Emma Valdez, a Sapphire Energy technician, holds a petri dish with 1 million algae cells. Algae is grown and scaled up to 20-liter containers in about one week.

With more and more cars on roadways worldwide – and fossil fuel supplies running low, can renewable fuels really replace crude oil?

In Nebraska, the alternative of choice is ethanol because corn is the mainstay of our economy.  But corn, along with many other crops, takes lots of land…and huge amounts of water.  As important as it is to Nebraska, ethanol, at best, is a 10% additive, not a future fuel in its own right.

So what’s a real alternative?  Research shows one promising alternative seems the least obvious – algae (see QUEST Nebraska: Algae for Fuel).

Algae is a microscopic plant-like marine organism.  There are billions of them in our world, and they exist all around us.  Algae are found in ponds, lakes, streams – all types of bodies of water…even in your bathtub if it’s not cleaned regularly.

It’s green and a bit slimy to the touch.  For the most part, we avoid contact with algae – but it just may be the key to our energy future.  How’s that?  Companies like Sapphire Energy in San Diego, CA are working with universities, including the University of Nebraska to make microscopic algae into the fuel for the future.

Algae conjures up thoughts about Soylent Green, the 1973 sci-fi movie thriller that depicts human survival dependent upon on a green food ration made of “high protein plankton.”  Algae are a type of plankton.

SPOILER ALERT:  Do not read the next sentence if you’ve never seen this movie.   

But there was more to the content of Soylent Green.  Charlton Heston solves the riddle with a horrific warning:  Soylent Green is PEOPLE!

Remember when I said algae are slimy?  There’s a reason for that.  If Charlton Heston was warning us, he’d exclaim: Algae is OIL!  Not exactly – but oil we use for our fuel today is actually made from ancient, ancient algae.

“Each algae contains up to 50% oil,” says University of Nebraska-Lincoln biologist George Oyler.  Over millions of years, billions of algae die, collect, and over time are chemically altered through pressure and heat that converts algae oil into “crude oil” which we seek and drill for to energize our world.  Finding a way to convert algae into oil faster than nature would create an almost endless supply of oil.  “We want to accelerate that process into a single year.” 

In 2009, a QUEST video Algae Power, surveyed algae biofuel as a grand experiment, “not ready for prime time.”  The problem was scaling up to industrial production.  Now, Sapphire Energy is leading the way towards industrial production.  It’s no longer a survey experiment.

The process begins as Sapphire technician Emma Valdez swipes a metal loop over an algae filled petri plate (culture dish) and transfers cells to a new plate. “Algae is one of the fastest growing plant on the planet.  This plate contains millions of algae cells.  I can take this plate and make multiple copies.”  Pointing to a stack of petri dishes, she explains that these plates are added to water to make a dense culture, giving rise to 20-liter glass carboy containers.  “I can grow this to scale in a little over a week.”

The carboy containers are then added to long oval test pools in a greenhouse, creating larger concentrations of promising algae species.

Growing algae outdoors is a huge challenge.  But that’s exactly Sapphire’s goal – creating algae farms.  But algae is a wild plant.  “No one’s taken a wild plant and just grown it to scale,” says Mike Mendez, Sapphire’s former VP of Technology (now a research professor at UC-San Diego).  “Algae isn’t an industry.  It’s a commodity, like corn.  We have to think like a farmer and grow algae as a crop.” 

But plants like corn haven’t become crops overnight.  Mendez says, “It took 7,000 years to get corn where it is today.  I’m gonna have to do whatever it takes to speed up the process.”  Sapphire wants to plant, harvest and process algae oil in real time.

Algae ponds at Sapphire Energy's test farm in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

So, Sapphire has created a 20-acre aquatic test farm in arid Las Cruces, New Mexico.  Why here?  New Mexico has an abundance of sunlight and a rich supply of salt water beneath the dry sands that can’t be used for farming or drinking, but is perfect for growing algae.  Nonetheless, the algae has to survive stress, disease, summer heat and winter freeze.  For two years, scientists and technicians have been successful in scaling up algae from the carboys to 40-foot, then 100-foot, and finally 300-foot oval ponds.

