Have you ever heard of algae that can be refined and used as a form of fuel? Good news for all of us. The Start-up Sapphire dug answers that the plant-like organism’s usage will be practical for public in starting up the car engines.
Sapphire has proclaimed that the “green crude” chemically derived from algae is a liquid fuel identical to gasoline properties but not dependent either from a food source or land for agriculture. The company assures it would be “carbon neutral” which generally have no effects in global warming. Despite the fact vehicles that use fuel will give out carbon, producing green crude involves getting carbon dioxide back from the sky as it will put back in.
Sapphire has proclaimed that the “green crude” chemically derived from algae is a liquid fuel identical to gasoline properties but not dependent either from a food source or land for agriculture. The company assures it would be “carbon neutral” which generally have no effects in global warming. Despite the fact vehicles that use fuel will give out carbon, producing green crude involves getting carbon dioxide back from the sky as it will put back in.
The main office of Sapphire in San Diego mentions to make its fuel converted from algae, salt water, carbon dioxide and light rays of the sun. According to CEO Jason Pyle, the use of this method whether it will work or not is not yet certain but the company pointed out since May of 2007 is able to create 91 octane gasolines and still under further studies at company’s industrial plant.
Pyle, interviewed by Forbes.com, said, "we created a process that relies on photosynthesis. It absorbs CO2 to produce a carbon molecule." He has been involved in other research and has knowledge about biotechnology, engineering and physics. He also mentioned “we believe we’re setting the benchmark for an entire new industry.”
There are other alternative fuel companies like Solazyme of South San Francisco in California, are using algae to manufacture biodiesel. Biodiesel like ethanol cannot be transported in existing pipelines because it draws water. Other disadvantage of both ethanol and biodiesel is having lower energy concentration than conventional gasoline and diesel fuels. Pyle emphasized their company’s crude has the same energy concentration like gasoline which can also be transported in existing pipelines and the method of creation is the same with gasoline and diesel. Amyris Biotechnologies of Emeryville in California made a public statement with regards to in creating a diesel fuel chemically identical to conventional gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. They will create a diesel fuel in Brazil derived from sugarcane, with a tentative date of production in 2010.
However, the Sapphire’s technology can surpass what Amyris attained, because green crude is not reliant on a food source as its fuel. Pyle noted, “agricultural land is of limited supply. We have a huge amount of land that is completely non-agricultural that we can use, desert land,” The CEO aspire to create 10,000 barrels a day in their refineries on desert that may be located in southwestern and southern US.
Granted with $50 million from companies like ARCH Venture Partners and Venrock including Wellcome Trust of the UK, the Sapphire has been working on something in Oklahoma but not yet reveal where the first building will be put. The company estimated that it will be in operations in three years time.
Sapphire has gained help form US Dept. of Energy’s Joint Genome; the University of California, San Diego; the Scripps Research Institute; and the University of Tulsa. Robert Nelsen, managing director at ARCH Venture Partners said, "almost every other [alternative fuel company] out there is a refiner…they are taking something and refining it. We are producing something."
For the past several years, Nelsen and Pyle considered that even though there are presence of biodiesel as an alternative, it still cannot affect more than a percent of the conventional fuel they consume every year in the US. Nelsen said, "when we started this company, we wanted to create a whole new category that didn't have a set of constraints preventing it from growing to a large scale. We're not against Amyris or any of these companies ... they will see success in their niches." He added, "we wanted to find something that you could scale infinitely."
ARCH and Sapphire are aiming to change the percentage of how their green crude supplies the whole world annually, they are hoping for a more than 1% change affecting the traditional gasoline. Nelsen said, “we've talked to people in the oil industry who've said, 'This is the first thing I've seen that can change the game,'". He also pointed out about bringing their new innovation to the whole new level.
