The European macroalgae industry is based on the harvesting of natural resources of macroalgae. Worldwide macroalgae production (includes brown, red and green seaweeds) increases 5.7 % every year, in 2008 nearly 14 mill tons of macroalgae was produced from capture and aquaculture. In Europe the production has been stable since 1960, but has decreased in the last 10 years.
Old reseach shows that cyano bacteria can be fixated to produce ammonia from N2, H2O and sunlight. This technology is unpatented and can be considered a viable way to make both fuel for working the land as well as the necessary fertilizer.
Scaled up, VandenBrekel envisions a host of 1,000-to-20,000-acre farms across the Southeast where algal fuel is grown, processed and used locally, from community gas stations to diesel fleets such as school buses. Success, he says, would create no less than a “rebirth of American agriculture.”
The conference titled “Biofuels” will discuss: Bioenergy: The Options for an Economic and Sustainable Future, Sustainability of cellulosic ethanol (Biofuel produced from non-food biomass), Algae Biofuels (Deriving fuel from algae), Development of new biomass feedstocks and Potential of Biomass Production in Southeast Asia.
CJP’s Global Algae World India 11 focuses on the entire algae production from lab to scale. Topics are carefully selected to cover the Biology, Engineering, Marketing and Financial aspects of algae commercialization. CJP is recognized as an important platform for productive exchanges among the Academic, Commercial and Investment communities on nonfood biodiesel crops.
Observing the profitability of seaweed farming, Cabanero decided to stop from dynamite fishing and focused on his own guso raising while still caretaking the GENU farm.
Cabanero had to double his effort in earning from seaweed farming, what with the 15 mouths to feed, including his and his wife, and the education of their 13 children.
Seaweed farming gradually earned good income for the island family, so that all the Cabanero children have been able to finish college. Seven of them are now practicing their professions.
Theoretically, scientists can extract 60,000 liters of diesel per hectare of algae, meaning 4.5 million hectares of algae cultivation would satisfy half of China's current demand for diesel. China's total coverage of salinized land, which is ideal from growing algae but unproductive for farming, is estimated at 10 million hectares.
This annual international congress has been organised successfully since 2007. Previous editions were held in Dronten, Amsterdam and Hamburg. DLG BENELUX, subsidiary of DLG e.V. in Germany, is the organiser of the International Algae Congress 2010. The international Algae Congress 2010 will be held in The Netherlands on the 1 & 2 of December. The 4th International Algae Congress will be held in congress centre “ the Planetarium” situated in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, address: Kromwijkdreef 11 1108 JA Amsterdam Zuid-Oost.
A new project seeks to offer essential research data on the cultivation of three popular seaweed species for food and fertilizer that could fetch EUR 20 million annually by 2013.
The cultivation project a joint collaboration between Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), the Irish Sea Fisheries Board and the Marine Institute and is being funded by the Sea Change Strategy and the Marine Research Sub-programme of the National Development Plan, 2007-2013.
The oceans are dying, and with it the world will die. This is not a new thing, it happend several times in the world's history. The causes have differend but one recurring trigger has often been rapid climate change, either warming or cooling. We now experience warming due to CO2 emissions. According to some Global Warming should be called Ocean Warming, as 80% of the heat ends up in our oceans. But how does this lead to our extinction?
Similarities in previous extinctions
Extinctions through the ages (showing percentage of marine life that went extinct)
The killer substance that will becomes abundant in the deep oceans once the currents stop is Hydrogen Sulfide, a colorless, very poisonous, flammable gas with the characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. It will kill all that breaths it. Fumes of decomposing algae can also kill and force people away from the coast, as it did in France last year.
These anoxic events are linked to so called carbon burial, or the massive sequestration of carbon by oceanic life at the surface. This proces is supposed to be fed by the runoff of dead organic matter from land. The dead ocean's surface would have for a time been teeming with algae. Usually in the geological record one also finds a layer consisting of the ocean lifeforms that went extinct.
If ocean currents stop stratfication takes place, which means the layering of the oceans become stabile, with warm and nutrient depleted water on top and cold, nutrient rich but anoxic water at the bottom. This state can persist for millions of years in which there is little chance for life to evolve.
Today these type of upwellings are affected by climate change. Model predictions seem to be confirmed by changes in the wind based ocean upwellings near the coast of California. This kills species that depend on nutrients earlier in the season. Temerature differences as a result of absent cool deep water can be 2 degrees Celsius. Climate change is changing wind patterns, and so changes upwelling timing and locations.
