent takes the Helix Bioreactor™ and uses it in a modular, scalable and transportable algae factory. This system will allow stacking of many Helix BioReactors into an “integrated network of fully automated, portable and remotely monitored growth units.” OriginOil executives had this to say about it:
“OriginOil’s system addresses two key areas: growth of the algae and extraction of the oil. By using a modular design, we can connect a large number of Helix BioReactors to a small number of extraction units to achieve economies of scale and higher production of algae oil. This is an important patent filing as it helps to enable the industrialization of algae production. As we envision it, the system is modular, stackable, truckable, self-sufficient, adaptable, fully remote-manageable, and, most of all, scalable.”
As noted in a previous Gas 2.0 post about algae, acre-for-acre algae can produce up to 100 times the oil yield of soybeans. Additionally, the biomass left over after oil extraction can either be fed to livestock as a protein supplement, or fermented into ethanol.
One big problem hampering oil-from-algae systems up to this point has been figuring out how to collect and extract oil from the algae, and in the case of open ponds, prevent contamination by invasive species. OriginOil’s system may represent a giant leap forward in addressing these major issues in an efficient and cost effective way.
Gas 2.0 Posts Related to Algae and Biodiesel:
- First Algae Biodiesel Plant Goes Online: April 1, 2008
- Could We Grow 100,000 Gallons of Oil per Acre? Yes, Says Vertigro Algae Biofuel [Video]
- First Heavy-Duty Diesel Powered By Algae Biodiesel, Solazyme’s “Soladiesel”
- Biodiesel Mythbuster 2.0: Twenty-Two Biodiesel Myths Dispelled
- Algae Could Be Major Hydrogen Fuel Source
- Top 15 Unexpected Uses For Biodiesel
- How Biodiesel Fuel-Cells Could Power The Future (And Your Car)
Image Credits: OriginOil Logo from OriginOil, Algae photo from Spigoo’s Flickr library under Creative Commons
Yawn!!!! I heard it all before. Stop talking and start producing the things instead. I bet 10 bucks this will lead to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!!!!
Oh, hell yeah. The more good news I hear about “oilgae” getting off the ground, the brighter the future seems to get. Too hell with corn ethanol, this is our saving grace!
Another wanna be alternative fuel producer with no visible production economics (and apparently non-visible either) to support the practicality of their “break through technology.” The idea that you can afford the energy to electrically (largely made from oil) illuminate algae to make oil says a lot about this companies understanding of not only energy budgets and basic physics, but basic economic principles as well. Alternative energy supporters and investors should be highly suspicious of any company that doesn’t publicly display its production economics. I understand proprietary technology secrecy, but the economics of proprietary technology are just numbers - not technical revelations and must be very apparent to have even minimum credibility in this field.
@ Mason Hamilton
I appreciate your skeptical thinking. It’s true, without a commercial process and facility it all seems a bit far off. But the optimistic side of me likes to think that someday soon there will be an algae biodiesel facility that produces oil on the cheap. I’ll believe it when I can see it and it can be verified independently.
I clean pools for a living and my main focus is preventing algae growth and I laughed when I saw this maybe I could work a deal with them to produce algae with the pools I clean, I’m sure some of the owners would do it for a kick back. I could have a algae fueled pool truck.
This guy hasn’t a clue about algae growth. He thinks that 24 hr lighting produces algae, what a joke. He needs to go back to biology 101
@ Lee Allen
Ask most aquarium owners and they’ll tell you that if they leave their lights on for more than 10 hours a day it’ll cause excessive algae growth. Look here for an explanation:
http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/articles/95
If I read the OriginOil website correctly, they are planning to use LED’s to grow the algae….
Wouldn’t that use up electricity? Which would lead to more coal burning? More coal burning more CO2?
Why not just use the sun?
What about burning some of the biodiesel produced from the algae to power the LED’s? Anyway sounds promising.
Check out http://www.geobioenergy.com