Algae Comercial Production

Not Just For Sushi: Seaweed May Power The Next Generation Of Biofuels

You've been filling up your car with corn, beats and sugar cane. Why not kelp? New research finds that summer kelp, rich with energy-dense carbohydrates and soluble sugars, may offer a new source of biofuel. While most bioenergy efforts have focused on terrestrial plants, marine ecosystems are a virtually untapped resource that represents a significant fraction of the world's biomass.

Researcher Jessica Adams at Aberystwyth University sampled the chemical composition of kelp forests in the U.K., finding that summer conditions boosted energy yields from fermentation (ethanol), anaerobic digestion (methane) or pyrolysis (bio-oil). Her research, she said, suggests " seaweed biofuel could be very important in future energy production " at a meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology in Scotland.

The need for sustainable biofuel is acute: diverting crops such as corn from plates to biofuel refineries drove up the price of food worldwide forcing an additional 100 million into chronic hunger . Beyond this humanitarian crisis, it's also an energy challenge. There is simply not enough food and fuel to substantially lower prices given mandates for European and U.S. biofuel consumption and razor thin crop surpluses. We have little choice but to find new biofuel feedstocks (or cut back altogether), or else decide that millions in the developing world will face hunger so those in the industralized world can substitute biofuels for petroleum.

That's what makes marine plants so attractive. Since seaweed and algae hold the promise of scaling biofuel production without gobbling up food crops or arable land, it's perhaps the only feedstock that can satisfy the world's demand for transportation fuels. Kelp is a good prospect. The prolific plant--a more efficient photosynthesiser than land-based plants, like most seaweed--can grow a foot per week, and already covers vast areas of ocean bottom from Ecuador to Iceland.

The market isn't waiting for full commercial production to begin burning biofuels. Airlines, pressured by European governments to lower their greenhouse gas pollution, are already flying biofuel-powered flights, and have won approval to fill their tanks with a fuel mix of 50 percent plant-derived biofuel. The military, wary of its dependence on billions of gallons of fossil fuels each year, has flown test flights in its MH-60S Seahawk helicopter and F/A-18 Super Hornet with more biofuel on order.

But seaweed is not quite ready for your gas tank. Cost and supply remain major barriers: the price of the military biofuel contracts ranged from $67 to $424 per gallon once R&D costs are included, and despite millions of dollars flowing into startups during the last decade, mass commercial production is still on the horizon. For kelp, new chemical enzymes and growing techniques will be needed before achieving necessary scale. One study estimated the cost of raw materials needed to drop 75% from today's levels before kelp would become commercially viable.

World Health Energy Holdings Partners With SHK Energy (India) For ...

New York, NY— World Health Energy Holdings, Inc. (otcqb:WHEN) (pinksheets:WHEN), a public holding company developing joint venture partnerships for algae production for biodiesel and commercial fish food, announced today that the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a joint venture with SHK Energy Projects Private Limited of India .

Initially utilizing a five acre site, plans call for expansion to over 45 acres in the near term.

The site already has a substantial infrastructure of pumps and pipes running along a water canal which offers many of the required resources necessary for algae growing systems.

Jeremy Werblowsky , CFO of World Health Energy Holdings, said, "It is exciting to see the interest in our GNE GB 3000 system from a number of potential joint venture partners.

"We are currently involved with two Letters of Intent (LOI) and two MOUs for the development of algae commercial farms comprising from 2.5 acres to 250 acres.

"The LOIs and MOUs are necessary steps to forming mutually beneficial joint ventures.

"We look forward to working with SHK Energy and benefiting from their business relationships and resources."

World Health Energy Holdings, Inc. recently acquired GNE-India , an algae technology company with the distribution and licensing rights to a unique and innovative technology, the GNE GB 3000 system, to grow algae quickly and efficiently for the production of biodiesel and commercial fish food protein.

GNE-India owns and retains the territorial rights for distribution and sales of the proprietary technology to both India and Sri Lanka.

The company has exclusive distribution and licensing rights to the GNE GB 3000 system in India and Croatia.

Earlier this year, the GB 3000 system was used to grow a combination of local algae species, as well as Chlorella, targeting the product to the fish feed and biodiesel markets.

World Health Energy Holdings, Inc. is focused on biofuels produced from algae, which boasts substantially higher yields in comparison to ethanol derived from corn, rapeseed, jatropha and palm oil.

The company also works with visionary enterprises in the multi-billion dollar renewable energy arena producing progressive, broad-based solutions for better physical, nutritional and environmental health worldwide.

Algae and human affairs

Textbook of Environmental Biotechnology

Technologies for commercial production of algae, challenges to growing and harvesting the newest feedstock on the block

Algae, anatomy, biochemistry, and biotechnology

Algal biomass technologies, an interdisciplinary perspective : proceedings of a workshop on the present status and future directions for biotechnologies based on algal biomass production, April 5-7, 1984, University of Colorado, Boulder