Yesterday was a good news day for the rapidly growing algae biofuel industry in San Diego.  Local TV station KPBS produced a comprehensive video segment, 2012 Could Determine Future Of Algae As Fuel.  Click here for the video.  

La Jolla-based Sapphire Energy announced a breakthrough via a white paper, “An exogenous chloroplast genome for complex sequence manipulation in algae.”  

“With this breakthrough, Sapphire Energy has shown that it is possible to make algae–the world’s most efficient photosynthetic organism–even more efficient,” said Jason Pyle, Sapphire Energy founder and CEO.  “This work represents the first steps toward a novel approach for creating genetic diversity in any or all regions of a chloroplast genome, and may have applications in other plants.”  

Click here for the full report.   

Grants for up to $7,000 are available for biofuels training for 55 students.  Classes will be held at UCSD Extension and Mira Costa College starting in March 2012.  Details here.

Carl Nettleton, Lee Stein, Elizabeth Dreicer McPhail, Bryce Rhodes

The E2 San Diego Chapter held an EcoSalon on Thursday, October 20, titled, “Energy Security and the Impact on the Economy.”  The event was held at Chapter Co-Director Lee Stein’s home and featured three panelists: Leendert “Len” Hering Sr. RADM, USN (ret.); Stephen Mayfield, UC San Diego Professor of Biology and Director of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology; and Marney Cox, Chief Economist for the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). E2 San Diego Chapter Co-Director Carl Nettleton moderated the session. 

San Diego is a hub for both the military and alternative fuels development and the panelists discussed the national and local imperatives driving the military’s emphasis on reducing or eliminating fossil fuel use.  According to Chapter Co-Director Elizabeth Dreicer McPhail, the event met the goal of bringing together a small but quality group of business and community leaders to provide visibility for E2 while researching locally important issues and appealing to potential new members.

In August E2 published a 23 page report, Advanced Biofuel Market Report 2011.  Click here for your copy.

Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) is a national community of business leaders who promote sound environmental policy that builds economic prosperity.  E2 has seven chapters: Northern California, New England, New York, Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

I am reading Mark Stevenson’s book, An Optimist’s Tour of the Future.  He quotes Ray Kurzweil, “Our intuition is linear and I believe it’s hardwired into our brains.”  This linear bias bangs hard against the “Law of Accelerating Returns”.  Technological innovation feeds upon itself.  Innovative growth is not 1+1+1+1, but rather 1+2+4+8.  Although the ubiquitous iPhone is a reminder of the how explosive innovation can be, we look to the future dreading that positive change will be too little, too late.  Our linear bias leads to judgments influenced by static inputs rather than future values which will be determined by innovation replicating exponentially.  The commercialization of algae biofuels is an important example.

The algae business is basically farming.  The output of the algae agricultural system will be used to produce “drop-in” biofuels as well as animal feed and a myriad of other products.  If all technological innovation were frozen at this moment, the algae biofuel business would most likely not be commercially viable.  However, just like corn and pigs, improvements are being made over time. 

In my lifetime the yield per acre of corn has tripled due to improved genetics and production technology.  What took years and decades to happen with grains and livestock is happening over weeks and months with algae.  The algae industry is not only benefiting from the explosive technological innovation of the past decade, but also from the huge universe of algae being screened to identify commercially viable strains.

There are over 800 breeds of cattle.  The gestation period for cattle is about the same as humans.  Heifers can be bred at about 12 to 14 months.  Now imagine a breeding program with cattle drawn from over 5,000,000 different species which can produce a new generation every 30 days.  With existing technology, genome engineering and capital, the accelerating refinement of super strains is rapidly advancing the algae industry.  The algae of the very near future will be as dramatically improved as the pig of 2011 compared to his scrawny ancestor of the 1950s. 

La Jolla is at the center of the global algae Petri dish.  Greg Mitchell, director of the Photobiology Group at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has a global reputation as an algae pioneer.  The San Diego Union Tribune wrote about his exciting life, “Algae visionary imagines a future that’s green — literally”.   Click here to read.

