{"id":1227,"date":"2009-10-03T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-03T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oilgae.com\/blog\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2009-10-03T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-03T06:30:00","slug":"houston-startup-company-produces-crude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/houston-startup-company-produces-crude.html","title":{"rendered":"Houston Startup Company Produces Crude Bio-Oil from Algae"},"content":{"rendered":"

You are at: Oilgae Blog<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

Press Release:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunrise Ridge Algae announced today that it has produced and tested a one liter sample of crude bio-oil from algae. \u00a0 The bio-oil appears suitable for use as a refinery feedstock, where it would be processed to become diesel, jet fuel and gasoline.\u00a0 The company is working with a large refiner and refining technology licensor for further testing, and is developing plans to scale up to commercial size.\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Algae-derived\u00a0 bio-oil is seen by many industry experts as a high-potential \u201cthird generation\u201d renewable fuel.\u00a0 Algae grows quickly, and can be grown using brackish water or wastewater. \u00a0Unlike corn-derived ethanol, algae-derived biofuels do not compete with food.\u00a0 \u00a0Large investors, including the Department of Energy and several major petroleum companies, have directed hundreds of millions of dollars into research in this area.\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sunrise Ridge Algae used its patent-pending catalytic thermolysis process for converting low-lipid algae to crude oil with high yields.\u00a0 Lipids are naturally occurring vegetable oils.\u00a0 The process starts with algae containing only 4% lipid \u2013 typical of most algae grown at large scale or in open ponds.\u00a0 In the process, the whole algae biomass was converted to crude oil using moderate temperatures and a specialized catalyst.\u00a0 The bio-oil yield was approximately 25% of the original algae \u2013 far larger than the original lipid content.\u00a0 Other algae-to-fuel processes are limited to extracting only the original lipid content.\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sunrise Ridge Algae\u2019s CEO, Norman Whitton, said, \u201cAfter more than three years of research and development, we have achieved a major milestone by producing sample quantities of crude bio-oil from algae.\u00a0 Our process is surprisingly efficient, and we plan to move rapidly to demonstration scale-up at a site in Texas<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>.\u201d\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Whitton, 49, started the company after a career in petroleum and management consulting.\u00a0 He has been involved in four other startups.\u00a0 Whitton also serves as the co-Chair of the Greater Houston Partnership\u2019s Biofuels Task Force.\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Whitton elaborated, \u201cOne of the main challenges in the current algae-to-fuels industry is that it is difficult to continuously grow algae with high lipid content, at large scale.\u00a0 On the other hand, it is easy to grow low-lipid algae.\u00a0 Previously, the industry required 20% or more lipid content for economic operation.\u00a0 Now, with our process, we can use algae with only 4% lipid.\u00a0 It is much more readily available and cheaper to grow.\u00a0 And, the overall economics for production of renewable fuels are much improved.\u201d\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The algae oil, which the company calls \u201cbioleum,\u201d appears suitable to displace crude petroleum in existing refineries. The company has delivered samples to a major petroleum company and a refining technology licensor, where they are currently being tested.\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dr. Robert Weber, the company\u2019s Chief Technology Officer, provided more detail on the conversion process.\u00a0 \u201cWe actually chemically convert the whole algae \u2013 we are not just extracting the lipids.\u00a0 That is key to our high yields.\u201d\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The product is a heavy crude oil, similar to vacuum gas oil (a heavy intermediate in the refining process).\u00a0 It does not contain triglycerides, which are the main components of vegetable oil. David Griffith, Senior Vice President for Licensing and Ventures for the company and former employee of ConocoPhillips, said \u201cBioleum looks something like heavy Venezuelan crude oil that is run routinely in Gulf<\/st1:PlaceType> Coast<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place>\u00a0 refineries today.\u201d \u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The bioleum has a sulfur content of only 0.22%, much less than the 2-4% sulfur in a typical Venezuelan crude oil.\u00a0 On the other hand, the bioleum contains about 4% nitrogen, and the company is currently examining options to reduce this level.\u00a0 Griffith<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> also noted that the oil contains less than 2 ppm phosphorus, which is fully acceptable for refinery processing.