18/02/2015

I.H.T. Special Report - Global Clean Energy - Canada Produces Strain of Algae for Fuel - NYTimes.com

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I.H.T. SPECIAL REPORT: GLOBAL CLEAN ENERGY

Canada Produces Strain of Algae for Fuel

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A structure known as a biofence is used to cultivate algae in Canada.

By HILLARY BRENHOUSE
Published: September 29, 2010

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MONTREAL The sizable scientific team at Ocean Nutrition

Canada in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the worlds largest supplier of
omega-3 EPA and DHA fatty acid supplements, was hardly looking
for an alternative to conventional fossil fuels.

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In 2005, as part of a five-year research

effort, the company was screening
algae samples, taken from marine environments across the Atlantic
provinces of Canada, for specific nutraceutical ingredients. That is
when, in one of hundreds of filmy, green test tubes and flasks, it
uncovered a single-celled microorganism that produces substantial
quantities of triacylglycerol oil a base for biofuel.

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It was like finding a needle in a haystack, said Ian Lucas, Ocean Nutrition Canadas
executive vice president of innovation and strategy. We got extremely lucky. This certainly
isnt our core business, but weve been told by experts that this is the most efficient
organism for the production of oil identified in the world to date.
Dozens of companies and academic laboratories are pursuing the objective Ocean
Nutrition Canada did not know it had to cultivate algae, the foundation of the marine
food chain, as a source of green energy.
But Ocean Nutrition Canadas prolific grower, experts say, appears capable of producing
oil at a rate 60 times greater than other types of algae being used for the generation of
biofuels.
In view of its discovery, the company will lead a four-year consortium, formed over the
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/business/energy-environment/30iht-renalg.html?_r=0

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18/02/2015

I.H.T. Special Report - Global Clean Energy - Canada Produces Strain of Algae for Fuel - NYTimes.com

past months and funded by the federal not-for-profit foundation Sustainable

Development Technology Canada, to develop its proprietary organism into a commercialscale producer of biofuels.

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Canada, with its long harsh winter and short summer, would hardly seem to be the ideal
place to breed algae for biofuel.
Canada doesnt seem like the best place to be growing algae, but Canadian expertise can
be applied to programs all over the world, said Dr. John Cullen of Dalhousie Universitys
Oceanography Department in Halifax. Indeed, recent federal investments have placed
Canada among the pioneering nations housing publicly funded research programs aimed
at the sustainable production of energy from algae biomass.

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And Canadas severe environment could actually turn out to be an advantage. It is widely
recognized that growing algae might more easily be done in an equatorial region where
the temperature is consistently warm and daylight varies little from 12 hours a day.

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But there is no reason not to develop the technologies in a northern climate and deploy
them more equatorially, said Stephen OLeary, a research officer at the National Research
Council of Canadas Institute for Marine Biosciences, also based in Halifax.
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Capable of converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into lipids and oils, photosynthetic
algae can typically generate 10 to 20 times more fuel per acre than agricultural
commodities like corn, used to make ethanol.
Moreover, algae do not require arable land and so need not compete with food crops for
growth space. And as voracious consumers of carbon dioxide, photosynthetic algae have
the potential to abate greenhouse gas emissions.

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Interest in the field of algal biofuels is escalating both in Canadas public and private
sectors.
The consortium, led by Ocean Nutrition, is finally publicizing the fact that Canada has
been doing a lot of work in this space for some time and is almost at the leadership
position, said Rick Whittaker, vice president, investments and chief technology officer at
Sustainable Development Technology Canada. The project has attracted multinational
partners, including the military contractor Lockheed Martin and UOP, a unit of Honeywell
that supplies technologies to the petroleum industry and is here focused on converting the
algal oil into an alterative jet fuel.
Its a big deal for Eastern Canada and a big deal for the country in general, Mr.
Whittaker said. Because of this particular algae strain and our ability to process it, this
can reach a global scale.
Ocean Nutrition is now capable of growing meaningful amounts of the strain named
ONC T18 B and keeps a stockpile in cryogenic reserve. One of the speciess draws is that
it produces oil by converting reduced organic compounds, not by conventional
photosynthesis. Direct sunlight is not always easy to come by in Canada, and heating
indoor ponds could end up consuming more energy than it produces.
Growing algae on a pond in Canada means that its an ice hockey rink in the winter
time, Mr. Whittaker said. Were interested in producing these things all year round
without an issue.
The National Research Councils Institute for Marine Biosciences is contributing expertise
as a member of the consortium. Our role in the project is to help ONC push the biology of
their organism so that it becomes the fastest-growing, best oil-producing organism it can
be, Dr. OLeary said. The aim, he said, is to enhance the physical conditions under which
the algae grow.
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I.H.T. Special Report - Global Clean Energy - Canada Produces Strain of Algae for Fuel - NYTimes.com

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