Company Name MBD Energy	Company Web Site http://www.mbdenergy.com/	Headquarters East Melbourne, Australia
Latest News August 17, 2009 Private Melbourne company MBD Energy is about to introduce technology that allows algae to capture half or more of the greenhouse gases emitted by a power station, at virtually no cost to the utility. What's more, MBD stands to make a small fortune from the algae by-products: fuel, plastics and meal for livestock. Managing director Andrew Lawson says testing at James Cook University in Townsville suggests for every two tonnes of carbon captured, the MBD technology can produce almost 1 tonne of algae, of which one-third can be made into oil products and two-thirds into meal. With meal sales about $400/tonne (rival soymeal product sells at about $780/tonne) and oil selling at $800/tonne, that equates to about $570 of revenue from each tonne of algae, or more than $250 for each tonne of CO2 captured. The significance of this should not be underestimated. Instead of carbon becoming a massive liability and cost, this approach uses carbon to pay for the clean up, and in turn generates large revenue streams. The first 1ha display plant of its "fuel synthesiser" is to be installed at the Loy Yang A coal-fired power station in the next six months. If the concept is proved over six to 12 months, MBD will move ahead to build a commercial pilot plant over 80ha. That will require a $25 million investment, but Lawson estimates it will produce earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $15 million. If that project succeeds, the facility can quickly be scaled up to a $300m demonstration facility. Australia's largest power station, NSW's Eraring Energy, and a large-scale emitter in Queensland have signed agreements with MBD to instal display plants over the next 12 months. But Lawson is frustrated that the federal government's carbon pollution reduction scheme only recognises and supports geosequestration. Why seek to bury it at massive cost and with unproven technology, he asks, when it can be recycled and used to generate a new earnings stream? To illustrate the point, he says a privately funded, $1.2 billion facility could capture half of Loy Yang's carbon emissions and generate $740m of meal income a year and $660m of oil income, as well as carbon credits of about $225m, while using just 10MW of energy. It also recycles water. A carbon capture and storage facility is at least a decade away, would require a government investment of more than $5 billion, require 300MW of power a year and only generate income from carbon credits. The difference in value creation over 20 years is $26.8bn for the MBD technology and minus $2.6bn from CCS. The process can possibly capture only half a utility's emissions because it relies on sunlight to cause photosynthesis, but Lawson says more can be captured if future testing with LED lighting proves successful. The $1.2bn for a massive algae farm may sound costly, but Lawson says this is likely to be funded as a separate infrastructure project, with the utilities having the option to co-invest. Each project of that scale would create 2000 regional jobs. MBD Energy is in the process of raising about $10m from three cornerstone investors, including an international energy company and a local carbon fund. -------------------- May 12, 2009 MBD Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with Loy Yang Power. The company wants to use carbon emissions to heat and feed strains of algae and then produce oil and stockfeed from the algae. A spokesman, Andrew Lawson, says the company will initially set up a trial plant on a hectare of land in the Latrobe Valley. "Then it will form the basis of a multiple set-up that we will replicate and copy that system like a cookie cutter approach and just expand that over time to consume significant volumes of Loy Yang's waste gasses," he said.
Funding 27 May 2008 The Queensland, Australia, Government is providing A$166,000 (US$160,000) in funding to support the development of an algae biodiesel process by James Cook University (JCU) and Australian biodiesel company MDB Biodiesel Ltd. Considering the current debate about agricultural land being used to produce biofuels, algae may well be a significant future alternative fuel source as we set about tackling climate change. While most other biodiesels come from agricultural crops like canola, soy and palm oil, algae can be grown with ease in ponds or tanks on poor quality land. The process, which is also being trialed in Europe and the United States, also produces as a by-product  algal cake'for animal feedstock which could help drought-proof our livestock industry.  Queensland Premier Anna Bligh The process uses algae farms situated next to coal- or gas-fired power stations, and can consume approximately 50% of the carbon dioxide in the flue gas. The first stage will be the identification and development of suitable algae strains to achieve stable, continuous, high yield algae production.  MBD Biodiesel Director Dr. Marc StammbachMBD will provide the algae photo-bioreactor which will be situated at JCU. The partners plan to build a 35,000 tonne algae pilot farm next year followed by a 400-hectare algae farm by 2010 which can ultimately consume in excess of 2,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and provide algae oil for a 250,000 tonne biodiesel plant.
Technology MBD Energy is a new generation algae based Australian energy company. The company is developing industrial scale algae based technology that offers sustainable solutions to 3 critical issues: 1. Bio-oil: availability, security and affordability 2. Animal feed: drought-proof production of nutritious feed for livestock 3. CO2: cost effective and productive large scale bio-sequestration Rather than see flue gas emissions as an expensive cost, MBD's process has the potential to significantly value add to these emissions offering carbon abatement to both large and small emitters, a significant offset to Australia's importation of oil and meal and provision of long term sustainable jobs: "A win for the environment "A win for the balance of trade through domestic production of oil and meal "And a win for Australia through the creation of long term sustainable jobs and related industries. In simple terms, algae can consume large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) to facilitate it's growth, and emitters such as power stations need to reduce their CO2 emissions given the government's proposed implementation of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. MBD plans to use the key ingredients of waste CO2 (sourced in the first instance from a coal fired power station), sunlight, nutrient enriched surplus waste water, and land sited within a power station's buffer zone to deploy its CO2 Capture and Algae Synthesiser Technology. MBD will in-effect be using waste products to generate numerous high value products/commodities including: algae oil, algae meal and associated derivative products.
Other Info MBD Energy (formerly MBD Biodiesel Ltd) is utilising private equity to develop an algae feedstock based on the key ingredients of waste CO2, derived from gas or coal fired power stations and, where available, nutrient enriched surplus waste water. Our approach has the potential to provide a viable approach to coal flue gas sequestration (the removal of carbon from the energy system) by actively providing a cycle for carbon to be reintroduced or re-absorbed into the energy cycle. The project has the potential to significantly mitigate the climate change potential presented today by Australia's power stations.