\u00a0 \u201cSome other crude vegetable oils contain much higher phosphorus levels, which makes them hard to process in a petroleum refinery.\u201d\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Algae-derived bioleum is superior to pyrolysis oil from wood.\u00a0 For example, the heating value of Sunrise Ridge Algae\u2019s bioleum is 38 MJ\/kg, which is similar to diesel fuel (42 MJ\/kg), and almost double the value for wood pyrolysis oil which is typically around 20 MJ\/kg.\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Weber elaborated, \u201cOur process is highly efficient.\u00a0 The catalyzed thermolysis keeps almost all of the algae\u2019s original energy content in our products.\u00a0 About half of the incoming heating value in the raw algae is converted to crude bioleum.\u00a0 Another third is converted to a char that could displace coal.\u00a0 Only about 10-15% is lost in the process.\u00a0 We also operate at moderate temperatures, so we can use waste heat from third party industrial processes to operate our unit.\u00a0 And, because we start with whole algae, we obviate the need for lysing and extraction, which are expensive steps used in other algae-to-fuel processes.\u201d\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sunrise Ridge was founded in Houston<\/st1:City> in 2006 and has algae-growing operations in Austin<\/st1:City>, Texas<\/st1:State>, at the City of Austin<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>\u2019s Hornsby Bend wastewater sludge treatment plant.\u00a0 The company has demonstrated that algae can remove nutrient pollutants from the waste water.\u00a0 Nutrient pollutants cause harmful anoxic zones that kill sea life in the ocean.\u00a0 Reduction of these pollutants will be increasingly important as new 2012 wastewater standards phase in. Algae also consume carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that has been implicated in climate change.\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The company is working to integrate wastewater treatment, carbon dioxide consumption and bio-oil production to create a highly efficient process for cleaning up pollution while generating revenues from bioleum sales.\u00a0 This process may be interesting to municipal utilities, industrial companies and agricultural firms, since it helps solve many of their pollution issues.\u00a0 At the same time, the bioleum can help reduce the amount of imported oil and reduce dependence on foreign oil sources.\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sunrise Ridge Algae is a client of the Houston Technology Center (HTC), in the Energy program. About 60 other companies currently participate in the program. \u00a0HTC is a business accelerator and <\/a>the largest technology business incubator in Texas<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>.\u00a0 HTC was founded to accelerate the commercialization of emerging technology companies in the greater Houston<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>\u00a0 area by providing in-depth business guidance, access to capital and service providers, and entrepreneurial education.\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In 2008, Sunrise Ridge Algae received an investment by the State of Texas Emerging Technology Fund<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>.\u00a0 The company has also received substantial seed capital from its founders, and has obtained further revenues from federal and private research contracts.\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sunrise Ridge Algae has collaborated in leading algae industry research with Texas<\/st1:State> institutions, and continues to work closely with experts including Dr. Jerry Brand, Director of the UTEX Culture Collection of Algae at the University<\/st1:PlaceType> of Texas<\/st1:PlaceName> at Austin<\/st1:City>, and Dr. Mike Harold, Director of the Texas Diesel Testing and Research<\/st1:PlaceName> Center<\/st1:PlaceType> at the University<\/st1:PlaceType> of Houston<\/st1:PlaceName><\/st1:place>.\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

For more information, please contact:\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Norman Whitton<\/p>\n

Sunrise Ridge Algae Inc.<\/p>\n

norm.whitton@sunrise-ridge.com<\/a><\/p>\n

832-782-0362 \u00a0\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

company website at http:\/\/www.sunrise-ridge.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

By the way, have you subscribed to the Oilgae Blog?<\/a>; How about joining the Oilgae mailing list?<\/a>; and our forum to discuss on with others<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You are at: Oilgae Blog. Press Release: Sunrise Ridge Algae announced today that it has produced and tested a one liter sample of crude bio-oil from algae. \u00a0 The bio-oil appears suitable for use as a refinery feedstock, where it would be processed to become diesel, jet fuel and gasoline.\u00a0 The company is working with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-algae-energy-companies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oilgae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}