There is no place in the world where more people are working to advance the science and commercialization of algae biofuel than in San Diego.  Three announcements this week underscore the region’s standing in the quest to develop practical alternatives to fossil fuels. 

On Tuesday the California Department of Labor awarded the San Diego region a $4 million grant to implement new workforce training programs for jobs in the emerging biofuels industry.  The San Diego Biofuels Initiative, a collaborative effort including CleanTECH San Diego, BIOCOM, San Diego Regional EDC, San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SD-CAB) and the San Diego Workforce Partnership, captured the grant.  The San Diego Biofuels Initiative’s proposal, titled the Educating and Developing Workers for the Green Economy (EDGE Initiative), will provide education, training and placement services to unemployed and dislocated workers within San Diego and the Imperial Valley.

Also on Tuesday the Governor’s Office of Economic Development designated the San Diego region as a California Innovation Hub.  The designation clears the way for the San Diego iHub Consortium to apply for stimulus funds from the Federal government.  The consortium has identified biofuels, wireless health and solar power/energy storage as the three areas of greatest job growth potential.

On Monday the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SD-CAB) announced that the region will receive funding of $9 million from the Department of Energy for algae R&D.  A team of seven companies including locals Sempra Energy, General Atomics and Sapphire Energy are adding another $3 million to support the R&D effort.

CleanTECH San Diego’s website lists 37 Biomass Energy & Biofuel local companies in their company database. 

On July 20^th CONNECT presents Algae Biotechnology: Working to Transform Fuel, Food and Medicine with Stephen Mayfield, Director, San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology and John Dove Isaacs Chair of Natural Philosophy Department of Biological Sciences, UC San Diego.  Click here for details.

Two new algae resources

National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap, a 140 page report just released by U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office of the Biomass Program.  (This PDF file is 7 MB).

Also new is a report from the Milken Institute, Scaling Enterprise Finance, The Future of Biofuels, which addresses the question, “How can we facilitate the flow of private capital into the production of biofuels?”  Please e-mail me at glenn@glennmosier.com for a PDF copy of this 40 page report.

WEB 2.0 Summit, the by-invitation-only conclave of the internet intelligentsia was expanded this year to focus on “demonstrating proofs: showing how the founding principles of Web 2.0 have been put into practice to address the world’s most pressing problems”.  Cynthia Warner, president of Sapphire Energy, presented “High Order Bit: Burning Algae: The Green Crude Revolution”.  Her four bullet points for algae are: scalable, drop in fuel, low carbon and sustainable.  Click here for the 13 minute video of her presentation.

On the opening night of the 3rd Annual Algae Biomass Summit, I attended a roof-top soiree hosted by the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology.  In addition to hob-knobbing with the Shaquille O’Neal’s of algae, I also had the opportunity to compliment the founders of SD-CAB on the high quality of their website.  Getting up to speed in clean tech is like learning a new language.  Lesson one for algae begins at SD-CAB’s website.   This frequently-updated website serves a broad audience from the lay person who seeks introductory information to the industry insider who seeks direction.  I found the Q&A to be particularly useful.  You will want to become a SD-CAB Associate Member.  Click here to join for $100.

Now that you have committed yourself to becoming proficient in algae-speak, you will want to tap into other resources.  This month, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) published The Promise of Algae Biofuels.  It is everything you need to know in 72 pages. 

Another timely resource is provided by Stoel Rives LLP Attorneys at Law.  In nine chapters, the Law of Algae covers IP, licensing, financing, the specifics of Renewable Fuel Standard and much more.  It’s the green pathway to gold. 

To prepare for the vocabulary section of your algae SATs you can refer to the following glossaries:  U.S. Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and BiobasedNews.com.  

Please chime in with your comments about any useful sources of algae wisdom.

