from Riggs Eckelberry's New Energy
Monsanto and Sapphire: It’s In Their Genes
Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:42 PM PST
Monsanto is taking a stake in algae startup Sapphire Energy. Why? It’s all in the genes, according to Fast Company:
Monsanto, the often-vilified agriculture giant, has made a deal that could actually do some good for sustainable development: The company this week formed a partnership with and made an equity investment in algae fuel startup Sapphire Energy (no word on the terms of the arrangement). What’s going on?
Sapphire’s main research is in what it calls “green crude,” or an algae-based liquid that can be turned into diesel, gas, and jet fuel. Monsanto doesn’t care about this; it’s interest is in Sapphire’s genetic research. The startup’s genetic technology will be leveraged by Monsanto to isolate traits in algae (i.e. crop yield and performance) that could be applied to to corn, cotton, soybean, and other crops sold by Monsanto.
This will bring algae more into the cross-hairs of the anti-genetic engineering forces and Monsanto isn’t specifically backing algae-to-oil. However, sometimes big investment and enhanced credibility are where you find them. And greater credibility helps the entire algae industry.
UCLA Puts Algae On A High-Protein Diet
Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:03 PM PST
UCLA researchers have developed a protein-based feedstock for algae-based fuel, a potential huge change over conventional lipid-based chemistry. They tell Biodiesel Magazine:
“Basically,” he said, “we’ve developed a technology that can use protein as a raw material for a biorefinery, and for making biofuels.”
The way people are currently utilizing algae, Liao said, is by artificially starving the algae to induce the strains to produce lipids, which will eventually be extracted and used as oil for biofuels.
In this process, Liao explained, the algae species become sick and don’t grow as well or as fast as they otherwise may. “We reasoned that if we could use proteins as a resource instead of lipids,” he said, “we could bypass many of these difficulties.”
The team says they have solved the challenges associated with nitrogen and protein, but it makes the process significantly more complex.
This could be one of several methods that are eventually part of large-scale production, or perhaps it won’t pan out. As noted yesterday, we need more research and investment to grow the algae industry as quickly as consumers should demand.
