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State to get biodiesel facility
By Paul W. Sullivan Montgomery Advertiser June 29, 2007 The world's first biodiesel production facility to extract oil from algae will be built in Alabama and running within 10 months, an energy company executive said. Gordon M. LeBlanc Jr., CEO of PetroSun Inc., believes America's energy future lies not beneath the sands of the Middle East, but on top of ponds across Alabama and the Southeast. The Phoenix-based company has spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of it in Lee County, trying to perfect the technology of drawing oil from pond algae to produce biodiesel fuel. An Auburn University professor has been toiling away for years trying to help break America's dependence on foreign oil. After almost two decades of trial and error, he believes the finish line is in sight.
Dr. David Bransby, a professor of energy crops and bio- He said the technology also will provide alternative markets for Alabama timber at a time when the demand for paper is sliding because of recycling efforts and the growing digital storage of information. "There is technology that can do it," Bransby said as he described the process. The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded grants of about $380 million to six companies that expect to build cellulosic ethanol plants, he said. But the energy executive from Arizona is looking for faster results. LeBlanc, 55, said his considerable investment and work will pay off when the Alabama plant starts making 30 million gallons of biodiesel fuel a year. LeBlanc, a geologist, said plans call for similar facilities to be built in Arizona and Australia. While he didn't name a site where he might put the Alabama plant, a hint may be found in that much of the groundwork for the PetroSun algae initiative has been done on a farm just outside of Opelika, near Phenix City. That's where a school principal with a background in electronics and landscape design has been experimenting with alternative fuels. David James, who operates Eastwood Christian School east of Opelika, met LeBlanc during a Montgomery meeting on substitute fuels. The gathering at a state economic development agency led to a partnership and Alabama's place atop the algae-based fuel industry, James said. "We hit it off," he said. In his job as principal, James has run the gamut of alternative fuel choices trying to cut the cost of bus transportation as well as machinery on his farm. He's tried wind power, solar power and ethanol. He even ran an old lawn mower on alcohol distilled from beer. All that experimentation has made him form some common-sense criticism of America's obsession with corn-based ethanol. "Ethanol has been a disaster," he said. "It costs too much to get (fuel) out of corn. We're relying on food -- that's stupid. Eating comes before riding." James said it takes almost as much energy to produce the ethanol from corn as the power the fuel provides. Next he tried grease rounded up from restaurants. He found that the grease was an ideal source of oil to make biodiesel for his buses and equipment. Now he makes 600 gallons of the stuff a week. Further research led him to algae. He laughs and shakes off the question when asked exactly how the oil is extracted from algae. But he believes the thin layer of plant life across the tops of ponds and lakes is the best short-term energy bet. "From one lake we can get 12,000 gallons of fuel per acre," James said. He said the algae renews itself every seven days. That high yield is possible because of the warm climate in the Southeast that will grow algae to that level at least nine months per year, he said. Now, James and his team are harvesting the algae from ponds and tanks, some of which hold up to 7,000 gallons of water. Then they draw the oil from the algae. He said the idea of using fast-growing and plentiful algae is not new. But James said a lot of the early research concentrated on making it a part of the food supply. He's partly built on that foundation as he prepares the prototype for the first algae-oil to biodiesel plant. James said the next big event in the marketing of the fuel is an August demonstration on his farm. Energy company officials and government dignitaries will be on hand to watch James drive a tractor powered by the new fuel, LeBlanc said. James said that day will cement the technology in the energy industry. Does LeBlanc have any doubts about inviting so many important people for the tractor's big day? "It's going to run -- we know that." LeBlanc said he is receiving calls from biodiesel plants wanting the algae fuel -- called alagel -- to help run their facilities. The requests for alagel have spiked with the rising cost of corn and soy. After the tractor does its thing, LeBlanc, a third-generation energy businessman, envisions an entire alagel and biodiesel production industry. "The business will include commercial production and cultivation facilities," he said. Sites in Alabama will do work on algae production, harvesting, extracting oil, refining the algae oil and making the biodiesel, he said.
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