In my post of September 1^st, Car dealer runs moonshine?, I noted that locally owned Pearson Fuels was teamed with AE Biofuels of Cupertino to build and supply 55 public E85 ethanol-fueling stations across California over the next 42 months backed by a $6.9 million Federal grant.  The State of California has upped the ante with an additional award of $4.0 million. 

The Pearson Fuels’ business model can be explained in a dozen words.  A massive government mandate flows through the pipes.  Spigot owners win.  The Renewable Fuel Standard mandates a blending of transportation fuels from renewable sources increasing annually to a target of 36 billion gallons in 2022.  California could account for 20% of the mandated amount.  Obviously, renewable fuels represent a longer list (more…)

This morning I participated in the latest CleanTECH San Diego SCRUB session.  SCRUB is an opportunity for early stage clean tech companies to present their business story to a group of CleanTECH San Diego members.  Three local emerging clean tech ventures made their case this morning to a panel of 28 CleanTECH San Diego members representing a mix of venture capitalists, engineers, marketing specialists, intellectual property attorneys as well as local leaders from industry, research and government.  The objective of SCRUB is to provide immediate feedback and assistance to take each company to the next stage. 

Today’s SCRUB showcased three distinctly different clean tech businesses.  Marine Power Partners has developed a patent pending waterwheel that generates continuous base-load electricity from flowing water at lower capital and operating costs than either solar or wind systems.  A Smart Grid innovator, On-Ramp Wireless, is a systems provider for low-power wide-area scalable sensor networking and location tracking.  New Leaf Biofuel collects waste cooking oil (more…)

Today was huge for the slimy green stuff in San Diego.  The United States’ two largest city newspapers, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, did in-depth reports about the burgeoning algae business in San Diego.  (See “Interest in algae’s oil prospects is growing” and “Algae as Fuel of the Future Faces Great Expectations — and Obstacles”).  Speculations about the commercial viability of algae as fuel, like any other scientific/business development, are purely speculative.  All the expert opinions on ESPN about the next Chargers game have no impact on the outcome of the game.  What we do know for certain about the Chargers and about algae is that the games will be played.  The question is will the championship game be played in San Diego?

Could it be that San Diego is approaching a tipping point (oozing point?) in its quest to become the world’s dominant algae biotechnology center?  At what state of maturation do we say, “now you are a cluster”? 

Minds and money work best when concentrated.  Concentrated brains and bucks are common attributes of all technology clusters.  (more…)

Not really. Pearson Fuels opened in 2003 as the nation’s first Alternative Fuel Station. You know their owners as the folks who operate Pearson Ford on El Cajon Blvd. in San Diego. Their menu offers flavors you don’t usually see at your corner gas station, including ethanol, biodiesel, CNG, propane, ultra low sulphur diesel and even electricity.

The boom and bust that represents the ethanol business in our nation’s corn belt is being challenged by alternatives which are not disruptive to the food chain. Today, AE Biofuels Inc. of Cupertino and Pearson Fuels said they have been awarded a $6.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy through its Clean Cities program. The two companies will build and supply 55 public E85 ethanol-fueling stations across California over the next 42 months.

Pearson Fuels will establish the stations. AE Biofuels Inc. will supply the product. The technological focus of the project will be the production of cellulosic ethanol from crop wastes such as corn stover and wheat straw, or energy crops such as switchgrass, sugar cane bagasse and miscanthus. The fuel produced will be identical to the ethanol derived from corn. It’s a win-win. Drivers get their fuel and bourbon distillers get their corn. As near as I can determine, nobody is making whiskey out of switchgrass.

Link to Pearson Fuels

Link to AE Biofuels Inc.

San Diego-based General Atomics is working with the U.S. military to study how battlefield-derived waste plastic dissolved in biodiesel performs in generators for military encampments. “The system includes a grinder that chews up waste plastics and dissolves it in biodiesel, which is kept at about 140 degrees Fahrenheit as the fuel is fed to the genset warm.” The generator system “is similar to those being used in Afghanistan today…”

Link to article on www.biodieselmagazine.com