Environment

Deploying Next-Generation Integrated Biorefineries in the Philippines

The Poor World is too rich. Too rich in sewage, too rich in waste, too rich in "greenhouse" gasses, and too rich in human talent with too little to do. At Algae Systems, we believe we can turn those riches into resources.

Algae Systems is a new company with a big dream. They are developing a patented system that can transform municipal sewage and industrially-generated "greenhouse" gasses into petroleum-equivalent, carbon-negative diesel at currently competitive prices.

As if that were ambitious enough, they also believe they can do so without competing for any agricultural land or water. Indeed, when combined with an adjacent desalinization plants, they anticipate being able to provide drinking water at Poor World prices, using energy produced locally by the system.

Their low-temperature diesel production unit is further able to convert almost any biomass - trash, timbering slash, agricultural waste, even old tires - into an abundant and readily integrated source of high-BTU liquid fuel.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, their system is simple and can be built by semi-skilled labor using materials that are readily available and inexpensive. They believe they can create free-standing "engines of value" that will revitalize struggling economies, provide affordable local energy supplies, train and employ under-utilized workforces, and provide enormous opportunity to their own company and others they train and license.

Microalgae have been touted for decades as the biofuel feedstock of the future owing to their extraordinary capacity to convert sunlight into biomass. For example, soy, the most common American source of biodiesel yields approximately 50 gal/acre/year. In contrast, the Algae Systems solution may produce up to 9000 g/ac/yr! Moreover, algae can be grown at far less resource cost than other biofuels sources.

Algae Systems' algae growth containers are a lightweight, scalable and inexpensive sandwich of thermoplastic enclosures with small sections of semi-permeable membranes for gas exchange and dewatering. Floating on saline waters in bays and estuaries, the bags are filled with nutrient-rich municipal wastewater and the sealed enclosures will be inoculated with freshwater algae chosen to be best adapted to local conditions. Dewatering is done automatically by osmosis without energy cost.

The biomass generated is then fed into a unique integrated biorefinery, where a low-temperature, low-pressure catalytic depolymerization process turns it into real (ASTM D975) low-sulfur diesel. Unlike other biofuels, it requires no modification of existing engines and boasts an energy density identical to what is presently available at the pump.

Algae Systems came into being in early 2009 when a group of biofuels experts, algae biologists, Internet pioneers, and finance specialists encountered a team of scientists and engineers at NASA whose work on space toilets, the SETI program, and astrobiology had led them to a breakthrough algae generation scheme which had none of the drawbacks of water and land consumption, contamination, dewatering difficulty and engineering complexity currently bedeviling the dominant popular methods for growing large quantities of algae. The Apl Foundation is proud to be partnering with Algae Systems to be the first to bring these innovations to Asia.

Water Project in Mindanao

At the southern end of the Philippine archipelago lies Mindanao - a large island about the size of Greece, with a current population of about 18 million.
Mindanao, home to a majority of the country's Muslims, is unfortunately a region suffering from poor infrastructure, high poverty, and violence that has claimed the lives of more than 120,000 in the last three decades.
Over the past few years, the Asia Foundation (TAF) has been working to strengthen the peace process between the Philippine Government and the Revolutionary Party of Workers in Mindanao. Through consultations with barangay officials, TAF has identified a number of community projects which can serve to improve livelihoods, infrastructure, and build the confidence of communities to attain peace and a better life for themselves and their communities.

Many barangays in Mindanao lack adequate access to safe drinking water and electric power. The Asia Foundation proposes a project that will install potable water systems and community-based solar water pumps.
Through its local partners, Yamog Renewable Energy Group (www.yamog.org) and a local NGO called SIBAT (www.sibat.org), the Foundation will provide local training and enhance the capabilities of the community to own, manage and run their micro hydro systems. This new initiative will help facilitate the engagement of local governments and civil society organizations with grassroots communities in promoting peace and development in the target barangays.

Approximate cost: A contribution in the amount of US$50,000 (costs vary depending on site-specific concerns) will provide the technology for safe drinking water and electric power and help local officials and citizens manage and run their micro hydro system in one barangay.