Once the algae mature in the ponds, it’s sent to an industrial centrifuge that separates the algae from the water, creating a thick algae paste. That paste is fed into a test pilot extractor that uses eco-friendly solvents to crack open the algae cells and release oil – green crude.

Sapphire will soon open a 300-acre in 2012.  It will be the largest algae biofuel test plant in the nation.  They expect to produce 1 million gallons of algae biofuel per year – an industry record.  Once Sapphire can create even larger quantities of green crude, they believe the cost of creating an algae fuel will begin approaching the cost of oil.  Stay tuned to see if their plan creates a viable renewable fuel for our future.

Thousands of red abalone washed up on the Sonoma coast after a phytoplankton bloom turned the waters red—and toxic. Photo: loarie.

About a month ago, thousands of abalone and other invertebrates washed up along the Sonoma coast, killed by what people thought was probably a red tide, a.k.a. a harmful algal bloom. Phytoplankton—photosynthetic organisms like algae and bacteria—can multiply in number, turning the water red with their bright-colored cells and wreaking havoc on marine organisms. An interdisciplinary team of researchers banded together to find out what was going on along the Sonoma coast. Within a few weeks, they’d figured it out: sure enough, it was a red tide.

This was the first time a red tide had widespread impact on wildlife along the coast of California. From Bodega Bay to Salt Point, 50 miles north, invertebrates like abalone, urchins, and gumboot chitons were affected by the red tide. I talked with Laura Rogers-Bennett, Senior Biologist Specialist with the California Department of Fish and Game and the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center, who did surveys to quantify the extent of the damage. She and her colleagues surveyed several sites and found a lot of dead abalone. At Fort Ross, 30% of the abalone had died. At Salt Point, abalone mortality was 12%, and at Timber Cove, mortality was 25%. They took tissue samples from abalone and other invertebrates, and they conducted underwater surveys to look at the geographic distribution of affected organisms.

Red tides can kill marine life in two ways. The first way is by depleting the oxygen in the water, during the algal bloom and during the subsequent die-off and decomposition of the phytoplankton. With low levels of oxygen in the water, marine life suffocates. Red tide events that kill through oxygen depletion have particular characteristics. They are usually small and localized—the size of a large living room, says Rogers-Bennett. They often occur in areas with very little water movement, like the back of coves, and they affect all the organisms in the area, including the fish, which either die or swim away. Recent underwater surveys indicated that this red tide was not killing via oxygen depletion. For one, the area affected was far larger than a living room. And the red tide affected organisms in multiple patches, some of which were in very exposed areas, not just the still backwaters of coves. Plus, the fish did not seem to be affected. Because of this evidence, scientists suspected the phytoplankton bloom was releasing a biotoxin.

To identify the biotoxin, the researchers sent water and tissue samples to Rita Horner at the University of Washington and David Crane at Fish and Game’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response. They determined that the most abundant phytoplankton species was a dinoflagellate called Gonyaulax spinifera, which releases a toxin called a Yessotoxin. However, the dinoflagellate and the toxin are poorly understood, says Rogers-Bennett. Yessotoxin was present in very low amounts—about one part per billion—and we don’t know how much toxin must be present for an organism to suffer ill effects. So we don’t know for sure whether Gonyaulax spinifera and its Yessotoxin are responsible for the death of the invertebrates, or whether the true guilty party is some other, unidentified toxin. Rogers-Bennett and her colleagues are seeking funding to do additional tests of the Yessotoxin, its toxicity, and its effects on the invertebrates.

Studying this red tide is a team effort, involving researchers from UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, Sonoma State, the California Department of Public Health, and NOAA. Researchers have done bird surveys, which indicate that the toxin is not moving throughout the food web. And they’ve tested for toxins that affect humans, but thankfully none present. Next, researchers plan to look at archived satellite images of the red tide to see how it moved throughout the area, and they want to do more extensive subtidal surveys, to learn more about the geographic pattern of its effects.

