There has been a lot of talk about companies using corn to produce biofuels, but don’t paint Aurora Biofuels with that brush. The company offers an attractive alternative: converting carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into biodiesel while growing in seawater. The company is using a genetically modified algae developed at the University of California at Berkeley to efficiently produce biodiesel using CO2 as a feedstock. Aurora claims that the technology, developed by microbial biology professor Tasios Melis, can create biodiesel fuel with yields that are 125 times higher and cost 50 percent lower than current production methods. One can only wonder if those higher returns are based on somewhat modest benchmark production data.
However, Aurora’s recent announcement that it has completed an 18-month demonstration of its process for making biodiesel is definitely worth paying attention to, and that it could also produce this biodiesel for an estimated $ 50 per barrel at scale. That would be very attractive. And new Aurora CEO Robert Walsh, a recent senior production executive at Shell Oil Company, is focused on developing a first commercial-scale 50-acre pond system for Aurora algae that will produce 300,000 gallons per year of biodiesel by 2012. According to Aurora, its specialty algae can use CO2 waste from electrical services, cement plants and the like, converting 40 pounds. of CO2 in a gallon of biodiesel fuel with an energy content of 130-140,000 Btu / gal. And get this! According to the company, the CO2 used in the system does not have to be cleaned. In fact, the toxic gases NOx (nitrous oxides) and SOx (sulfur oxides) are actually nutrients that enhance algae growth.
By name, you might think the company is located in Colorado, but the headquarters are in Alameda, California, with some operations in Florida. According to the company’s website, sponsors include Gabriel Venture Partners, Noventi, Oak Investment Partners (and angel investors include Auttomatic CEO Toni Schneider). So far no partners have been announced and don’t ask about income, there aren’t any yet. Aurora seems to have a large engineering component as part of its production technology, which is probably a very good thing. With all the algae players out there right now, the competition between them will be interesting to watch.
