A new energy frontier

EcoVersity's Alfonz Viszolay sees algae as fuel of the future

Gregory J. Pleshaw | For The New Mexican

11/28/2008 - 11/20/08

In one of the many outbuildings that live on EcoVersity's main campus on Agua Fría Street, a strange contraption comprised of tubes, flasks, stoppers and presses sits near a windowsill looking for all the world like a science-fair project aiming to win first prize. Built by engineer and inventor Alfonz Viszolay and a handful of high-school students, this is the Algae Machine. And its promise is that it can offer a harvest of both food — in the form of the algae-based spirulina food supplement — and fuel — in the form of algae oil.

"The vision is to educate kids about how cheaply we can turn algae into food and fuel," said Viszolay. "The kids we've worked with have been great. They've taken to the technology and the process of the Algae Machine and really learned how it all works."

Here's how it works. In the back of the machine, there are green tubes filled with water and organic materials such as corn husks. These tubes collect sunlight from outside the window and through photosynthesis, break down the material into algae. From there, the algae moves into a glass container flask called a Reactor Vessel, where carbon dioxide (CO2) is added to the mixture to promote the growth of the algae. The algae is then pushed through a series of filters and finally into a press which squeezes the algae into its two byproducts — spirulina cake (food), and algae oil (fuel). The cake is then collected where it could be used to feed both animals and humans, while the oil is collected and can be used for many functions, including as a kind of biofuel for combustion engines.

According to Viszolay, who has been working on versions of the machine since the late 1970s, the machine has the potential to be an at-home generator of both food and fuel.

"So far, this particular machine's output isn't used for anything," said Viszolay. "Eventually we hope to build some other machines for businesses so that they can generate their own algae fuel."

One such business is the Santa Fe Brewing Company, which already has a vehicle run on vegetable oil.

"We're hoping to start building an algae generator that will capture the CO2 that we already generate in the process of brewing our beer to help promote the growth of algae," said Brian Lock, owner of the Santa Fe Brewing Company. "It's already there and we might as well use it to help fuel our vehicles as well as to provide an additional demonstration of the feasibility of this technology for businesses."

Harvesting algae for fuel is not a new idea. In fact, between 1978 and 1996, the U.S. Department of Energy conducted an 18-year study of algae as a fuel but concluded that algae could never compete with fossil fuels based on the 1996 price of oil, a mere $20 a barrel. Lately, with the price of oil zooming to more than $100, harvesting algae for fuel has made a comeback.

One reason has to do with the efficiency of the yields of algae as opposed to the yields of more traditional biofuel crops. Because of the speed of harvest and the relatively small amount of space needed to grow it, algae has a much greater efficiency as a biofuel than "in-ground" vegetables like corn.

"The problem with corn is that you have to plow the field, fertilize it, harvest only once per year, then grind it, ferment it and then distill it in order to create your fuel," said Vizsolay. "From an acre of corn, you only get 50 gallons of ethanol and then 90 percent of the corn gets thrown away as waste."

By contrast, the one-acre yield of algae is estimated to be at 5,000 gallons per acre per year, but with the additional advantage of continual harvesting since algae matures so quickly.

"We could be completely free of dependence on foreign oil were we to dedicate a piece of land the size of New Mexico to the growth of algae," said Viszolay.

Nationwide, there are more than a dozen companies actively engaged in harvesting algae for commercial fuel uses. These companies would include San Diego-based Sapphire Energy, who rocked the investment world in September when they received a large round of funding from Bill Gates' investment firm Cascade Investment. Sapphire Energy's future plans include building a facility in Las Cruces.

Locally speaking, at least one company is involved in the harvesting of algae as fuel and is utilizing space at EcoVersity to do so. Eldorado Biofuels is an independent private company that was established to explore the possibilities of algae production.

"We feel that the yield of algae could be potentially fruitful, and we would like to ramp out deploying algae as a fuel as soon as possible," said Charles Bensinger, director of Eldorado Biofuels.

"New Mexico is an ideal place for algae production, given its large amount of open-space and lots of sunlight," said Bensinger. "What algae production provides is the ability to get much higher yields from organic material versus using traditional crops like corn, which have substantially lower yields. Add to that the ability to recycle water, sequester CO2, and also to create a high-protein byproduct that could be used to feed both animals and humans and you've got a product that provides a variety of solutions with one process."

For now, EcoVersity's Algae Machine exists only as a demonstration model. For inventor Alfonse Vizsolay, the emphasis of his project still lies with education and doing what he can to ensure that people understand there are solutions to our current energy crisis.

Energy solutions are gearing up to be one of EcoVersity's most valuable exports and legacies. In addition to the Algae Machine, EcoVersityss on-site energy demonstration park includes solar panels, a large parabolic mirror for generating heat energy and various wind generators. In an old adobe building that once served the school as a chicken coop, a series of strange machines salvaged from the black hole of Los Alamos monitor the progress of the energy farm, including that of the Algae Machine.

"Since we started this project, we've have seen more people starting to grow algae, both for fun and potential profit," said Vizsolay. "I've been working on this particular model since 1979 and this kind of thing can't be kept by one person. It has to be shared."

Greg Pleshaw can be reached at gregoryptm@gmail.com.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Oilgae, a clearing house of information about algae-based fuels: www.oilgae.com/

• Alfonz Vizsolay and students explain the working of the Algae Machine: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWIxDPl88ZU

• 15 Algae biofuels start-ups to watch: www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/15-algae-biofuels-energy.php

• Algae fuels: "The ultimate in renewable energy": www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/01/algae.oil/index.html