Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell is to invest in a new plant in Hawaii to grow marine algæ that can be turned into biofuel.
Europe’s largest oil company believes it can start producing commercial quantities of the fuel after about two years, and sees EU countries as a key market.
The pilot project, announced yesterday, continues Shell’s efforts to develop new-generation fuels, although sceptics point out that other companies and government-funded groups have tried and failed to use algæ in the past.
Shell, which has taken a majority stake in a joint venture with HR Biopetroleum, says that the economics and technology of turning algæ into fuel have changed. “This demonstration will be an important test of the technology and, critically, of commercial viability,” said Graeme Sweeney, Shell’s executive vice president of future fuels.
The companies’ joint venture, Cellana, will build a facility off the Hawaii Island coast that will cultivate ponds of algæ in seawater. The vegetable oil will then be converted into a diesel-type fuel which Mr Sweeney said would be “of high quality”.
The thick green algæ can double their mass several times a day and produce at least 15 times more oil per hectare (ha) than alternatives such as palm soya or jatropha.
Mr Sweeney said that, if the pilot project goes to plan the 2½ha facility will be expanded to a 1,000ha facility and then a “full-scale commercial,” 20,000ha plant. Shell would not disclose the cost of the investment.
The EU is committed to a big expansion of biofuel use. The 27 nation bloc wants biofuels to make up an average 5¾% of transport fuels by 2010 and 10% by 2020. Biofuels account for about 1% of EU fuel consumption.
Mr Sweeney said Cellana “offers the opportunity in due course to meet the volume required in Europe”.
He said that algæ can produce on average about 60 tons of oil per ha, against about 4 tons of oil per ha for jatropha.
In the late 1980s the US government funded research into producing biodiesel from algæ. But in the mid 1990s, the Department of Energy cut funding for the research, choosing to focus resources on researching production of ethanol, which is produced from sugars in crops such as corn or cane.
However, in October America’s state-funded National Renewable Energy Laboratory said it was to collaborate with oil company Chevron on research into producing road fuel from algæ.
Europe’s largest oil company believes it can start producing commercial quantities of the fuel after about two years, and sees EU countries as a key market.
The pilot project, announced yesterday, continues Shell’s efforts to develop new-generation fuels, although sceptics point out that other companies and government-funded groups have tried and failed to use algæ in the past.
Shell, which has taken a majority stake in a joint venture with HR Biopetroleum, says that the economics and technology of turning algæ into fuel have changed. “This demonstration will be an important test of the technology and, critically, of commercial viability,” said Graeme Sweeney, Shell’s executive vice president of future fuels.
The companies’ joint venture, Cellana, will build a facility off the Hawaii Island coast that will cultivate ponds of algæ in seawater. The vegetable oil will then be converted into a diesel-type fuel which Mr Sweeney said would be “of high quality”.
The thick green algæ can double their mass several times a day and produce at least 15 times more oil per hectare (ha) than alternatives such as palm soya or jatropha.
Mr Sweeney said that, if the pilot project goes to plan the 2½ha facility will be expanded to a 1,000ha facility and then a “full-scale commercial,” 20,000ha plant. Shell would not disclose the cost of the investment.
The EU is committed to a big expansion of biofuel use. The 27 nation bloc wants biofuels to make up an average 5¾% of transport fuels by 2010 and 10% by 2020. Biofuels account for about 1% of EU fuel consumption.
Mr Sweeney said Cellana “offers the opportunity in due course to meet the volume required in Europe”.
He said that algæ can produce on average about 60 tons of oil per ha, against about 4 tons of oil per ha for jatropha.
In the late 1980s the US government funded research into producing biodiesel from algæ. But in the mid 1990s, the Department of Energy cut funding for the research, choosing to focus resources on researching production of ethanol, which is produced from sugars in crops such as corn or cane.
However, in October America’s state-funded National Renewable Energy Laboratory said it was to collaborate with oil company Chevron on research into producing road fuel from algæ.
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