Because of the recent mass mortality of abalone, the Fish and Game closed the Sonoma abalone fishery in September. Normally, recreational abalone collectors can take abalone from the coast through November, but because the population took a big hit, it needs some time to recover. Rogers-Bennett hopes that the fishery and its managers will keep this in mind as the next abalone season approaches in April. The abalone fishery is not a commercial fishery; it is illegal to buy and sell abalone.

There is now a new red tide off the Sonoma coast. This one, called Ceratium, is not toxic, but it is lending the water a brownish red hue. Recent conditions have been perfect for a red tide: calm water and abundant sunshine, thanks to fog-free days. The conditions preceding last month’s deadly red tide were similar. Globally, red tides are on the rise, because of warmer sea surface temperatures and an increase nutrient in coastal waters because of human activity. However, neither of these red tides is tied to warm surface waters or higher-than-usual nutrient input. The causes of these recent red tides remain a mystery.

Sometimes, the wind and the waves whip the ocean into a lather. And that word—lather—is a pretty accurate description of sea foam. Sea foam is made of dissolved organic matter, a substance that is so important in the world ocean that it gets its own acronym, DOM. DOM consists primarily of the broken-down bodies of phytoplankton, including microalgae and bacteria. Algal blooms, when they start to die off, create lots of DOM. In sea foam, the DOM acts like soap, creating small bubbles that float on the water.

Dissolved organic matter is full of proteins and lipids (plus lots of carbon, which we’ll get to later). The DOM molecules can act as surfactants, similar to soap and other detergents. The molecules have a hydrophilic end that sticks to water and repels oil, and a hydrophobic end that sticks to oil and repels water. The DOM decreases water’s surface tension and promotes the creation of bubbles as the water is stirred by wind and waves.

Big storms can create huge amounts of sea foam. In 2007, the area north of Sydney, Australia was dubbed the Cappuccino Coast, as foam engulfed 30 miles of shoreline. All this foam can obscure things like rocks and sea snakes, so foam frolickers should frolic with caution.

The best part about sea foam, in my opinion, is not these big foam events, but the fact that sea foam calls attention to dissolved organic matter. We rarely see it (it is dissolved, after all), and we rarely think about it, but DOM plays a massively important role on Earth. It is a key part of the marine food web, though it is hard to eat, because the particles are so tiny. Bacteria are some of the few organisms can eat DOM.

Also, the DOM in the ocean is one of Earth’s largest carbon reservoirs. DOM is produced in the upper ocean, where the phytoplankton and zooplankton live—DOM is made of the spilled contents of their bodies and their cells. The DOM that is not consumed at the surface gradually drifts downward in the water column; it can be found in the deepest parts of the ocean, albeit at lower concentrations than at the surface. As we continue to pump carbon dioxide into the air, some of this carbon ends up as DOM, and it travels slowly throughout the ocean. Next time you see sea foam, think of the dissolved particles of organic matter and the important role they play in the ocean.

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California's commercial shellfish growers say there's something fishy going on.

Another mysterious fish die-off happened in a southern California harbor last week. Scientists are still trying to figure out what caused six tons of sardines to go belly-up in Ventura. Just six weeks ago something similar happened off Newport Beach. Those sardines tested positive for a neurotoxin caused by algae blooms. Meanwhile, commercial shellfish growers say they’re noticing some strange patterns with the algae as well.

A "depressing" problem

Bernard Friedman grows oysters and mussels about a mile off the coast of Santa Barbara. But he says over the last couple years, he says, something has been happening in the water that makes what he does nearly impossible.

"It’s just so frequent now, it’s just sort of here we go again," he says, with a grim laugh. "It’s depressing."

Pseudonitzschia is the type of algae responsible for domoic acid, a neurotoxin.

Friedman’s problem is something called domoic acid. It's a neurotoxin that’s produced by a particular type of algae.

When Friedman's oysters and mussels get hit with a wave of domoic acid, he can’t harvest them, because the shellfish would make his customers sick. Friedman has nothing to sell. He says last year domoic acid cost his business about $30,000.