At the poles the water cools considerably and becomes more heavy. It flows down and displaces the deeper water. This is then forced to travel considerable distances on the bottom of the ocean to where it is drawn up by the water moving to the poles. Loss of sea ice at the poles can thus function as a 'switch', ushering in accelerated warming. The cold deep water wells up are around the equator and in other places like the Indian Ocean. This is process is called the Thermohaline Circulation. This circulation has great importance for western Europe as it causes the relatively mild climate as equatorial warm water flows to the North along its coasts, hence the worry about cooling in Northern Europe.
Today the oceans flow, due to the thermohaline circulation, mixing the nutrients collected in the deep ocean to the surface and taking oxygen down to enable life in the deep ocean. There is a so called 'tipping point' at which this circulation collapses. If that happens the oceans will die. Models show our current climatic impact can weaken these currents, but not all, but in fact a weakening has been observed since the 70's. Other measurement show decreases in flow since the 50's. Related to strenght of ocean currents even the deep waters now show significant warming. Dedicated research and monitoring programs have been put in plce specifically RAPID.
Result of different predictive models show a decline in the important eqatorial upwelling
Artificial upwelling
What is the potential of Artifical upwelling?. According to Prof. Dr. Andreas Oschlies's model it is 3 GT per year (Not sure if the capacity is maximized, but compare antropogenic production is 3.2 GT), and there is a suprising upside of a cooling effect apparently slowing decomposition on land (that reduces co2 emissions and preserves plant species and cools the poles right?). Apparently the point is that the sequestered carbon is hard to measure because it will be distributed across the landmasses in non decaying organic material, well boo hoo! Another strange claim is an increase in CO2 emission once the upwelling pumps are halted (but why would you do that?).
Angelicque White at the Oregon State University did more practical research, using wave driven pumps. She learned you need to take the water from the right debth so it has just the right combination of nutrients and dissolved gasses (which she concluded is about 300 to 700 meter deep). Co-researcher Ricardo Letelier said "These vast regions (around Hawaii) of the open ocean may be perfect for sequestering carbon".
Instead of waiting for the blooms to be feed by the runoff of killed life on land, we should preemtively cause them using artificial upwelling to draw down carbon dioxide and cool the earth.
Help me continue this reseach (as pm) by donating at my website and spreading the word.
Policy
The US government is informed and misinformed. Scott Doney testified for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard and claimed ocean stratification and increased acidification would be 'good for production', never mentioning anything about the usual accompanying extinction. Looking into the geological past, testimony to congress by Robert B. Gagosian, President and Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution does not go further than outlining its impact on the climate. The biggest problem is not the shift in temperatures across the globe, although it would have massive impacts on where things grow and where one could survive, the whole temperature issue is trumped by the fact the ocean emissions would kill everything. The way it is discussed in above testimony is clearly misleading as it misses the point of the whole climate discussion: Human survival.
Onlangs besloot de overheid om aan vier zeewierprojecten subsidie toe te kennen. Daarmee zetten we een belangrijke stap vooruit om tot teelt van deze nieuwe vorm van biomassa in de Noordzee te komen. ECN neemt in twee van deze projecten deel. Onderzoekers van Biomassa, Kolen & Milieuonderzoek speuren naar manieren om uit dit landbouwproduct-op-zee waardevolle grondstoffen en energie te onttrekken.
A number of mass extinctions have been caused by toxic fumes from massive algae blooms in our oceans. We are now seeing this effect near the coast where the nutrients are available. Ironically this has caused several episodes of massive carbon sequestration in our geological history, sadly only after all species where killed by the fumes.
The research, published in the journal Nature, said the declines were linked to rising sea-surface temperatures and changes in the conditions of the ocean, particularly close to the equator.
This reduces the chances of repairing the imbalance. All burning should stop, growth of life in the oceans should be promoted by all means, or we will see deoxygenation and lifeless oceans, runaway climate change and eventual extinction of all life on earth.
Zeewier heeft een scala van mogelijkheden die nog maar in beperkte mate worden benut. Door zeewier op grote schaal te telen kunnen waardevolle producten worden verkregen die op andere wijze niet binnen het economisch bereik zouden komen.
Voor de start van een zeewierteelt is betrouwbaar uitgangsmateriaal nodig. Hortimare is gespecialiseerd in de selectie, vermeerdering en instandhouding van zeewieren. Hortimare, letterlijk 'tuin in zee' heeft de visie de mogelijkheden tot het telen van zeewieren te versterken en biedt hiervoor hoogwaardig uitgangsmateriaal aan.
Bevestigd aan geschikte dragers, zijn diverse soorten als jonge zeewierplantjes beschikbaar voor experimenten en commerciële productie.
