Pond Biofuels is testing a process to capture CO2 at a Canadian cement factory (Photo: SeRVe61/flickr)
A Canadian company called Pond Biofuels is capturing CO2 emissions from a cement plant in algae -- algae the company ultimately plans on using to make biofuel.
It's no secret that the process of manufacturing cement is both energy intensive and dirty. Global cement production alone emits roughly five percent of greenhouse gas emissions annually, both as a byproduct of limestone decarbonation (60%) and from the burning of fossil fuels in the cement kilns (40%). And as the demand for concrete-intensive infrastructure soars in developing countries like China and India, global emissions from cement plants--and other industrial sources--will continue to rise.
But a Canadian company called Pond Biofuels sees some real opportunity in all those industrial greenhouse gas emissions. At the St. Marys Cement plant in southwestern Ontario, Pond Biofuels has become the first to successfully use carbon dioxide emitted from a major industrial source to produce high value biomass from microalgae.
Pond Biofuels is capturing carbon dioxide and other emissions from a cement plant and using it to create a nutrient-rich algae slime which can be dried and used as a fuel.
The algae will be grown at a facility adjacent to the stacks, harvested, dried using industrial waste heat, from the cement plant and then used along with the fossil fuels that are currently used in its cement kilns. The company says they hope to demonstrate the scalability of the industrial pilot project and to show that it can be employed on virtually any industrial stack.
"To resolve the problem you have to have an industrial solution, not a laboratory solution," Terry Graham, chairman of Toronto start-up Pond Biofuels told the Toronto Star. "In a laboratory you can control everything. But you can't do that in the field," added Graham.
Several companies are developing promising technologies in the race to successfully capture, divert and repurpose industrial-scale emissions of greenhouse gases into algae-based biofuels, but investment in the fledgling industry has been slow to develop.
However, if the Pond Biofuels project shows that it can successfully produce a microalgae crop that can then be turned back into fuel to fire the kilns or converted to an algae-based biofuel--a process they are currently testing and hope ultimately to be fueling their trucks with--the three-year-old start-up is going to have a lot of interested venture capitalists knocking at its front door.
Photo: SeRVe61 via flickr/Creative Commons
Follow Timothy B. Hurst on Twitter: ![[E&I] Canadian Cement Plant Becomes First to Capture CO2 in Algae - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net](http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/?d=http://earthandindustry.com/wp-content/themes/hybrid/library/images/pingback.png&s=80){kind=avatar}
Biofuels are a joke and a scam. Does anyone realize that if you trap the CO2 in algae, but then process it some other processing plant (which requires energy) and use it to fuel trucks (which requires energy to get it to the trucks) and then you burn it, the CO2 goes into the air anyway, and you used MORE overall fuel by fueling the production process of the biofuel. And where did the energy to store it in algae come from? THE SUN. So it is the most inefficient solar panel in the world, essentially.
If you wanted it to be good for the environment you’d throw the algae into the sea or something, not burn it for fuel. All biofuel in my opinion as a physicist is a scam. Companies can pretend to be green while polluting just as much. And don’t get me started on the corn biofuels, and other grain biofuels. Again it’s just solar energy, which grows a plant, and then the plant is processed, shipped, and burned while the grain prices sky rocket and people starve somewhere in the world because of it.
Joe, I suggest you check this part of the story out before commenting on the pitfalls of previous biofuels projects (although I agree that many have been bogus ideas):
“The algae will be grown at a facility adjacent to the stacks, harvested, dried using industrial waste heat, from the cement plant and then used along with the fossil fuels that are currently used in its cement kilns”
The algae processing is using waste heat, which would be lost energy regardless. Also, no need for trucks/shipping as the fuel is then being consumed on site. Essentially this delays the use of fossil fuels, decreasing the rate of carbon dioxide emmisions. For every BTU of fuel generated from recaptured C02 there is one less BTU of fuel mined, so the overall carbon footprint goes down.
This is a great way to use natural aspects of our environment to produce bio fuel. Will this algae-produced fuel be cheaper than gasoline? We will have to see if this technology brings cheaper fuel. If it doesn’t, then it falls into the same category of other fuel technologies that are very expensive.
I think the title of this article is misleading…. what is happening is they are capturing the CO2 from the cement plant and using that to grow the algae. photosynthetic algea are like plants, they require high amounts of CO2 and release O2. Certain types of algae produce oils as a waste product and that is what is valuble to us as a bio fuel.
Deleted my post? It’s a plain fact that most CO2 emissions from concrete production are caused by the chemical process, NOT the energy intensity. The first two sentences made me want to throw up all over my computer. That’s the truth! Don’t censor the truth! http://www.concretethinker.com/technicalbrief/Concrete-Cement-CO2.aspx
We appreciate your insight but your comment was not deleted to “censor the truth”, it was deleted for the insults it was peppered with.
Taking note of your original concern, we updated the post yesterday to reflect a more nuanced picture of how much CO2 is released via the chemical processes of cement making and how much is released by burning fuel for the kilns. We based our rough estimates on a a 2004 EPA study.
See: Hanle, J. (2004) “CO2 Emissions Profile of the U.S. Cement Industry”(pdf)
Thanks.
-Ed.
Now the question is, which CO2 emissions are being captured by the company? 60%, 40%, or all?
Cement Plants emit Co2 at high temperature from stacks at a high level of about 100 meters. How do you bring it down to the algae growing area at griound level. Are you blowing it down by mechanical means at the Canadian Plant.