{"id":35410,"date":"2023-03-06T09:53:19","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T16:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/exxon-drops-algae-research-but-colorado-labs-press-on-in-hunt-for-green-fuel\/"},"modified":"2023-03-06T16:53:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T16:53:19","slug":"exxon-drops-algae-research-but-colorado-labs-press-on-in-hunt-for-green-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/exxon-drops-algae-research-but-colorado-labs-press-on-in-hunt-for-green-fuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Exxon drops algae research, but Colorado labs press on in hunt for green fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado School of Mines postdoctoral research fellow Anagha Krishnan, 37, of Golden, works with laboratory equipment Feb. 21, 2023 to digest the DNA of picochlorum celeri, an algae species that features heavily in the bioenergy research led by Mines Professor Matthew Posewitz. (Andy Colwell\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Oil giant ExxonMobil\u2019s decision to abandon its 14-year, multimillion-dollar support for research into making fuel from algae ended years of funding for projects at the Colorado School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.<\/p>\n

Backing for research into developing high-yield algae at Mines was terminated at the end of last year and a NREL project to develop a computer model to test farm-scale biofuel productivity will finish this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Exxon funded our lab, it was always about basic science,\u201d said Matthew Posewitz, a Mines chemistry professor. Exxon provided millions of dollars in the search and development of fast-growing algae.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very supportive of the research, but now they are funding other carbon capture research,\u201d Posewitz said.<\/p>\n

Since 2009, Exxon has spent $350 million on projects to develop a fuel from the lipids \u2013 a fatty acid \u2013 in algae.<\/p>\n

The company touted its research in print, video ads<\/a> and on social media platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook<\/a>. There was even a prediction that 10,000 barrels of biofuels could be produced by 2025.<\/p>\n

The efforts, however, also drew criticism from some environment groups, which contended that the project was just greenwashing<\/a> \u2013 misleading information to make Exxon look environmentally friendly.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2022, Exxon began to unwind its support for algae, cutting funding to Viridos Inc. a California biotech company<\/a> that had been the oil company\u2019s prime partner in algae fuel development and then concluding the Mines and NREL projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlgae still has real promise as a renewable source of fuel, but it has not yet reached a level we believe is necessary to achieve the commercial and global scale needed to economically replace existing sources of energy,\u201d Todd Spitler, an Exxon spokesman, said in an email<\/p>\n

\"Erlenmeyer
Erlenmeyer flasks containing maintenance cultures of algae are pictured while being agitated in the Colorado School of Mines bioenergy research laboratory led by Mines professor Matthew Posewitz in Golden. The project, led by Posewitz, involves a team of about a dozen postdoctoral, graduate undergraduate researchers and technicians who are studying the way algae grow and evolve, with the goal of exploring potential uses of algae in future bioenergy technology. (Andy Colwell\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Exxon is shifting to focusing on technologies that it says can be scaled-up more quickly, such as carbon capture and hydrogen \u2013 moves reinforced by subsidies for those technologies in the Biden administration\u2019s Inflation Reduction Act, Exxon\u2019s CEO Darren Woods said during the company\u2019s fourth quarter earnings call<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur business requires that we make decisions around the commercial viability of R & projects,\u201d Spitler said. \u201cWe announced plans to invest $17 billion in lower emission initiatives from 2022 to 2027. This includes investments in carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and other biofuels.\u201d<\/p>\n

8 years of research at Mines lab over, but not done<\/div>\n

The decision ended an eight-year partnership with the Posewitz Research Group<\/a> in a search for fast growing algae \u2013 an aquatic, often microscopic, organism that, like land-based plants, lives through photosynthesis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are photosynthetic organisms that are incredibly efficient,\u201d Posewitz said.<\/p>\n

For developing algae fuels two key challenges are growing enough algae \u2013 biomass \u2013 and increasing the lipid content of each organism. Posewitz\u2019s lab has \u201cfocused on maximizing bio-productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Posewitz and Exxon looked for hearty algae in the hottest, saltiest bodies of water, including California\u2019s Mono Lake, the Great Salt Lake and the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experimental design was basically \u2018The Hunger Games,\u2019\u201d Posewitz said. A Home Depot bucket-worth of Gulf of Mexico water was put in a bioreactor in the laboratory in a high-heat, high-salt, high-light environment to see which organism survived best.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado School of Mines Professor Matthew Posewitz poses for a portrait in his bioenergy research laboratory. (Andy Colwell\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The winner was Picochlorum celeri<\/a>, which was able to double its biomass in as little as two hours, 20% to 75% faster than other cell lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cA very fast doubling time is essential in the batch process for establishing a productive level of biomass and for recovering from process upsets, \u201cone of the group\u2019s research papers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn its best days celeri can produce 50 grams of biomass per square meter,\u201d Posewitz said. The average annual production of a corn field is 4 to 5 grams. The goal is to get the algae to a steady 20 to 30 grams per year.<\/p>\n

As promising as P. celeri is, one drawback is that it\u2019s not a particularly good lipid producer, Posewitz said. Viridos has been working on increasing the lipid content of test algae.<\/p>\n

Posewitz, who has been studying photosynthesis for 25 years, said his lab will continue its work, including genetic engineering of P. celeri, with other funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some level we are trying to change the world and that\u2019s a heavy lift,\u201d Posewitz said.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado School of Mines Professor Matthew Posewitz holds samples of algae during a tour of his lab, where research into potential uses of algae in bioenergy technology. (Andy Colwell,\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Exxon\u2019s NREL project built a computer simulator of a pond to test the impact of farm-scale operations on biomass and biofuel yield and the effects of different engineered algae strains, according to a statement from the lab.<\/p>\n

The Exxon project, the statement said, was designed to run three years, concluding this spring with results published \u201cin the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Glickson, an NREL spokesman, said the backing for the project is part of a $100 million<\/a>, 10-year agreement between Exxon and NREL struck in 2019 for a range of projects. That is the largest financial commitment to the lab, outside government funding.<\/p>\n

NREL has been doing research on algal fuels for more than 10 years and will continue its ongoing research into developing algae strains, cultivation, carbon capture and product conversion technology to market adoption, the statement said.<\/p>\n

Most of the work is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Bioenergy Technologies Office, the statement said.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

petroleum giant funded still see potential in algae as a biofuel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1030,221,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-environment","tag-gas-and-oil","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35410"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}