Exxon said last year it would invest $600 million over the next five to six years attempting to develop biofuel from algae. If it met research goals, Exxon said it would spend more than originally budgeted in the next decade, $300 million of which would be allocated to its partner Synthetic Genomics Inc.
In the report on the U.S. Department of Energy’s
Aquatic Species Program published in 1998 gave a detailed overview of the challenges of producing biofuels using algae. The general conculsions where that it was not yet cost effective, but that it did work.
The DOE now has published a new report with the following conclusion:
"In summary, the Roadmap Workshop effort suggests that many years of both basic and applied science and engineering will likely be needed to achieve affordable, scalable, and sustainable algal-based fuels. The ability to quickly test and implement new and innovative technologies in an integrated process will be a key component to accelerating progress."
There is a perfectionist attitude to the development of algae for biofuels under government supervision. This is not seen in the oil industry, where new technologies are simply tried,touted as profitable etc. Practically growing algae for fuel is already viable using saline water albeit with low end production (20 grams/m2/day) which is more than 50 tons per hectare per year. This is perfect for locations where oil can't be distributed easily..
Still the most viable method is farming algae at sea, where the effect of the use of deep ocean nutrients has never been adequatel tested (but nontheless is proven by algae farms in Hawaii, that use cool nutrient rich deep ocean water as fertilizer).
Algae Producers, Researchers, Algae Biofuel Technology Developers, End-users and Investors from 30+ countries gather in Brussels-BELGIUM to seek clarity at 2nd Algae World Europe. The May 31- June 1 conference offers a view into
4 essential aspects of the Algal value chain.
2nd Algae World Europe is meeting in Brussels on May 31- June 1, and Algae stakeholders from over 30 countries have already confirmed their participation for the conference.
Big Oil and Chemical companies including Exxon Mobil, Shell, Eni, PTT Public Co, Solvay, Braskem, Evonik Degussa, Kao Chemicals, Glaconchemie and Power Producers Electrabel, GDF Suez, along with other key players and end-users like Roquette, Neste Oil, Unilever, Toyota, Philips Lighting, Cemex are among the many influential companies sending representatives to the conference.
The Algae industry is also hailing 2nd Algae World Europe as Europe’s algae industry networking meet, due to the diverse range of participants spanning all essential Algal industry profiles. According to recently released conference attendee figures:
- 25% of Algae Producers & Algae Production Equipment Companies
- 20% of Oil, Power and Chemical company representatives
- 20% of Researchers from Top R&D institutions
- 10% of Biofuels company representatives
- 10% of Financiers, Investors & Bank representatives
- 10% of Algae end-users (Aquaculture, Nutraceuticals, Pharmaceuticals)
- 5% of Transportation industry representatives
The 2nd Algae World Europe agenda addresses the 4 key pillars of successful algae commercialization. They include 1-System Optimization for Large-Scale Algae Production; 2-Improving Algal Productivity & Processing Efficiency, 3- Developing High Value Co-products; 4-Promise and Reality of Algae Biofuels in an intensive 2-day session on June 1.
Conference panellists include representatives of the European Commission, Cyanotech (USA), Seambiotic (Israel), Solix Biofuels (USA), IngrePro B.V.
(Netherlands), Alpha Biotech (France), SBAE Industries (Belgium), Proviron (Belgium), and many others. Conference participants also have the option to participate in a site visit to SBAE Industries’ Algae production plant.
Those participating in 2nd Algae World Europe are to note that 31 May to 1 June are the new conference dates. The conference was rescheduled due to the volcanic ash cloud situation. Those who wish to attend the conference and site visit should register and pay online at http://www.cmtevents.com/?
ev=100411&pg=Rg immediately due to limited seats availability.
There are many proposed solutions to the liquid fuels scarcity caused be stagnating (and eventually falling) oil supplies combined with growing demand in emerging economies. Some will be good investments, others won't. Here is where I'm putting my money, and why. This fifth part takes a look at the growing consensus that our biofuels should come from non-food crops grown on land that is not otherwise productive, and the one crop that shows promise of delivering the high yields needed to satisfy our enormous thirst for fuel is algae.
From animal manure to crop residue, all options are being explored to reduce global dependency on fossil fuels. In response to this quest, one Costa Rican scientist poses a novel question: What about the ocean? Seaweed is primarily grown in the Eastern Hemisphere to produce fertilizer and food, but what potential do these plants and our oceans hold for biomass applications?
Fish pens for aquaculture have become a familiar sight in New Brunswick’s coastal communities. Marine biologist Thierry Chopin argues that by integrating cultured seaweed and shellfish, aquaculture operations can reduce the impact of fish farms on the marine environment.
