Dr. Vikram Pattarkine, (photo courtesy of OrginOil)

Long range, biofuels based on algae are generally agreed to be the most promising for replacing petroleum-based fuels and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The B-GC had the opportunity to speak to Dr. Vikram Patterkine, Chief Scientist for the technology firm, OriginOil, to understand the technical challenges facing commercialization of this biofuel and one potential solution.

:    Can you start off by telling me a little about OriginOil, including its history, its market and its business direction?

Dr. Pattarkine: OriginOil is a two year old technology company, started with the express intent of developing a technology for alternative oil that could be sustainable.  Our focus from the start has been on algae-derived oil, as that is the only biomass that does not compete with our food supply, is not land or water intensive and has the capability of being fast growing.  That is the promise of algae and why we are focused on it.

Our business plan is to be a technology developer, achieving revenue through licensing agreements.  We do not wish to become the largest algae-based oil manufacturer, but rather to license the technology to others that are good at doing that.  Ultimately, we feel that large scale algae production facilities will look similar to breweries.  There are other companies expert in this type of large scale production, and OriginOil doesn’t want to pick that up.

Our technological innovation is described in about 10 patent applications.  Unfortunately, the award process is rather lengthy and can take 2 years to complete. We are pursuing these but know that market presence is the only safeguard for any technology.

:   There are many different companies pursuing biofuels from different plant sources.  Why does OriginOil focus on algae only?

Dr. Pattarkine: There are three main reasons.  First, using algae does not compete against food.  Second, it does not compete against irrigation water or even land.   And third, algae can be grown rapidly.  Other plant life, such as Jatropha, can be grown with wastewater and on waste land but it does not grow very fast.

:    What technical barriers must be overcome to economically produce algae-derived biofuels that can compete with petroleum-based oil?   What new approaches has OriginOil developed that will give it a better position over its competitors?

Dr. Pattarkine: There are several technical barriers to generating oil from algae on an industrial scale with a small land and energy footprint.  OriginOil has developed four new approaches that we think offer the best solutions to these challenges.   Let’s review them in order -

1. Optimized carbon dioxide and nutrient delivery by Quantum Fracturing: Left to its own natural mechanism, the mass transfer of carbon dioxide and nutrients is too slow for a good industrial process.  We have developed quantum fracturing to solve the problem by substantially reducing the size of carbon dioxide bubbles, which greatly increases the interfacial surface area between the carbon dioxide and the liquid medium in which algae cells grow, thereby increasing the mass transfer rate.
2. Optimized light delivery in our Helix BioReactor: One technical barrier that must be solved is to grow the algae with a small footprint.  With naturally growing algae, only one layer of growth is achieved as sunlight cannot penetrate beyond that first layer.  Our solution is to inject light at multiple layers by growing algae in deep containers called Helix BioReactors. (see Figure 1).  The bioreactor greatly reduces the footprint needed.  For example, with a 15 foot tank the footprint should be reduced by a factor of 45 as each layer of algae requires about 4 inches.
   

   Figure 1: A benchtop Helix Reactor in OriginOil’s laboratory (Courtesy of OriginOil)

3. Improving extraction rates with the Single Step Extraction Process: The problem with extraction is that algae concentration levels are very low.  For every 999 tons of water you have 1 ton of algae (0.1%).  Each ton of algae generates about 25% to 30% oil, or about 500 lbs.  The conventional extraction process is based on dewatering the algae biomass and drying it in a very energy intensive process.  The OriginOil Single Step Extraction Process uses a gravity separation technique (see Figure 2), which reduces energy consumption of the extraction by 90%.


Figure 2: A schematic of OriginOil’s Single-Step Oil Extraction Process (Courtesy of OriginOil)

4. Cascading Production: In a conventional process, algae oil cannot be harvested each day.  But with our Cascading Production process we extract what we can harvest and recycle the rest, enabling a daily harvest.

:     On what scale has OriginOil demonstrated its process for producing oil from algae?  What are the plans for scaling up and validating the process both technically and economically?  How many gallons/year can be produced from an acre?  What would the cost of producing a barrel of oil by the OriginOil process be now?

Dr. Pattarkine: We have done bench-scale testing so far.  We are in the process of building a pilot plant which will be operational by the end of 2009.  We will have several tanks of about 200 gallons each in our pilot.  The oil extraction system in the pilot will handle about 600 gallons/day.  For the extraction system, we are partnering with a Belgium company, Desmet Ballestra.

As far as output, our calculations, previously presented at the National Algae Association Conference in September, show that 90,000 gallons/acre/year is achievable.  That supports our potential for growing algae-based oil on a small footprint.

The question on cost is a good one, but we will defer an answer on that until we complete the pilot testing.

:    Has any oil produced by OriginOil been refined and tested in cars?  Diesel trucks?  Jets?  If not what are the plans for completing these tests?

Dr. Pattarkine: Though we have not completed all of our testing, the technical feasibility of algae-derived oil for transportation in cars and jets, has been established.  For jet fuel that has been shown in both Continental Airlines and a JAL flight tests.

:   Beyond the current OriginOil process do you forsee many great innovations in the future that will make algae-derived biofuel common?  Can you envision a time in the future when 100% of transportation fuel is based on new algae?

Dr. Pattarkine: Biofuels are an essential part of the energy landscape and ultimately, algae will be the only acceptable solution for fresh-grown feedstocks.  We do see significant potential for making fuel from waste, and that will coexist with algae.  This means that over time, algae will command a majority share of biofuels production.

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