Friedman thinks of himself as a canary in the coal mine, because out there in the ocean, he tends to see problems first. But scientists, like Raphael Kudela, a professor ocean sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are noticing the same thing.

For the past eleven years, Kudela and his team have been driving down to the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf once a week, to take water samples. Those samples get put under a microscope at the lab, back on campus. The team keeps detailed records of the kinds and amounts of algae they find. (All of this data – along with some very nice photos – is available on their website.)

Listen to the QUEST radio story Toxic Algae on the Loose

"Because we measure every week," Kudela says, "we can watch the toxins coming and going and get a good idea of what’s going on in the water."

This kind of information is important because even though these toxins don’t seem to harm shellfish, they can make people very sick. A mild case of domoic acid can cause vomiting and diarrhea. At its worst: seizures and memory loss. Domoic acid also takes a big toll on sea lions. (Marin's Marine Mammal Center is on the frontlines of this problem.)

So the state takes toxic algae very seriously, with about 50 different testing sites up and down California’s coast. Kudela says this statewide monitoring program is the reason that no one has gotten seriously ill here from shellfish in over half a century, even though they have in other states like Louisiana.

These 2006 satellite images show algae blooms along the California coast. Red indicates high levels of chlorophyll; blue is low. This kind of data could one day help predict toxic algae events. (Credit: Yi Chao, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Fei Chai, U. Maine.)

An oceanic mystery

But recently, Kudela and others have noticed something rather curious.

Kudela says in the past, domoic acid levels were pretty predictable. "For a long time," he says, "it would come and go. It would be here in the Spring, then go away and come back in the Fall."

But about a year and a half ago, that pattern started to change. Kudela says over the last 13 months, pseudonitzchia, the algae that produces domoic acid, has been present in the water almost continuously.

"It's very unusual," says Kudela.

Because of this, and other strange algae patterns up and down the coast, California's Department of Public Health recently took an unusual step. Authorities issued their annual quarantine on sport-harvested mussels a month earlier than in normal years.

And this is not just a California problem. In fact, around the world, algae is growing in places it didn't used to, at different times of the year than in the past. And what everyone wants to know is: Why?

"As scientists, we want proof," says Kudela. "We want to be able to say it’s this and it's not that, and we can tell you why."

But when you’re talking about the entire ocean, he says, the biology is so complicated that it’s just incredibly hard to tease out causes and effects. Still, there are some theories.

One is that increasing amounts of sewage and agricultural waste are seeping into the ocean, making algae grow.

And then there's climate change. The ocean is clearly becoming more acidic, thanks to the increase in carbon dioxide. So it's not a stretch to wonder what effect warming temperatures could be having on algae.

"We know that if you warm the ocean," Kudela says, "some of these dangerous algae really love those conditions."

But scientists have only been sampling toxic algae for a few decades. Kudela says there's just not enough data to make a definitive link between the algae blooms and climate change.

"We see evidence for that," he says, "but people are very hesitant to say yes, that’s what’s happening."

Of course, all this speculation about causes isn’t much use to commercial harvesters, like Kevin Lunny, who runs Drakes Bay Oyster Company, out in Point Reyes. He says worrying about toxic algae is part of the job.

"Even when you're not thinking about, you need to be thinking about them a little."

Lunny's crew tests for toxins at least once a week, first the water, and the meat of the oysters, themselves. Last year, they had to recall an entire shipment.

"We had to verify that every single jar, bag of oysters, and account for every single one of them."

With a little warning

Sometimes, Lunny says he can see the ocean change color, which alerts him to the fact that an algae bloom has entered the bay. But this time, he had no warning at all.

Raphael Kudela, at Santa Cruz, says there should be a way to predict when these blooms are coming. By using computer modeling and satellite images, they should be able to give harvesters enough warning that they could pull their products early, before the toxins hit. But that technology is several years away.

Bernard Friedman, down in Santa Barbara, says he doesn’t think he can wait that long.

