OriginOil to Collaborate with US Department of Energy to Develop Algae Feedstock Standard

OriginOil, Inc. announced it will begin to work with the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory to develop standards for converting biomass, including algae, into biofuels and other products.

On August 23^rd and 24^th, Paul Reep participated as an algae industry representative in the Department of Energy's (DOE) Biomass Preconversion and Densification Workshop, held at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

Invited participants from both private and public sectors were given progress updates from DOE's Office of Biomass Programs. One of the Program's main goals will be to develop feedstock standards and specifications for different formats of bio-energy materials. While the focus of the workshop was on terrestrial biomass, OriginOil plans to work with researchers at INL to extend the concepts to include algae.

The collaboration will include how algae can add energy content to other feedstocks such as woody and herbaceous materials, which are already being configured for biochemical and thermochemical upgrading for energy production. It is envisioned that once the correct formulation is established, the combined chemical and energy value of the whole formatted feedstock will be greater than the sum of individual parts.

Until now, the focus on algae has been on harvesting its oil products for drop-in biofuels. However, using the whole algae feedstock with its lipids still in the cell is more energy-efficient and helps centralize downstream processing.

"We are very excited to help establish a uniform intermediate feedstock standard for algae, a critical step toward helping algae producers and energy refiners to collaborate for biofuels production," said Paul Reep, OriginOil Senior Vice President of Technology.

As with John D. Rockefeller's creation of a "Standard Oil," specification standards are critical enabling steps for large-scale expansion of emerging industries. Once a standard for algae feedstock is agreed, it will provide industry direction to design equipment and products to meet that standard. OriginOil intends to work closely with algae industry organizations and producers to make this standard a reality.