Duration: 10/01/2012 to 09/30/2013

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

Grand challenge and opportunities for algal biofuels in Western region:

The water limited western region of the US poses some unique challenges in the development of sustainable biofuels industry. Due to the challenges in production, harvesting and processing technologies, ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks is yet to be produced in significant quantities. Third generation fuels represented by algae are perhaps a long-term viable solution to producing fuels and chemicals, supplementing a developing oilseed aviation biofuel system in the Western Region (WR). However, algae have not been widely adopted in the WR as a feedstock. Algae have not been well studied at higher latitudes, but it has been proposed that the lower light intensities at the higher latitudes of the WR might allow algae to better utilize solar radiance. Furthermore, there are regional water resources that would be effectively used through algae production, i.e., power plant cooling ponds, food processing, agricultural and municipal wastewater, and natural brackish water bodies.

In the Western Region (WR), algae is effectively a new agricultural specialty crop which should not compete with existing human food crops for arable land or be an alternative use of valuable and limited human foodstuffs. Various algae can be also grown at higher growth rates using power plant flue gas and waste heat or using wastewater. Using algae as cropping medium, the twin goals of providing a renewable biofuels and improving water quality could be achieved. Algae provide an opportunity to leverage the WRs diverse climatic zones, sparsely populated acres, and plentiful solar, wind and geothermal resources. Despite the regional advantages noted above, some significant technological challenges remain for large scale commercialization of algal biofuels, including: optimization of lipid content and quality, culturing algae to consistent high densities, and managing culture contamination.

Iinitial Western States Algae Biofuels and Biotechnology Intitative (WeSABBI) efforts:

During a technology roadmap workshop in December 2008 sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), discussions by industry, academic, and national lab partners suggested that development of algal biofuels will require coordination and support of fundamental research, infrastructure development, technology deployment, and information management at various governmental levels. The Western States Algae Biofuels and Biotechnology Initiative (multistate project W505) was authorized in 2010 to begin leveraging regional expertise in academia, industry and government organizations and to form effective collaborations to address these goals.

In forming WeSABBI, a number of activities, such as planning workshops at Oregon State University in 2009 and 2010, a meeting in Tucson, Arizona, to develop collaborative efforts and proposals, and a panel at the 2010 Pacific Rim BIO conference were held. More than 100 participants from academic institutions, industry, Govt. laboratories attended these meetings. These activities catalyzed new collaborations and resulted in submission of several preliminary and full proposals.

Justification for a development committee for WeSABBI:

Since the formation of WeSABBI, several new opportunities have arisen in this fast changing landscape of sustainable biofuels. Two of the notable initiatives are the U.S. NAVYs Green Fleet initiative and the Sun Grant Western Region-led lipid biofuels initiative. It is important to reevaluate the focus of the group to be in alignment with significant opportunities and address challenges that the research community and industrial partners anticipate. Therefore the multistate project group would like to request a development project for WeSABBI to enable participating institutions to develop a comprehensive project proposal which would be responsive to the needs of the Nation utilizing the expertise and resources of the Western region.

The primary task will be formation of a comprehensive five year project proposal involving participants from the western state land grant institutions and collaborators from industry and government laboratories. The focus of the proposed effort will be to identify some of the technical issues which the group can address related to algal bioproduct and biofuel development, for example, high production cost (low productivities, nutrient costs), harvesting algae from the media, extracting lipids from algae, and upgrading lipids to drop in biofuels and utilization of residual algal biomass. It is of critical importance to address these issues in a coordinated fashion as use of different downstream technologies will be dependent upon the upstream unit operations. In addition to the technical issues in the choice of different technologies, taking a holistic perspective on the entire value chain is critical in assessing both the techno-economic feasibility and overall life cycle impacts of different products and processes. Next generation biofuels and bioproducts from feedstocks such as algae provide an opportunity to leverage the diverse climate, lengthy coast line, extensive arid high deserts, and plentiful solar and wind resources, as well as geothermal sources available in the West.

Currently WeSABBI has active participants from the following institutions:
1. Faculty members from Land Grant Institutions of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington.
2. Industrial and Governmental institution partners include General Atomics, Bioalgene, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Centre of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management, New Mexico and EERC.

During the development of the comprehensive five-year project plan, the group will invite additional collaborators from all western states as well as other regions.

Related, Current and Previous Work

A search in CRIS on the term algal biofuel resulted in a list of 27 projects (see attachment). There may be other projects in CRIS but a more detailed search with a variety of other key words may need to be conducted. The group will evaluate these projects and build upon their work.

Objectives

1. To bring together faculty as well as industrial and government partners to develop a comprehensive project proposal focusing on some of the technical issues related to algal bioproduct and biofuel development which the group can successfully address.
   

Methods

Development Committee methods will consist of group meetings and discussions and establishing team efforts for the identified priorities.

Measurement of Progress and Results

Outputs

• The output for this project will be a fully developed proposal for a five year multi-institutional collaborative project focused on addressing the algal biofuel and bioproduct development needs in the West.

Outcomes or Projected Impacts

• The project teams expect to develop collaborative, integrated, fundable projects for sustainable algal biofuels development in the western region.

Milestones

(1):nal full proposal submission to WAAESD (by December 31, 2013)

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Outreach Plan

An outreach plan will be described in the full proposal that will be prepared during this project.

Organization/Governance

The development project will be organized around a core team consisting of team leads from the thematic teams identified by the Development Committee. The core team will be responsible for meeting agendas, ensuring appropriate follow-up by thematic teams, and final writing and editing duties for the timely submission of the long-term project proposal to WAAESD.

Upon approval of the new project, the group expects to follow the recommended Standard Governance for multistate research activities, i.e., the election of a Chair, a Chair-elect, and a Secretary. All officers are to be elected for at least two-year terms to provide continuity. Administrative guidance will be provided by an assigned Administrative Advisor and a CSREES Representative.

Literature Cited

None at this time.

Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

OR, WA

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions