Algae is the word of the day. Not the hard-to-remove algae in the ponds around the Capitol, but the aquatic microalgae that researchers are developing to fuel our power plants.

The technology is not yet perfected, but the possibilities are enormous. How good are algae's prospects, and how much attention should we give it?

'A' FOR ALGAE

Who knew that aquatic microalgae could be brought ashore and transformed into a fuel that would light our cities? Is this a great time or what?

As a plant, algae turns carbon dioxide into oxygen. It already plays a significant role in our atmosphere — up to 70 percent of the world's oxygen is produced by algae.

Algae grows rapidly and doubles its mass several times a day. It's rich in vegetable oil and yields 100 times more oil than other biofuel feedstock — 8,000 to 10,000 gallons per year per acre. You can grow it in sea water, minimizing the use of agricultural land and fresh water. Hawai'i's climate is ideal and we already have some good candidates.

The irony is that oil itself comes from millions of years of buildup of algae and other plant residue, buried and compressed under the earth. Now, we can skip the buildup and take algae to energy in days. Algae, the zirconium of fossil fuel.

Everyone talks about the potential. Thousands attended the National Biodiesel Conference earlier last month in San Francisco. But even with worldwide research, few have made biodiesel from algae and none on a commercial scale.

LUCKY IN HAWAI'I

Hawai'i has a longstanding tradition of agricultural research. In plantation days, we were clever enough to get 25 percent to 50 percent of our power from bagasse, or sugarcane fiber, and we have a history of generating power from plants. Growing algae now is back to the future.

Cyanotech on the Big Island has been growing algae as a food supplement, but its algae would not be competitive for fuel.

Hawai'i has some world-class research teams, including HR BioPetroleum, led by Barry Raleigh and Mark Huntley, in a partnership with Shell Oil; Pacific BioEnergy, led by Paul Zorner and comprising Kamehameha Schools, Grove Farm and Maui Land; and Kuehnle AgroSystems, led by Heidi Kuehnle.

So why aren't we knee-deep in algae? HR BioPetroleum has a test site at NEHLA, but there are no other field test sites and we have no processing plants that can process algae into biodiesel. As a result, we have no commercial algae biodiesel, and it's hard to say when that will change.

FROM LAB TO FIELD

Making commercial algae biodiesel involves four steps — developing the feedstock in the laboratory, growing the algae in the field, harvesting it, then processing biodiesel out of it. Each step has challenges.

The initial challenge is in developing an algae that has an oil content high enough to make commercial production feasible. This algae must grow quickly, can't use too much land or water and must yield the requisite oil content.

We can make algae biodiesel in the lab, but we've got to get it from the lab into the field and scale it up for production in large affordable quantities, validating it step by step.

Another challenge of moving from the lab to the field is contamination. Algae grown in open ponds gets contaminated by wild algae, other organisms and chemicals. To deal with this, Raleigh suggests growing the strain indoors, then moving small quantities out to the field, where it can grow and be harvested quickly before it gets contaminated.

We might be able to develop a better and more contamination-resistant algae with genetic modification. But GMOs are unpopular, and GMO algae may not be necessary when local strains could work. Zorner says he's only using local natural strains and learning how to grow those best.

TROUBLED PROJECTS

Last summer, Blue Earth planned to build a processing plant to make biodiesel from algae grown on nearby A&B land. MECO was going to burn that fuel in its Ma'alaea generating plant and pass CO2 waste back to A&B as fertilizer to grow more algae. But Blue Earth and MECO are in a contract dispute and nothing is happening.

HECO had a contract to buy biodiesel from Imperium Renewables to fuel its new generating plant in Campbell Park. Imperium was to build a plant to process feedstock into biodiesel, but had financial troubles and was unable to do so. The contract was changed to allow Imperium to obtain processed biodiesel elsewhere and ship it to Hawai'i, where it will be stored by Aloha Petroleum. These changes have to be approved by the PUC and are likely to cost more money.

In the future, one or both of these generating plants could be running on biodiesel made from algae grown and processed in Hawai'i.

MANY APPLICATIONS

It's not only HECO that's waiting for the algae. The world is waiting. If Hawai'i can develop a commercial quality algae, we can sell it to waiting buyers from China to Europe. The greater challenge is staying in the market. If you just sell the algae once, the bonanza will be limited. But if you can find a patentable strain or system that brings the buyers back for more, the bonanza could go on forever.

Algae can also make jet fuel. General Atomics leads the team that won a $20 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration to develop algae fuel as a substitute for JP-8. The team includes Hawaii BioEnergy and Kuehnle AgroSystems.

The algae residue also makes high-protein fish and cattle feed. That's why the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center has been looking at algae byproducts. All these pieces can play a role in the new energy ecosystem we are building in Hawai'i.

DELIBERATIONS

Algae won't make it without public acceptance. We need to get comfortable with algae research and regulation, too. The procedures at the Department of Agriculture remain troubled and need to be improved to allow algae importation for necessary R&D.

The relationship of algae and the governor's clean energy initiative, as well as pending legislation that could affect algae production, are another story, and we'll cover that later.

Hawai'i is perfectly situated for stunning success in this technology, not only to power our cities and meet our energy goals, but to export the product of our efforts.

Algae may not be ready for the big time, but we need to treat it as one of a variety of promising possibilities. Let's give it three or four years. Or better yet, tell your kids to study it now and get in on the adventure.