Amid rising concern for the environmental impact of fossil fuels, the pressure is on to find an alternative fuel source. A surprising contender? Algae. The seemingly unassuming green stuff that you find on top of a pond actually has a lot of potential as a biofuel to solve our global problems. However there are also environmental and economic drawbacks to adopting algae biofuel, and all the pros and cons will need to be thoroughly assessed before declaring it a viable global fuel source.
Pros of Algae Biofuel
Renewable Resource
Fossil fuels (such as coal, natural gas, and petroleum) take millions of years to form and as such are considered non-renewable sources of fuel. Algae on the other hand is a very rapidly growing resource and the subsequent biofuel that can be produced with its oil is completely renewable – some algae variations are able to double their biomass in less than a day!
Carbon Dioxide Neutral
Algae biofuel is carbon neutral – although carbon dioxide is released when the fuel is burned, it’s the same amount that the algae absorbed to grow. In other words, its net impact in regards to emissions is the same as if it was never grown. For this reason, algae is estimated to have a greenhouse gas footprint that is 93% smaller than conventional petroleum-based diesel.
Efficient Land Use
Algae doesn’t need soil or freshwater to grow, nor is it restricted to certain seasons – it can exist in just about any environment or climate, as long as it has enough sunlight. Algae ponds and cultivation facilities are often located close to existing wastewater and pollution sources, feeding off of the otherwise unusable nitrates, phosphates and pollutants that are found in the waste.
Direct Petroleum Substitute
Some algae types can be refined with similar methods to those used for petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel), meaning the biofuel can act as a drop-in replacement for fuels already in circulation. In theory, it could start fueling our cars, machines, and jets from tomorrow, without any need to change or replace them.
Cons of Algae Biofuel
Water Intensive
Significant amounts of water are needed for optimum algae growth, much more than for other biofuel sources – to produce just one liter of the biodiesel requires at least 3.15 liters of water. It also has to be grown under controlled temperature conditions, which results in water loss through evaporation.
High Fertilizer Use
To produce the large amounts of algae needed to fuel the world requires lots of fertilizer – you’d need 15% of all the fertilizer produced in a year to meet the needs of just 5% of the US transportation market. There are several environmental issues that come with excessive fertilizer use which affect the net impact of algae biofuels; water pollution from run-off, production-related carbon emissions, and dependency on an increasingly scarce resource, phosphorus.
High Cost
Research and development of algae as a fuel source is still fairly new, so the cost to produce it is currently far more than fossil fuel-based alternatives. In 2009, introductory prices were around the $33 per gallon mark – realistically if it wants to compete with oil, algae biofuel will need to cost less than $3 per gallon. The field has since seen technological developments which have improved efficiencies and brought costs down but these processes are yet to be perfected.
Market Opportunity
So what does the future of the algal biofuel industry look like? According to a new report, the global market size is expected to reach USD $10.73 billion by 2025, an enormous opportunity also identified by Andrew Wills, Director of Finance for Manta Biofuel. Andrew told Greenly.co that “the global crude oil market is nearly $2 trillion. Within that, our beachhead market is heating oil, which represents a $10 billion opportunity”.
Increasingly scarce fossil fuels and greater awareness about the importance of sustaining our natural environment are at the heart of this projected industry growth, as well as big pushes in R&D by startups, oil and gas majors, and university-led research consortiums. However limitations are to be expected. Regarding barriers to adoption, Wills says, “I think the main risk is adoption by refineries. Because a refinery is so complex and represents a large capital investment, operators are highly risk averse.
Fortunately, we have the ability to go directly to the end user in both the heating oil and heavy oil markets. This allows us to build a multi-billion dollar business while we work with entrenched players and educate them on the benefits of our product. Other than that, we have validated that our system works, and we now just need to scale, which requires execution and a bit of capital”. The market is expected to oversee regional partnerships and collaborations to facilitate the production and technology exchange necessary for this scaling up.
So will we be driving algae-fueled cars in the future? It’s certainly possible, but more research and funding will be needed before we can power our vehicles with pond scum.
