Japanese researcher hopes to make petrol from algae
As BP has been reminded in recent months in the Gulf of Mexico, our addiction to oil comes with some serious costs. There is pollution, environmental degradation and global warming – not to mention the security issue of an economy dependent on a tenuous and easily severed lifeline of transport and production infrastructure. Alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and nuclear all have serious downsides too, the most common being that they are difficult and expensive to scale up to oil’s level.
Prof. Makoto Watanabe of Tsukuba University thinks the answer lies with a humble freshwater blue-green algae. Botryococcus, common in Japanese lakes, excretes hydrocarbons as part of its natural life cycle. Like heavy oil from the ground, the algae oil can be broken down into all the familiar petrochemical products – petrol, jet fuel, naphtha, edible oils – using existing technology and refining equipment.
“Algae oil contains none of the contaminants, such as sulphur, that make oil so noxious, and producing it can consume more CO2 than it releases,” Watanabe noted, which makes it an effective carbon sink, and weapon against global warming. Using organic wastewater (sewage, for example) as the growth medium makes the process even more eco-friendly, and possible in the absence of light.
Watanabe is expanding his research, moving into a much bigger lab. An outdoor facility is being built, opening in September, to test ways of scaling up the technology; and his team is working on a low-cost photobioreactor for small-scale commercial production. Funding the programme are the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and a consortium of 13 companies, including oil company Idemitsu Kosan, Mitsubishi Chemical and Kikkoman (best known for soy sauce production).
Botryococcus-derived petrol
Watanabe’s research is generating a lot of interest among researchers and companies both in Japan and worldwide, especially in The Netherlands, the European leader in this field. Royal Dutch Shell, for example, is conducting a large study on algae-derived biofuels in Hawaii.
A lot of work still needs to be done, in particular to find ways to boost output from the current 118 metric tons of oil per hectare (Watanabe believes 1,000 tons is within reach). This will make it cost-competitive compared with petroleum, especially if crude prices continue to rise.
We could be pumping Botryococcus-derived petrol into our cars within ten years if everything goes according to plan and oil prices continue to rise, predicts Watanabe. Japan could replace its oil imports using algae grown on only half of the nation’s disused farmland. “My dream,” Watanabe said, “is for Japan to become an oil-exporting nation.”
And if a disaster happened, an algae spill would be much easier on the planet – and the bottom line.