Company Name Renewed World Energies	Company Web Site http://www.rwenergies.com/	Headquarters Georgetown, SC
Latest News July 20, 2009 A South Carolina company has a patent pending on a new method for growing, harvesting and extracting oil from microalgae, promising dramatic cost savings and greater yields over existing algae production technologies. Renewed World Energies (RWE) says company president Richard Armstrong and chief technical officer Tim Tompkins have come up with a system efficiently remove nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide from flue gas (compressed CO2 can also be used) emitted from the power generation industry, resulting in clean air, and producing high quality, commercially valuable algae biomass and a highly nutritious livestock feed source: "Being at the forefront of an innovative technology that promises change for the better across so many spectrums is inspiring," states Richard Armstrong, president of Renewed World Energies. "We are seeing our goals come to fruition with a viable alternative that unites green and market standards and a day when dependence on foreign oil is a distant memory." Richard and Tim's vision is being realized and met with fervent anticipation. In preliminary prototype testing, results promise dramatic cost savings and greater yields over existing algae production technologies. RWE has just constructed a new facility in Georgetown, South Carolina and is already negotiating beta test agreements with several universities, biodiesel companies, nutraceutical companies and energy/power generation plants. RWE has made a conscious effort to "be green." The site selection of their facility was based on being within a 50-mile radius of their system and is located on unused farmland, to reduce transportation and land use costs. The facility is situated on roughly five acres of industrial property, which is located near a major US highway, and 4 miles from the port of Georgetown. The facility will have two acres of commercial algae growing systems, plus smaller test plots.
Funding No specific funding information.
Technology The cornerstone of RWE as it exists today is a proprietary system (bioreactor/cell) in which algae is grown, harvested, and pressed into two primary product lines: algae oil and algae cake. The resultant algae oil can meet Biodiesel ASTM and EU specifications and the algae cake can either be sold as livestock feed or further processed (gasified) to produce syn gas. A tertiary benefit of the system is its potential use for reclaiming CO2 emissions from exhaust flu gas. Each algae facility consists of hundreds of reactors lined up row after row, controlled by a central operational control system. RWE's revolutionary large scale bioreactor, the AT-40G-10F, is at the heart of the project (AT- is the prefix for all part numbers, 40G-represents a 40 gallon bioreactor panel, 10F represents a10 frame or panel rack). This patent pending bioreactor consists of three primary components: a vertical pond, automated process control equipment, and harvesting equipment. The vertical pond system employed uses 4' wide by 6' high by 3' thick panels designed by our process control engineers to have specific characteristics of light penetration and flow to maximize the algae growth. The panels are vertically situated in a "rack" design to facilitate quick installation with uniquely designed piping headers. The automation of the system consists of specific instrumentation, valves, algorithms, and control parameters designed by RWE engineers as part of RWE's patent pending intellectual property. The system design allows for mass production, low cost, and easy assembly. Our unique system circulates the water, nutrients, and CO2 required to grow the algae through the tank and panels. Several instruments in the system monitor pH, temperature, and other control variables. Automated valves react based on the information provided by the instruments to adjust the control parameters, i.e., temperature, nutrient levels and pH balance. When the algae are ready to harvest, automated valves open and close sending the algae to a prescreen process where the moisture is reduced to ~ 20%. The semi-wet algae is then pumped to a holding tank for pick-up or piped to a final screen, dried further (if necessary) and, finally, to an oil processing plant. Mass Operational Control / Scalability RWE has an innovative and efficient method for regulating our system. The entire process is controlled via a computerized system with proprietary software and a proprietary hardware configuration while an "Operator Interface" touch screen provides the operator with diagnostics and total control of the process. This graphic interface resides on computers located in the dedicated electrical/operator building per each 10 acres of algae farms. The electrical/operator building houses the electrical equipment to power the algae pumps, instruments, and heating/cooling system, as well as a computer with display allowing us to operate and account for trend/historical information including temperature, pH, and control information. The Operator Interface allows an individual to select between automatic or manual control of the production process (i.e. open/close valves, turn pumps off & on, perform manual harvests or automatic harvests, etc.). It can also be operated via the Internet with the appropriate pass codes, ensuring that only authorized persons can access the system.
Other Info Renewed World Energies is a South Carolina based company founded on solid financials and sound science. RWE is pioneering a new era of mass adoption of bio-fuel by launching the first commercially-viable, closed system, automated microalgae production facility in the world. Over the past six years, Tim Tompkins and Richard Armstrong, RWE's principals, developed a scalable closed system bioreactor for growing algae that is completely automated. Not only is the system able to grow, harvest, and extract oil from microalgae at a remarkably low cost, but the process also captures Carbon via Flue Gas or bottled CO2 providing a highly nutritious livestock feed source. In the short term, RWE's mission is to be the leader in manufacturing and sale of algae oil and to be a lead supplier of the products and services associated with such manufacturing and sales: products that range from algae cake for livestock feed to uses in pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Longer term, RWE intends to spend time looking inward to discover the many other profitable and viable uses of RWE's core technology, including the power generation industry, which needs to remove CO2 from its exhaust flue gas. RWE is passionate about utilizing our technology in every way possible.