Projo Biz Blog

A partnership of four companies, including BioprocessH2O in Portsmouth, has been given a $2.1-million grant to mass produce algae fuel using waste products from an Iowa ethanol plant.

The project involves taking waste heat, water and carbon dioxide from the plant, sending it into a 16-foot by 3-foot photobioreactor and growing 50 tons of algae per year, half of which would consist of an oily residue that could be converted to fuel. The rest would be a solid biomass product that can be used to make distiller's grain or other products.

"We're on the early cusp of this algae technology," said co-founder Timothy Burns, who touted the ability of the process to pull carbon dioxide, a so-called greenhouse gas, out of the environment.

If the pilot project works well, "it could be a significant employer for Rhode Island. [It could mean] a lot of good jobs," said Burns, whose company was formerly known as BioProcess Technologies.

The company running the process at the Iowa facility is BioProcessAlgae LLC, which consists of BioprocessH2O, Green Plains Renewable Energy of Iowa, NTR PLC, an Irish energy-holding company, and Clarcor Inc., a publicly traded manufacturer of environmental filtration products, which last year acquired a 30 percent equity stake in BioProcess.

The $2.1 million grant comes from the Iowa Power Fund.

gemery@projo.com / (401)277-7442

 Tags  algae BioprocessH2O carbon dioxide Clarcor economy environment greenhouse gas jobs NTR Portsmouth RI

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