A few miles from the coast of San Diego is a lab that may be the greenest there ever was - both environmentally and in terms of color.
Sapphire Energy works to create biofuels made out of algae, and as a result, has a 70,000 square foot lab with thousands of algae strains ranging from the electric lime to dark forest pine. Tim Zenk, the vice president of corporate affairs, along with the rest of the team at Sapphire Energy, believes that sometime in the near future, there will be a cost-effective method to transform algae, the most basic of plants, into crude oil.
Three years ago, a group of scientists wandered into a coffee shop in San Francisco, and perhaps over a few lattes, they discussed climate change, the oil price spikes and how biological organisms could be transformed into fuel. As the coffee kicked in, they arrived at the idea of algae.
Algae have been a topic of study for many years. "In the 50s and 60s, algae grown in spacecraft were considered as a possible food for our astronauts, but the processes did not work out," Charlie O'Melia of the Hopkins Environmental Engineering Department said.
As for algae's industrial uses, San Diego's Stephen Mayfield, one of the founders of Sapphire Energy, has done intensive study and written a number of papers on the topic.
From his papers, those three coffee-drinking scientists confirmed that algae had potential as a use for biofuel and opened Sapphire Energy in San Diego.
Algae has several key characteristics that make it close to ideal for use as biofuel. It grows quickly, uses carbon dioxide as its source for energy and produces lipids, which are the component that is transformed into biofuel.
Furthermore, algae use photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide and sunlight to oxygen, and as a result, can work to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide let off in fossil fuel combustion.
When the algal fuel is created, it doesn't reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, but it is more environmentally friendly than the burning of gasoline. If the fuel itself is spilled, it is biodegradable, and thus, relatively harmless in comparison to the spilling of crude oil.
However, there are some kinks in the algae fuel synthesis process that first need to be worked out.
"As an algal culture becomes more concentrated, the amount of light available per cell for additional growth is reduced," O'Melia said.?"It can be expensive to remove most algal species from suspension."
Researchers have tried to use other organic materials, such as corn ethanol, as a source of energy, but have found that the lands needed to harvest enough corn would decrease the supply of corn and land area needed for other crops, and result in a potential food crisis.
Algae are not a major food source and can be harvested on land and in water.
Politicians, especially under President Obama, hav been pressing for "greener" energy sources; thus, Zenk and Mayfield feel that the time is particularly ripe for the introduction of algal fuel.
However, corn ethanol has the backing of senators from the corn states - as algae are ubiquitous and have no particular home state, there is no senator to lobby for their use.
As with any ambitious research project, funds and political backing is needed.
Sapphire Energy has received $100 million from Bill Gates and $600 million from the Exxon Mobil Corporation, which has made it clear that it will continue to contribute to the algal fuel project.
Zenk finds this both promising and indicative of the potential partnership between biofuel companies and crude oil refineries, which means that there would be no need for an entirely new energy infrastructure.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has noticed the algae momentum, and although it has not formally recognized it in its impending Climate Bill, it has mentioned Sapphire Energy in a few hearings. Zenk told the New York Times that once there is a more favorable policy environment, the science will really advance.
The science itself has proven to be a meticulous, yet rewarding process. Labs across the country are involved, including the one here at Hopkins. They work in conjunction with the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SD-CAB).
A nearby lab at the University of California, San Diego holds a library of the 2,451 algae strains that have been cultured.
Roughly 8,000 new strains are studied every day and many have been found that produce large amounts of oil, according to UCSD's Dean of Biological Sciences Steve Kay. Currently, algal fuel is estimated to be $10 a gallon. Mayfield, along with the rest of the SD-CAB, believes that algae can become at least three times more efficient.
Algae-growing plants can also be placed next to manufacturing plants with particularly high carbon dioxide emissions so that those companies do not have to pay the fees that may come from a Congress cap-and-trade bill in which businesses are only allowed a certain amount of carbon emissions.
In this way, algal fuel could not only become more widely-known, but can also earn the funding and potential political backing it needs to truly make it the next major energy source.