The two largest equity fundings for algae biofuel development were done in the La Jolla zip code (Synthetic Genomics and Sapphire Energy).  On Wednesday I attended a press conference for California Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher who was named chair of a new committee that will focus on creating a climate for jobs.  Sapphire Energy was selected as the site for the event to showcase the importance of innovation for job creation.  After the remarks we toured Sapphire’s labs.  Their time line is clearly stated.  “We expect to be at demonstration scale in three years and at commercial scale by 2018.”  Sapphire Energy has received $54.5 million in loan guarantees from the USDA Biorefinery Assistance Program to build a plant to turn algal oil into jet fuel.

The challenge for most disruptive technologies is finding a deep-pockets customer that is sufficiently convinced to make a meaningful buying commitment.  The algae biofuels business has that in the U.S. military.  The military’s motivation is both financial and strategic.  They know that their greatest vulnerability is dependence on imported oil.  Their bill for fuel and electricity last year was $20 billion. The prospect of growing fuel in Hawaii and Southern California versus shipping oil half way around the world has a strong appeal.  Of greatest importance to the algae biofuel industry is a military making their decisions based on future economic and strategic plans unimpeded by the wrong-headed influence of politicians. 

The military’s impact on accelerating the growth of the algae biofuels industry will be enhanced if legislation is passed allowing the Pentagon to sign long-term contracts for up to fifteen years as opposed to the current five-year limit.  A long-term commitment from a highly-rated buyer makes deal financing substantially more doable.  Members of the aviation industry testified at a Senate Aviation operations, safety and security subcommittee hearing requesting legislation enabling the Defense Department to enter into long-term contracts for fuels.

To learn more about the local burgeoning biofuels cluster go to the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SD-CAB).  Greg Mitchell was one of the founders.  SD-CAB along with UCSD, SDSU, CleanTECH San Diego, and BioCOM collaborated to launch Educating and Developing Workers for the Green Economy (EDGE) focused on educating a next-generation workforce in green technology.

By Guest Author  Mary Rosenthal Executive Director, Algal Biomass Organization

In our country’s spirited debate over energy, innovation and the economy, perhaps no phrase has been uttered more often than “green jobs.” While the precise meaning of “green job” continues to be a topic of debate, I would submit that jobs in the algae industry are indeed at least a little shade of green. Or maybe blue-green.

In today’s biofuels industry, most of the growth has centered on jobs for those workers who have already been trained in the fields of construction; engineering; chemistry and biology; sales and marketing; legal and administrative, and others. The industry now supports tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the country and up and down the value chain – from Ph.D-level microbiologists to plant personnel to legal counsel to metal fabricators and truckers; from the labs of San Diego to the ethanol plants of Iowa to the offices of Silicon Valley.

That is something we rightly celebrate as an industry. It also something policymakers in Washington D.C. would be wise to recognize as they continue to seek ways to create jobs and spur economic growth.

The next generation of green jobs

Much less has been said, however, about the tremendous need to develop the next generation of biofuels innovators. Regardless of technology, feedstock or business plan, this is something that is a concern of the industry as a whole. Because a new generation of experts will be required to help today’s companies continue to (more…)

Getting up to speed in cleantech is like learning a new language.  Lesson one for algae begins at the website for the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SD-CAB).  I found the Q&A to be particularly useful. 

Algae lesson number two is the Algal Biofuels Symposium 2010 “The Science to Support Algal Biofuel Commercialization” to be held this Friday April 23rd at the Salk Institute in La Jolla.  This all day event features a dozen of the top experts in the field of what many believe will be the leading alternative fuel for transportation, algae biofuel.  Just $25 covers the event including lunch and a hosted reception.  Click here for details. 

You will want to become a SD-CAB Associate Member.  Click here to join for $100.

For five more useful algae resources see Algae spoken here which was posted below on October 21, 2009

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.

For the last few months the quest for biofuel derived from algae has been a hot headline.  San Diego’s prominence as the foremost algae R&D center will draw even more national attention when the 3^rd Annual Algae Biomass Summit comes to town October 7^th – 9^th.  The Algal Biomass Organization is a trade organization formed to facilitate commercialization and market development of microalgae biomass specifically for biofuels production and greenhouse gas abatement.  Attendance of about 1,000 is anticipated for the three day get-together which will include local algae heavy weights Sapphire Energy, Synthetic Genomics, General Atomics, Biolight, Kent Bioenergy and the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology among others. (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…)