"What am I gonna do? I don’t know," he says. "I’m looking for another source of income."

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An image of a bioreactor being developed by OriginOil scientists.

Today’s episode of QUEST features our 10-minute TV story about efforts to produce biofuels from algae. In 1996, when the U.S. Department of Energy concluded its 25-year research project into the potential of algae as biofuels, its report concluded that the most cost-effective way to grow algae was in open ponds. With climate change and geopolitics prompting new research into the algae-as-fuel question, some companies are pursuing the open pond route, while others are looking into closed systems such as bioreactors. In our TV story we profile OriginOil, a Los Angeles-based company developing a bioreactor that looks like a miniature Christmas tree, complete with bright, colored lights. And we interview the CEO of Aurora Biofuels, a company based in the Bay Area city of Alameda, which is re-imagining open ponds, as well as trying to create strains of algae that are ideal for fuel production. Before becoming the CEO of Aurora Biofuels, Bob Walsh worked at the oil company Shell for 25 years. Here’s an excerpt of QUEST’s March, 2009, interview with Walsh, most of which didn't make it into the TV segment.

QUEST: What excited you about algae?

BOB WALSH: I ran oil products businesses for many years and understand the cost-competitiveness and the commodity basis of it. And what excited me about algae was, A, it’s renewable. B, you're using a feed stock of carbon dioxide, which is basically free. And finally, what excited me about this company, Aurora Biofuels, was the aspect of solving it end to end, not just the biotech (end of things), but also the engineering aspects.

Q: What has algae been grown for in ponds in the past?

WALSH: Algae’s been grown in open ponds for decades. And typically it’s been done with nutraceuticals – spirulina, which many people use as a protein pill. That is grown in open ponds, but not very cost-effectively because they haven’t had to be very cost-effective. They can charge $10 per pound.

Q: What would be the difference that you would be looking for in terms of cost-effectiveness, compared to what’s been done already?

WALSH: Historically, algae were just grown in an open pond and captured carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and the sun. What we’re actually doing is injecting the CO2 we recover from a steel mill or power plant, to give the algae food. And we’ve engineered it to get better mixing, so it grows more quickly. And then finally, rather than drying the algae out, we actually do a wet extraction of the oil, which is much more cost-effective than drying it as they have historically done for proteins.

Q: So what price would you be aiming for, and what price can the algae be grown for now?

WALSH: Oil today has been around $50 per barrel. We believe we need to be competitive in the $50-60 range. And that’s what our final target is. I think oil will be $60-100 over the next 10 to 15 years.

Q: What would the algae biofuels facility of the future look like?

WALSH: You’ll situate it very close to a CO2 source – a steel mill or a power plant. It will encompass several thousand acres of barren land – because you want dry, barren land – and use salt water. And it would produce roughly 120 million gallons a year of useable fuel into the existing infrastructure.

Q: Can algae fuel actually make a contribution to our transportation needs?

WALSH: Algae can be a player. It’s going to take a lot of different solutions because of the different climates and things that you need for it. It’s also a trillion-gallon market. And so it’s not going to happen tomorrow. But certainly algae can be a 5- to 10-percent player in ten years, in the marketplace.

Watch the Algae Power television story online.

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The biofuels we look at in this piece are primarily cellulose-based. Some of the researchers we talked with called the products they are designing, biopetrol because they are trying to mimic, synthetically, what petroleum does. The San Carlos start up, LS9, is making a biopetrol product. The hope of these researchers is to use plant matter, or biomass, to make a cellulosic biofuel that can be used in the existing petroleum infrastructure without needing to change pipelines, pumps at stations or gas tanks.

There are a number of California companies and research institutions working on developing advanced biofuels. The big, new academic center for research is the Joint Bio Energy Institute out of Emeryville.

As you will hear in this story, some are tinkering with microbes, others are trying to improve on current feedstocks.

Biofuels don’t have to come from traditional plants in the ground but can come from converting algae or trash into biodiesel. While that is not the focus of this story, we hope to take it up in the coming months.

You may listen to the "Designer Biofuels" radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.