• About Us
  • Company Overview
  • Management
  • Board of Directors
  • Scientific Team
  • Investors
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Email Sign-up
• Algae Products
  • The CO2 Problem
  • The Algae Solution
  • Algae Oil
  • Biodiesel
  • Animal Nutrition
  • Other Co-products
• Technology
  • Core Technology
  • Culture Collection
  • Intellectual Property
  • Publications
• Production Facilities
  • Pilot
  • Demonstration
  • Commercial
• Partners
  • Why Partner with Us
  • Shell/Cellana
  • Power Plants
  • Cement Plants
  • Ethanol Plants
  • Other Partners
• News & Media
  • News
  • Events
  • FAQ
  • Press Kit
  • Image Libary

ABSTRACT: Marine Microalgae: Using Nature's Most Efficient Plant to Solve Today's Most Pressing Problems

2008 Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy
September 10, 2008
Vancouver, BC Canada
Edward T. Shonsey, CEO, HR BioPetroleum, Inc.

Marine microalgae represent an emerging feedstock for biofuels and other products that holds the greatest potential for simultaneously tackling the problems of our worldwide dependence on fossil fuels and increasing CO2 emissions linked to global climate change. Many strains of marine microalgae can produce substantially greater oil per acre than traditional oil seeds and also reduce the level of CO2 more efficiently than terrestrial crops. Microalgae can grow in places other than on traditional farmlands or other arable land. Marine microalgae can be cultivated using sea water, brackish water, or even waste water. The economics of such a plant and process are driven by the high potential solar energy conversion efficiencies of single celled microalgae versus crop plants on a per acre, per day basis. For these reasons and others to be discussed, marine microalgae have many advantages over terrestrial plants in addressing two of the world's major challenges: energy security and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.  HR BioPetroleum, Inc. (HRBP) is a Hawaii-based microalgae production company focused on utilizing the most productive plants on earth -- marine microalgae -- to produce feedstocks for biofuels and other valuable products while simultaneously reducing industrial emissions of CO2 from power plants, cement factories, ethanol plants, and other large point sources of CO2.  HRBP's core technology is a photosynthetic production system capable of economically producing microalgae at commercial scale. The production system is unique in that it couples closed-culture photobioreactors with open ponds in a two-stage process utilizing HRBP's proprietary ALDUOTMtechnology. Previous (unsuccessful) attempts by others at scaling up microalgae production have generally relied on either photobioreactors or open ponds exclusively -- rather than coupling them as was pioneered by HRBP with its ALDUOTM process. HRBP's novel and propriety microalgae-based technology has been validated over several years in a commercial-scale microalgae production facility located in Hawaii that serves as our pilot facility, which formed the basis for a world-class joint venture established in late 2007 with Royal Dutch Shell. This separate joint venture, called Cellana, is constructing a demonstration facility on the Kona coast of Hawaii to grow marine algae and produce vegetable oil for conversion into biofuel.   HRBP and a small group of other microalgae players are shifting from technology development to commercial deployment.  HRBP has announced plans to develop a commercial-scale microalgae facility on Maui with our partners, Alexander & Baldwin, Hawaiian Electric and Maui Electric, to produce lipid oil for conversion to biodiesel and other valuable products, such as animal feed.  Our discussion today will cover the global opportunities marine microalgae provide in addressing the pressing issues of energy security and CO2 mitigation, the advances made in the commercialization of marine-microalgae-based technology, and the critical success factors required to implement a microalgae-based solution worldwide.