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July 15, 2008
Honolulu, Hawaii: HR BioPetroleum, Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALEX), Hawaiian Electric Company and Maui Electric Company, subsidiaries of Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE: HE), today announced that they have signed memoranda of understanding to pursue the joint development of a commercial-scale microalgae facility on Maui to produce lipid oil for conversion to biodiesel and other valuable products, such as animal feed.
Under the agreements:
* HR BioPetroleum will be responsible for overall project management, including obtaining financing, and construction and operation of the microalgae facility.
* Alexander & Baldwin will provide strategically located land, adjacent to Maui Electric's Ma'alaea Power Plant, to site the algae production ponds and processing plant, and may provide equity capital to the project.
* Hawaiian Electric and Maui Electric companies will lead in determining the permitting and construction needs for piping to carry stack gases containing carbon dioxide, which the algae consume, from the Ma'alaea plant to an adjacent algae facility.
Construction of the commercial microalgae facility is subject to a variety of factors, including confirmation of algae performance data from HR BioPetroleum's pilot and demonstration facilities, receipt of required regulatory approvals, formation of a special purpose entity, project financing commitments and the signing of definitive agreements with Hawaiian Electric, Maui Electric and A&B. Assuming these successfully occur as planned, the first phase of the commercial facility could be in operation by 2011.
"This innovative partnership can help move Hawaii one step closer to securing energy independence and achieving our goal of having 70 percent of Hawaii's energy come from clean sources by 2030," said Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle. "There is no single source of energy that will break our dependence on foreign oil, but investments in renewable projects such as this are part of the comprehensive solution to provide energy alternatives for our state."
Microalgae have significant potential as an energy crop, with the prospect for very high levels of oil production per acre. When combined with other vegetable-oil crops that could be grown locally, such as jatropha or palm, algae could help meet the biodiesel feedstock need for biodiesel on Maui, which now fuels about 85 percent of its combustion generation with petroleum diesel.
The Ma'alaea algae facility would be HR BioPetroleum's first commercial facility.
"This agreement is a welcome step in HR BioPetroleum's efforts to accelerate its proven technology toward commercial scale," stated Ed Shonsey, HR BioPetroleum chief executive officer.
"HR BioPetroleum has developed techniques to scale production and achieve at least a 50 percent improvement over the price per barrel of fossil fuel today, while mitigating carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere. This is tremendous technological progress as we seek energy solutions that also attack global warming," he added.
"Alexander & Baldwin has been producing renewable energy in Hawaii for more than 100 years through biomass and hydro-electric generation at its agricultural operations on both Maui and Kauai, and today generates approximately seven percent of the electricity used on each of those islands," said Allen Doane, A&B chairman and CEO.
"We are excited about the promise of algae as another renewable energy source, and look forward to the potential reduction in imported oil and greenhouse gas emissions it represents," Doane continued.
"Hawaiian Electric is very pleased to be part of this pioneering accord," said Mike May, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric. "Along with many other initiatives in the works, this is another example of how successful partnerships can move Hawaii toward a clean, renewable energy future we can all take pride in."
"As we move toward siting an algae facility next to Maui Electric's power plant, we will meet more of our energy needs at home and also reduce our carbon footprint," said Dr. Karl Stahlkopf, Hawaiian Electric senior vice president for energy solutions and chief technology officer. "This project entails some uncertainly. Stepping forward to be a first implementer of a new idea always does.
"However, it unites the best of the new Hawaii high-tech industry with two long-established Hawaii infrastructure companies in a unique partnership. We have good
reason to be confident it will be a step toward energy self sufficiency, not only for Hawaii but for the nation and the world," Stahlkopf said.
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11/12/2007
Royal Dutch Shell plc and HR BioPetroleum today announced the construction of a pilot facility in Hawaii to grow marine algae and produce vegetable oil for conversion into biofuel.
The announcement is a further step in Shell's ongoing effort to develop a new generation of biofuels using sustainable, non-food raw materials. Algae hold great promise because they grow very rapidly, are rich in vegetable oil and can be cultivated in ponds of seawater, minimising the use of fertile land and fresh water.
Shell and HR BioPetroleum have formed a joint venture company, called Cellana, to develop this project, with Shell taking the majority share. Construction of the demonstration facility on the Kona coast of Hawaii Island will begin immediately. The site, leased from the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA), is near existing commercial algae enterprises, primarily serving the pharmaceutical and nutrition industries.
The facility will grow only non-modified, marine microalgae species in open-air ponds using proprietary technology. Algae strains used will be indigenous to Hawaii or approved by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. Protection of the local environment and marine ecosystem has been central to facility design. Once the algae are harvested, the vegetable oil will be extracted. The facility's small production volumes will be used for testing.
