By Bryan Walker
Posted on Aug. 19, 2009. Listed in:
New Zealand company Aquaflow, which I wrote about here on Celsias, has received praise from the US in an article in Yale Environment 360 describing a project to use the city of Minneapolis’s sewage as a feedstock for algae from which biofuel can be derived.
A University of Minnesota professor, Roger Ruan, is engaged in the research and speaks optimistically of its prospects. Early in the article comes this acknowledgement:
“Growing fuel-producing algae in waste is not Ruan’s idea alone. The concept drew international attention in 2006 when a startup in New Zealand called Aquaflow successfully harvested biofuel from open-air ponds at wastewater treatment plants.
The company expects to be able to produce the biofuel on a large scale, and recently attracted the attention of major players in the airline industry by announcing it had distilled a special blend that meets the technical specifications for jet fuel.
Aquaflow’s advances, combined with the Pentagon’s interest in biofuels as an alternative to conventional jetfuels, has sparked a flurry of academic and industrial research in the United States.”
Not bad for a small New Zealand operation, and an encouraging sign of how technologies can move rapidly from small beginnings to be widely adopted on scales which hold real promise for for a decarbonised future.
The Minneapolis project is not identical with Blenheim’s, though it has in common the use of nutrient-rich sewage as feedstock for the algae and the side benefit of clean wastewater.
Ruan does not rely on wild algae naturally occurring in open ponds as Aquaflow does, but has selected algae from the wild which have proved particularly suited to his operation. Nor does he work with open ponds, explaining that they pose difficulties in winter in northern climates.
Instead the algae are confined to indoor bioreactors well exposed to artificial and natural light and the sewage is passed through the reactors. The 30% yield of oil is higher than Aquaflow’s 5-10%, but the process is much more complex and capital intensive.
Aquaflow opted for its much simpler operation deliberately, judging the lower yield was offset by the simplicity. There will no doubt be lots of different approaches developed in different places, and some will prove more effective than others, but Aquaflow has clearly earned credit for its pioneering work.
Recent developments for Aquaflow include a combination of efforts with another South Island company Solray Energy on the conversion of the harvested algae into fuel. The process of converting the biomass to fuel is obviously a key factor in the effectiveness of using naturally occurring algae.
Solray has separately developed a reactor and extraction process to detoxify algae and deliver a crude oil and other co-products, with the oil capable of being refined as biofuel. It says it can convert all of the algae - not just the fatty acids - into the crude oil. Their new reactor can process several tonnes of harvested microalgae per day. It sounds a promising partnership.
And Aquaflow is reported on BusinessGreen as embarked on a fund-raising programme in Australia to attract financing for the first of up to 16 pilot plants to demonstrate its technology.
Aquaflow's units come in 40-feet containers, are deployed in remote locations without difficulty, and can be easily scaled. Director Nick Gerritson said "It's plug and play, we just plug into the existing infrastructure."
Discussions are taking place on a possible 16 projects over three continents, including talks with municipal authorities and with corporates seeking to develop low-carbon fuels.
When it comes to revenue streams the company explains that while its principal market is water remediation and the sale of recycled water it would also be able to charge for technology transfer fees, royalties, and the algae feedstock, green crude and other products that result from the process.
Its investor presentation includes forecast revenue of A$5.3m in 2010/11, rising to A$94.4m in 2014/15, with pre-tax profits forecast to jump from A$110,000 to A$33.2m over the same period. The forecasts include only the sale of its equipment and remediated water sales.
They don’t include revenue from the sale of green crude or from the generation of carbon credits.
There will possibly be a public offering within the next twelve months.
It’s an uncertain area, developing and launching new technologies. But an absolutely vital one if we’re to work through to a decarbonised economy. Aquaflow has earned at least our good wishes.
More great stories on Celsias:
Guarantee for Good Biofuel Moves Closer
