Green race: Algae-to-biofuel firm announces breakthroughs

Photon8 Inc., Brad Bartilson’s Brownsville-based startup company, has managed to plow through some sticky issues in its quest for commercially feasible algae-to-biofuel production and is two years ahead of schedule in terms of production milestones.

In May the company announced the development of "traveling wave tube" technology that increased its algae growth rates 500 percent, while Photon8’s genetics advancement team has also substantially boosted the lipid production rate — lipids being the molecules necessary for biofueld production.

Algae creates lipids when exposed to sunlight. Bartilson contrasts his firm’s strides with "stark announcements" from the U.S. government of 5-10 year delays by government and private algae startups.

He’s looking forward to highlighting Photon8’s successes at the Algae Biomass Summit, being held in Phoenix, Ariz., Sept. 28-30. Bartilson plans to discuss the company’s genetic and techno-economic modeling efforts.

The problems Bartilson says Photon8 has managed to solve when other algae-to-biofuel ventures are still scratching their heads have to do with algae genetics, growth systems and the extraction of lipids — molecules necessary to produce the biofuel.

"We’re one of the few companies, if not the only company with all three solutions," he says. "I think the competition is experiencing issues."

Making biofuel from algae isn’t the hard part. It’s doing it inexpensively enough that it can be done at a profit, Bartilson says.

With a "parallel film reactor" growth and extraction system that costs $10 per square meter and $1.25 to produce a gallon of ethanol, Photon8 has achieved profitable production where others have not, he says.

He notes that, lacking progress in biofuel, some other firms have decided to concentrate on production of "high value" products such as algae-based pharmaceuticals, and revisit biofuel somewhere down the road.

"We’re not doing that," Bartilson says. "We’re going to maintain our focus on fuel. We’re doing well at our game plan right now and we’re going to stick to it."