An academic research programme will support the project, screening natural microalgae species to determine which ones produce the highest yields and the most vegetable oil. The programme will include scientists from the Universities of Hawaii, Southern Mississippi and Dalhousie, in Nova Scotia, Canada.
An advantage of algae is their rapid growth. They can double their mass several times a day and produce at least 15 times more oil per hectare than alternatives such as rape, palm soya or jatropha. Moreover, facilities can be built on coastal land unsuitable for conventional agriculture. Over the long term, algae cultivation facilities also have the potential to absorb or capture'waste CO2 directly from industrial facilities such as power plants. The Cellana demonstration will use bottled CO2 to explore this potential.
"Algae have great potential as a sustainable feedstock for production of diesel-type fuels with a very small CO2 footprint," said Graeme Sweeney, Shell Executive Vice President Future Fuels and CO2. "This demonstration will be an important test of the technology and, critically, of commercial viability" .
"HR BioPetroleum's proven technology provides a solid platform for commercial development and potential deployment worldwide," Mark Huntley, HR BioPetroleum Chief Science Officer said. "Shell's expertise and commitment to next generation biofuels complements our own strengths, and makes this a truly collaborative partnership."
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Technology
HR BioPetroluem's core technology is a photosynthetic production system that economically grows proprietary algae strains at a commercial-scale. The production system is unique in that it couples closed-culture photobioreactors with open ponds in a two-stage process. Previous attempts at scaling up algae production have used a photobioreactor or open pond individually, not coupled. Open pond production, which is needed for rapid algae growth, has historically been hampered by the contamination by undesirable algae strains. Photobioreactors by themselves are unable to produce algae at an acceptable rate and would take up too much room to become commercially viable.
With the development of this hybrid production system, HR BioPetroleum has achieved significant breakthroughs for the commercialization of algae production.
Our system:
* Combines low cost and the high productivity of algae ponds with the protection of culture-closed photo bioreactors
* Allows contamination-free monocultures of the most productive algae to be cultivated
* Minimizes capital investment as a cost factor
STEP 1 - Select Algae Strain
HR BioPetroleum has licensed unique and naturally occurring algae strains from the University of Hawaii that have been selected for high production of algae oil and rapid growth under targeted commercial production conditions.
STEP 2 - Grow Algae in a Photobioreactor
A photobioreactor is used in the first stage of algae production to maintain the constant conditions that favor continuous cell division and prevent contamination of the culture by other organisms.
In our pilot plant, the main body of the production photobioreactor is a long series of four large temperature and pH controlled tubes that are connected together in parallel. The algae are exposed to sunlight while kept in suspension to maximize growth.
STEP 3 - Transfer and Grow Algae in Open Ponds
In the second stage, the algae is transferred from the photobioreactors to an open pond system. The open pond is a paddlewheel-driven, recirculating raceway, fitted with a durable plastic liner.
The goal of the second stage is to expose the cells to nutrient deprivation and other environmental stresses that lead, as rapidly as possible, to synthesis of the product of interest- for biodiesel this is oil. Environmental stresses that stimulate oil production can be applied rapidly by transferring culture from the photobioreactor to an open pond. Ponds, like photobioreactors, are exposed to full sunlight.
In our pilot plant, on the first day of pond operation, photobioreactor culture is transferred at dawn to a full pond of nutrient-depleted culture medium. Only enough nutrients are transferred with the fresh culture to allow cell division to continue through the morning of the second day.. Depending upon the desired product, , the pond is harvested, cleaned and prepared for a new production cycle on the second or third day after inoculation.
STEP 4 -- Harvest Algae
The algae cells are concentrated by gravitation into a slurry, excess water removed, then further concentrated by centrifugation. The wet biomass is then dried.
STEP 5 -- Process Algae
The oil and other by-products are extracted by a proprietary process.
WHY OUR TECHNOLOGIES SUCCEED WHERE OTHERS FAIL
The key to success is to reduce the residence time in open ponds, where cultures are susceptible to contamination. This can be done only by providing a continuous supply of uncontaminated inoculum in large volume, which requires industrial scale photobioreactors. Our results demonstrate that, even when photobioreactor cultures are maintained under light-limited conditions that favor relatively low growth rates, they occupy a minor fraction of the area required for the entire cultivation system. The most rapid growth rates occur in the open ponds, allowing for a very short residence time and thus avoiding contamination in what represents the majority of the cultivation system on an area basis.
The coupled system minimizes cost. In a coupled system, photobioreactors provide a continuous source of single-species culture in ample quantity to inoculate the open ponds, allowing the batch cultures in open ponds to exhaust the nutrient supply in a short time, thus avoiding the perils of contamination by other species.
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