LiveFuels grows a robust mix of native algae species in low-cost, open-water systems. LiveFuels, to harvest the algae, uses a mixture of oil-rich “algae grazers,” such as filter-feeding fish species and various other aquatic herbivores, in place of expensive and energy-intensive mechanical equipment. These species can easily be processed into renewable oils and many other valuable co-products.
Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones, chief executive officer of LiveFuels, said: “Our new Brownsville facility allows us to explore a system-level solution for producing algal biofuels. By harnessing the power of natural systems, we hope to achieve what has eluded the biofuels community for decades – cost effectiveness, scalability, and sustainability.”
David Kingsbury, former chief program officer for the Science Program of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and chairman of the LiveFuels scientific advisory board, said: “Current approaches to generating algal-biofuels are resource intensive and face fundamental science and engineering hurdles. LiveFuels’ approach is ingenious in its simplicity. By turning natural food chains into productive systems, LiveFuels eliminates many of the costs and risks plaguing other approaches to using algae for biofuels.”
The company, till date has filed ten US patents for its proprietary approach to growing and harvesting algal biomass. After a year of strategic planning with DOE national labs NREL and Sandia, the company raised $10m in private financing. The company has established pilot operations across the US, and generated extensive intellectual property and is producing an economically feasible and sustainable algal fuel.
The company, at the Brownsville facility, would conduct research on optimizing the productivity of natural aquatic ecosystems through biological and environmental conditions. The results would be used for an expansion to full-scale commercial operations along the coast of Louisiana. The commercial facilities would be designed to harness flows of agricultural pollution from the Mississippi River that can be used as nutrients for generating algal blooms. By removing these nutrients from river flows, LiveFuels’ systems also mitigate the impacts of agricultural pollution in the open ocean.
