South African Firm To Make Biofuel From Algae

I just came across an interesting headline. You may remember our “algae + CO2 = biofuel” article from a little while back. Well it sounds as though progress in the field may be a little further ahead than I previously believed.
According to the news release, De Beers Fuel Ltd in South Africa (no connection with the diamond giant) hopes to be producing 16 to 24 billion litres of biodiesel per year from algae within five years!

Here is an exerpt from the article:

De Beers Fuel already runs a plant which produces 144 000 litres of bio-diesel daily from sunflower seed oil, at Naboomspruit in the northern Limpopo province. A bio-diesel algae reactor installed at the plant will be showcased to investors, experts and the media later this week.

“The project is highly capital-intensive. The first 100 acres will require about R3.5bn, this has been sourced mainly from foreign private equity groups,” Hendy Schoombee, a senior official at De Beers Fuel said.

“We had initially intended to list the company to raise the money. We might list at a future date to raise money for further expansion,” he said.

One acre of algae can produce 92 000 litres of bio-diesel, compared to 350 litres produced from one acre of a sun-flower seed farm, he added.

The company will use land that is not arable or useful for most other purposes, and will also generate electricity from waste material out of the bio-diesel-making process.

I tried to track down more info about De Beers and came across Infinity Biodiesel, which seems in fact to be the main De Beers Fuel website. Unfortunately there is no mention of their plans for making biodiesel from algae.

Hmmmm…

Well I’m definitely interested to learn more. Just this quote alone says it all: “One acre of algae can produce 92 000 litres of bio-diesel, compared to 350 litres produced from one acre of a sun-flower seed farm, he added.”

Anyway, if anyone knows more about this be sure to let us know.
Here is a link to the story I came across: Firm to make biofuel from algae

THIS JUST IN - I found another interesting news release which goes into a little more detail. Check it out here

Here is a blurb:

Mr. de Beer has made great strides to acquire the latest Algae Production Technology. In recent weeks there have been many media articles about the success of the algae bioreactor operating at MIT (see http://web.mit.edu/erc/spotlights/alg-all.html) utilizing the MIT CO2 exhaust boiler emissions as feed for the algae.
Algae consumes CO2, a major Global Warming Gas. After consumption of the CO2, the algae produces oil (for biodiesel manufacturing) and oxygen. Therefore, the process of using algae creates renewable, sustainable biofuel and reduces global warming gases to better the environment.

Mr. de Beer has entered into an agreement with Greenfuel Technologies Corporation, (see www.greenfuelonline.com) and has purchased and removed the MIT bioreactor from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and transported it to South Africa. It has been reassembled on the biodiesel plant site in Naboomspruit, South Africa, and is now awaiting the arrival of the algae to be inoculated to start production. At the Naboomspruit site construction will soon be underway at the rail spur for a crushing plant to process oil from the planting of sunflowers throughout the region. Mr. de Beer also supports, along with the development of the algae growth technology, the local farming industry that will benefit with the planting of thousands of acres of sunflowers and other feedstocks for oils to be processed into biodiesel fuel.

Technorati Tags: algae, biofuel, biodiesel, ethanol, de beers fuel, alternative fuel

Written by Bentley on November 29th, 2006 with 6 comments.
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