Jet stream in green
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Researchers at NREL are working on a way to use green algae to produce hydrogen directly from water and sunlight for use in fuel cells. Photo by Jack Dempsey. Courtesy of NREL.
Aviation’s problems stand out in sharp profile. Fuel in 2006 became the single largest expense for airlines. Aviation more broadly has been criticized for its high levels of consumption and emissions. Questions are being asked at shareholder meetings about the carbon footprints of executive travel. A 2004 study conducted by Aspen’s city government concluded that commercial and private air travel together were responsible for 41 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Business jets are being seen as the ultimate narcissistic gas-guzzling Hummer in the sky. Consider the congressional ridicule heaped on the chief executives of Detroit’s three major auto manufacturers when they individually flew in corporate jets to Washington, D.C., to plead for financial assistance. The aviation industry is responding. Richard Branson, the flamboyant entrepreneur of Virgin Atlantic Airways, has staked $400 million in venture capital to seed renewable fuels and other efforts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The International Air Transport Association, which represents 93 percent of the world’s carriers, has set a goal of drawing 10 percent of its fuel from renewable sources by 2017. Continental Airlines in January flew a Boeing 737 partially using biofuels. Virgin flew a Boeing 747 from London to Amsterdam partially fueled by coconut oil.
Such efforts are viewed skeptically by some industry observers. Aviation critic Jeff Gazzard pointed out to Wired.com that 3 million coconuts would have been necessary to fully power Virgin’s short flight. Evergreen-based aviation consultant Mike Boyd dismisses much of aviation’s response, including a January conference devoted to “eco-aviation,” as little more than a publicity stunt to avoid government regulation.
Colorado companies clustered along the Front Range hope to be part of the answer to alternative fuels. ZeaChem is a company in Lakewood that claims a breakthrough in developing a cellulose-based biorefinery platform. Gevo Inc., a biofuels company based in Englewood, has received funding from major venture capital firms. Blue Sun Biodiesel is based in Golden. ConocoPhillips is setting up its research shop in Broomfield.
Broomfield-based Range Fuels last year got $166 million in venture capital, among the largest investments in biofuels in the nation. Fort Collins-based Solix Biofuels got $10.5 million to build an algae farm on Southern Ute Indian land near Durango. The climate and mountains are an attraction. So is the proximity of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which evaluates emerging technology and is developing technology itself, and other federal laboratories. There is also synergy, and sometimes collaboration, with the several universities, particularly Colorado State University, the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Colorado.
Most of the newer companies are involved with biofuels. The largest recipient of venture capital last year, at $437 million, was cellulosic ethanol, which uses such plants as switchgrass. Microalgae was second, with $175.9 million, up from $32 million in venture capital the prior year. One of those local firms is a Boulder-based company called algae@work (A2BE Carbon Capture LLC). Jeff Mettais, the firm‘s vice president of strategic business development, says the U.S. Department of Defense, as the single largest consumer of jet fuel on the planet, and airlines both are driving the interest in algae.
“These airlines are extremely motivated to burn as little carbon fuel as they can, for a lot of reasons, and not just public relations,” Mettais says. “Unlike some plants used to create biofuels, algae does not require vast amounts of land. It also requires very little water. What algae does well is convert sunlight into energy.” Algae seems to lack any real technological showstoppers. What is absent is large-scale production and steady prices to justify that production. Oil prices have swung between $25 a barrel and $148 per barrel in the last year, but even at the higher price algae cannot yet compete. What algae@work hopes to do is sell algae for multiple purposes: for fuel, for bioprotein, and also as a means of absorbing carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas. It is produced by burning coal, natural gas and other fossil fuels.
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