Algenol Company Profile
50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy candidate profile
Algenol
Based in: Florida
2008-09 rank: #35
Business: Algael fuel developer. Algenol explains that energy from the sun through photosynthesis produces simple sugars inside algae cells which, concurrently with enzymes, produce ethanol. Extremely fast growing algae renews the sugar supply.
Model: Owner-operator and partner.
Past milestones:
In 2008, Biofields CEO Alejandro González Cimadevilla said that the company is targeting 2 billion gallons of ethanol from algae by 2020 using the Algenol process. The company said that it considered 15 other locations in Mauretania, Algeria, Spain, and the US, before settling on Sonora because of its 328 days of annual sunshine and 3.75 million annual tons of CO2 emitted by local power plant CFE.
The company said that it has purchased 22,000 hectares of unproductive land, and Gonzalez said that he will produce 250 Mgy by 2013, building off the recycling company, Grupo Gondi, founded by his father Luis Gonzalez Diez. Gonzalez has recruited Mateo Lopez, a former Mobil Oil senior construction executive in Mexico.
The company secured an exclusive license for the Algenol technology until 2013 when the company reaches its 250 Mgy target.
Future milestones:
Algenol Biofuels and Dow Chemical will construct a $50 million pilot algae biofuels plant in Freeport. The plant will be located with Dow’s existing chemicals complex, and will supply CO2 as well as land for the pilot algae facility. Dow said that it was interested in Algenol’s ability to sue algae to produce ethanol, which could be used as a base for making ethylene, which is in turn a feedstock for many types of chemicals.
The plant is designed to produce 100,000 gallons of ethanol per year at a target price of between $1.00 and $1.25 per gallon, according to Woods, who added that groundbreaking is expected to commence in 2010. Traditionally, chemical companies have been using natural gas as an ethylene feedstock. Algenol is among companies competing for a $25 million DOE grant.
Georgia Institute of Technology, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Membrane Technology & Research are partners in the project, which is targeting initial production of up to 140 gallons of algae fuel per day, or 51,000 gallons per year at a yield of 2,120 gallons per acre. The companies are jointly seeking a $25 million DOE loan guarantee.
Metrics:
According to CNN Expansion, Biofields has invested $30 million to date in the project, which is reporting yields of 6900 gallons per acre at its Sonora site. The company is said to be hiring 1500 temporary and 350 permanent workers and commenced construction in December.
Algenol estimates the energy balance, i.e., the ratio of energy out vs. energy in will be greater than 8:1 which compares with 1.35:1 for corn ethanol.
Algenol: 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy candidate profile is a post from: Biofuels Digest
