Within ten biofuel patents pending, three new additions since May of this year, OriginOil is setting out to create a global sustainable change to fuel acquisition. Many generations of biofuels have been researched and developed from sources such as corn, grasses and sugar canes. Rather than provide a sustainable biofuel, these sources have created problems with land use, water use, and crop displacement.
Riggs Eckelberry, CEO of OriginOil, shed some light, literally, on his company’s method and mentality in producing algae biofuels in an interview with GreenTech TV. OriginOil sets itself apart because rather than to be the largest producer of biofuel, OriginOil would like to help other “people make algae and to do this all over the world, as much as possible”.
OriginOil’s goal is to export its technology worldwide, through joint ventures with Japanese and Indian investors, as well as a worldwide manufacturer. By exporting the technology, Eckelberry hopes to share the technology with people worldwide so that it can be developed in parallel.
Having experience in the high-tech industry, Eckelberry realized the importance of creating a distribution network; roles that do not currently exist in the green industry. As a business, Eckelberry hopes to set a structure and put in place an ecology for clean technology.
As seen in the video and the following diagram, OriginOil presents a unique system in how algae biofuels are fed, grown and extracted to produce oil. In a controlled system, all products from the process are used in subsequent steps, creating a sustainable system without waste.
OriginOil has developed the Helix BioReactor, a patent pending technology, to help algae grow at a consistent rate. Eckelberry explains that the Helix BioReactor utilizes high energy and “tricks the algae into believing it’s in its natural environment”. Algae only needs four elements to grow: water, sunlight, minerals and CO2. Algae grows in an environment, similar to a “pea soup”, which makes it hard to penetrate.
Typical algae seen on water surfaces is damaged because visible light hurts the algae; Algae prefers red, blue and white light, a discovery made in 1884. The Helix BioReactor utilizes specific wavelengths of lights to provide a photosynthetically effective system that helps the growth of healthy green algae. The helix rotating structure provides algae with different light spectrums at closely spaced yet strategic intervals. The illumination and addition of nutrients creates a systematic and standard approach for the mass production of algae.
Along with the Helix BioReactor, the other pending patent applications involve the feeding, growing and extraction process of the algae biofuel. As a hybrid process, with overlapping steps and products, OriginOil has submitted patents for lighting, managing algae growth, harvesting, and more.
The first step in this sustainable biofuel process is to CO2 into the water to help the algae grow. Breaking the oil from the biomass involves a combination of ultrasound and electronegative pulses while keeping a consistent acid level. Eckelberry explains that this system is a constant extraction process because oil is pulled while the algae is still alive
After periods of drying, to have tremendous concentrated products, the oil remains with the algae and is then separated with the help of gravity. OriginOil’s process not only cracks the oil from the algae but has the oil separate itself from the algae, as well. The oil remains can be scooped up at the top, leaving the biomass at the bottom and water in the middle, through the cracking effect. Beginning at one part algae and a thousand parts of water, the end result is one gram of oil from three liters of water in a matter of minutes.
Though Eckelberry finds this to be a very energy intensive process, that may be complicated and costly, it’s a rewarding experience because of the potential it has for the biofuel industry. OriginOil is now wrapping up their pilot scale systems. By the end of the year, they will have a complete system running in their lab, and continuing to develop more.