The team found alginate - a fibre found in sea kelp - reduces the body's fat uptake by more than 75%. That is better than most anti-obesity treatments. Read more though the link.
"The toxin - domoic acid - first came to notice in the late 1980s as the cause of amnesiac shellfish poisoning. It is produced by algae of the genus Pseudonitzschia, with concentrations rising rapidly when the algae bloom."
This results are not surprising, it is well known blooms can become poisenous, this is because the poision kills other organisms wich frees up nutrients that are in short supply in a bloom.
Iron fertilization normally occurs when the metal is carried with sand storms from the African desert. It ends up in the growing dead zones where it inproves the nutrient balance and causes algae to grow. These aglae blooms then attract sea life of every kind. The biomass that the aglae constitutes and the sealife it supports store carbon, which is what climat mitigation is after.
Now there are other ways to achieve fertilization of the oceans and store carbon. One well tested way is to pump up water from deeper down, because about 100m below the surface the nutrient content is much higher (and would cause algae to grow in abundance).
Only the patent claims to be for an air cooling device to reduce the power of hurricanes. It pumps up cold deep ocean water to the surface. Maybe Bill gates notices some day his invention can also nourish the oceans and stimulate carbon capture without having the iron fertilization side effects..
Development of ABB production can generate employment. A certain level of
technical education is required during project deployment and, strategy and dealing
with unforeseen circumstances, for operation and maintenance and biomass
processing low-skilled workers can be employed. Independency of (foreign) energy
can be achieved, as well as energy availability and access for the poor. This can be
an important factor to allow economic development.
Both income and other products such as food, feed, fertilizer, and base chemicals,
can be generated, first for self-sufficiency, on the longer term as new export
products as well.
"To get a better sense of algae’s perks and problems, a research team from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville examined the energy costs and environmental impacts of producing algae for fuel. The team then compared these with similar values from algae’s biofuel peers — corn, canola and switchgrass. The algal life-cycle analysis, which used numbers from an online database and published research, finds that algae farms need to minimize use of fertilizer and freshwater to compete with other biofuel plants."
Indeed, if you grow algae on land where you need to supply nutrients and compensate for evaporation you will have extra cost. Not however is you supply the ponds with deep ocean seawater as is done in Hawaii for instance, which takes care of both problems.
Algae and Seaweed are best grown in the ocean, where the nutrients are available and there is plenty of space.
DuPont and Bio Architecture Lab recently were awarded a $9 million matching grant from ARPA-E for a third generation biofuels research program to determine if sugars from macroalgae -- or seaweed -- can be efficiently converted to biobutanol.
It is nice this type of research gets grants, but it is disturbing how much time seems to be bought to keep on doing research while the benefits of algae and seaweed as biomass are obvious and massive. Holland has called for projects (200.000 Euro) that would develop the methods of actually growing serious amounts of seaweed biomass because there dutch researchers developed a ready to go plan to convert it into natural gas. The focus should be on growing seaweed and algae, not on trying to make it seem there is a long way to go to make it viable.
You will be glad to know that a new center for seaweed research, aquaculture and development (CEVAM, Centre d’Étude et de Valorisation des Algues Marines) has recently been created in Quebec (eastern Canada). Based at the École des Pêches et de l’Aquaculture du Québec (EPAQ), a fisheries and aquaculture technical school in Grande-Rivière (Gaspé Peninsula, eastern Quebec), CEVAM is a provincially-funded partnership between Université Laval in Québec City and the Cégep de la Gaspésie et les Îles, the regional college in Gaspé.
The beauty of this project lies in its positive impact on the local economies where it will be implemented. Aside from ethanol, seaweed has many other useful byproducts, such as animal feed, fertilizer, soil conditioner and cosmetics. These are a fertile source of livelihood and agro-business investments. The potential for energizing and invigorating rural coastal communities—the historic sites of abject poverty—is both tremendous and tantalizing. A mini agro-industrial complex can spring close to the seaweed farm—poultry and piggery, fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, biopharmaceutical facilities and ecotourism destinations.
'We got quite a shock when we saw how much of the inner reefs were dominated by weed,' Prof Bellwood – who has dived the GBR for several decades – admits. 'Forty-three per cent is a surprisingly big number – but it is their natural state or not? There is a lack of historical data to tell us for sure. It needs close scrutiny to find out.'
When Goheung-based businesses join and share Biolsystems Co., Ltd., a Seoul-based company that has developed a marine farm in Talibon town and will put up a US$150-million facility for bio-ethanol extraction, biomass power generation and organic fertilizer production, Bohol will assist the former in securing permits and other administrative works including the availment of tax holidays.
