Biofuel
| CEHMM Algae Project |
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The CEHMM algae project is a research and development endeavor investigating renewable fuels and a host of high-value co-products from the propagation, harvesting, and extraction of oil from algae. Use of algae as renewable fuel feedstock has great potential to make fuels and co-products complementary to petroleum diesel, thereby reducing American dependence
on foreign oil, reducing the impact of hazardous materials used in the petroleum industry, and reducing net global CO2 emissions. This project is a green energy project thereby supporting the national agenda of a clean and renewable source of energy.
CEHMM is located in Carlsbad, a small town in southeastern New Mexico near the original National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) project. CEHMM has built on the NREL research and has engineered crop management systems to grow algae in sufficient densities and lipid content for commercial demonstration.
Extracting oil from microalgae and crop protection have been the two greatest challenges to create a vertically integrated system for the production of algae oil. Commercial scale extraction technology has been installed at the CEHMM facility. In 2010, CEHMM became the world’s first fully integrated biorefinery with the capability to operate at more than 1000 gallons per day throughput. Additionally, CEHMM is the first in a fledgling algae industry to successfully implement proprietary crop protection technology at scale that ensures pure cultures of select species in an outdoor setting. The idea of full integration means that all facilities from cultivation through extraction are collocated on one centralized location.
CEHMM views the culture and harvest of algae as agriculture with the caveat there can be daily harvests rather than the single annual harvests of food crops. A demonstration confirms that half a pond can be harvested a week (6,000 gallons) with no deleterious impact on the viability and productivity of the culture.
Additional Biofuel Information: |
Starting in early 2006, CEHMM has grown a marine microalgae in outdoor raceway ponds and undertaken applied research on methods of
farming, harvesting, and extracting oil from algae. As a result of this work, CEHMM has developed a vertically integrated system that has been scaled up from lab and pilot scale to the early stages of commercial demonstration scale production. CEHMM is currently operating two 1/8th acre open raceway ponds and three 1/4th acre ponds with a maximum production capacity of nearly 1.4M liters of algal culture.
Since southeastern New Mexico has been identified as an ideal area for algae propagation, discoveries related to processes for harvesting and extraction of oil from algae have the potential to create a strong new industry for the region. This revolutionary approach to biofuel production will not compete with food sources and uses non-arable land and brine water that currently has no potable use. The CEHMM model is one that could be expanded into a commercial enterprise anywhere in the world where there is ample sunlight, warm temperatures and available land.