Algae biofuel offers promise as an alternative fuel that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while driving rural rejuvenation and maximizing benefits from the state’s limited water resources. Sharing similarities with vegetable oil and palm oil, algae oil can be readily refined to drop-in fuels such as renewable diesel and jet fuel. Algae biofuel does not compete with food resources and instead increases food production by producing oil and protein simultaneously.
Global Algae Innovations has demonstrated major breakthroughs in algal cultivation and processing at an 8-acre facility, including over 65 innovations to lower the cost of every process step. With these advances, large-scale algae farms are projected to be economically competitive with other commodity proteins and oil. The technology includes direct air capture of carbon dioxide, so the farms can be located anywhere with a suitable climate. The major remaining challenge in reaching commercial algae biofuel production is scale-up and operation of this advanced algae farming technology to validate that it is economically viable and sustainable for producing commodity vegetable oils and protein. This project addressed this challenge by completing the preliminary design and planning for construction and operation of a pilot-scale algae farm. This design effort has improved the ability to obtain funding to build and operate a large-scale algae farm by providing detailed support of the projected costs and benefits, permitting and site selection, and a preliminary design that is ready for advancing to detailed design and construction.
Global Algae Innovations’ demonstrated yields for protein and vegetable oil are 24 times greater than soy and palm, the most productive land plants, respectively. This increase in agricultural productivity can support renewable transportation fuel production, rural rejuvenation, carbon dioxide removal, and environmental sustainability.