Our minister of economics calls for proposals for small entrepeneurs to develop viable seaweed farming techniques for open sea or ocean connected rivers. This because the expertise is not developed yet while Holland does have great expertise regarding offshore technology and land is expensive compared to space in the north sea. Holland also has a developed biorefining industry. This ties in with the currenly implemented ?bio-based economy? and ?climate change? policies.
There are three phases, total budget 1,32 mln Euro. Phase I is 200,000 Euro for a maximum of four feasibility studies. Phase II R&D for these projects. Phase III for their commercialization.
The project is aimed at creating and implementing viable commercial models based on seaweed farming.
The ministry of economics estimates a fossil fuel savings potential from seaweed of 100 petajoule (3% of total energy consumption). It can take the lead in building expertise in the still
undeveloped field.
Questions to be answered:
How does a seaweed farming system look
How is it made profitable
What new products does farming yield
Who can use the produced biomass
Can production be connected to existing offshore infrastructure
How does it tie into existing industrial infrastructure
Score of applications (enter before jan 21 2010 17:00)
1. (20 points) a. Usefullness in farming seaweed, prefering concepts that cover all necessary aspects. b. How often can the concept be repeated in the dutch North Sea (expressed in PetJoule, Dry Tons or Euro value). c. How viable is the proposing organization (the cooperation
between entrepeneurs, scientists other necessary pertners) 2. (10 points) a. Is the proposed method applicable in the widest possible variety of locations. b. It the approach technologically up to date or even innovative. Can it mean a breakthrough. 3. (10 points) a. Assesment of the economic potential, export potential, long term fit of the proposing company (will it continue to work on this longer, is it in line with company?s main focus). 4. (10 points) a. Consequences for the maritime environment b. Consequences for the participating companies c. Consequences for dutch society, climat policy and biobased
economy policy.
Schedule
Invitation of proposals Nov 16th 2009 until Jan 21th 2010
Review of proposals until March 18th
Start execution of Phase I April 1st
Completion of projects Okt 1st
End project report Okt 22nd 2010
Deadline proposals phase 2 December 31st
Review of proposals until Feb 1st
Start execution phase II March 1st
End of Phase II Februari 2013 (two years)
End project report March 2013
Start execution phase III May 2013
Adress of SenterNovem/Agentschap.nl (who execute this tender)
The dutch government is looking for a consortium of entrepeneurs to exploit weadeed biomass in the north sea. Closing dat jan 21 2010. Click the title to find out more..
Department of Energy’s ARPA-E (Transformational Energy Research Project) selects Univenture (Algaeventure Systems) to pursue breakthroughs that could fundamentally change the way we use and produce energy.
Often described as the greatest cost barrier to algae’s viability as an energy solution, the HDD system reduces the energy costs of dewatering microalgae by over 90%. “The recognition and credibility that ARPA-E provides to our breakthrough technology is extraordinary”, says Ross Youngs, Algaeventure Systems Founder and CEO. “Our technology can be transformational to meeting our nations energy and national security needs.
For Seattle-based Bio-Architecture Labs, which received $3 million from Austral in July, technology plus seaweed may be the answer to energy problems. The company is developing microbes that will ferment seaweed into ethanol. It claims to have innovative computer modeling and a novel biosynthetic pathway to convert renewable feedstock into fuels. Both were developed at the University of Washington by Dr. David Baker and Dr. Yasuo Yoshikuni.
The Maldives are in big trouble climate wise. Yet the solution is all around them. The Maldives are in an excellent location for massive growing of seaweed and algae, which incidentally also benefits all other ocean species. Think boldly and read more about the possibilities here..
International Algae Congress 2009
Performance and potential of photothrophic Aquaculture
Microalgae Cyanobacteria and Microcrops
1 & 2 December 2009
Hotel Hafen, Hamburg,
Germany
2nd Algae World Asia looks at a broad-range of algae applications including the high value products for human and animal nutrition, algae's role in carbon capture and recycle, and bioremediation, to highlight the opportunities in these areas. The conference also looks beyond the hype around algal biofuel and offer realistic approaches on making it happen.
There are three words that sum up the primary goal of the global environmental movement, clean renewable energy. Ever since it began to dawn on people that fossil fuels, like every other resource, had limits, there has been an ongoing search for a fuel that would never go away. Granted, the fears expressed early on about fossil fuels now seem a bit naive. Remember back in the 70s when they said that by the year 2000 the world would run out of oil? It turns out that fossil fuels don't really go away, they just get more and more expensive to get. (Click link to continue reading)
