A New Mexico city formerly known mostly for its connection to the "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling scandal may now gain renown for an innovative new biofuel project.---
The city of Columbus, on the Mexican border south of Deming, is home to a biofuel project created by Sapphire Energy Inc that converts algae oil into a gasoline analogue. That product can then be refined into a diesel, gasoline or jet fuel, according to the Sapphire website.
The US Department of Energy actually began researching this technology in the 1970's—some tests were even done in Roswell, New Mexico. But Sapphire Energy's project is one of the first attempts to demonstrate the technology's feasibility on a commercial scale.
The first of Sapphire's 100-acre ponds is supposed to be in operation by this summer, with two more planned over the next year and a half. It received over $100 million in federal funding (about half is stimulus money and half is a US Department of Agriculture loan), plus support from private investors. Sapphire has disclosed the names of two investors: Monsanto Co. (famous for producing genetically engineered seeds) and Arrowpoint Partners (a Denver-based investment firm). Paul Gessing of the conservative Rio Grande Foundation sounds a cautionary note about Sapphire's use of federal funding—the formula that got solar energy company Solyndra into trouble.
"Anytime federal funding is involved for specific projects, as opposed to a general goal, there's always concerns about cronyism and corruption, and that the project may fail," Gessing says.
However, algae's oil volume output is significantly higher than soy, corn or other traditional biofuel sources, which is why several private companies with different proprietary algae growth and harvesting methods have recently sprung up.
The algae make use of carbon dioxide emissions, nonpotable water and sunlight to produce algae oil. Sapphire hasn't released details regarding the type of algae it is using, but green algae and brown algae (diatoms) are most commonly used, because of their algae oil yield and ability to thrive in less than favorable conditions. The Roswell tests showed that algae is capable of using 90 percent of carbon dioxide introduced to it, but that fluctuating temperatures limited its oil-producing capacity. The DOE stopped funding the research in 1995, so continuing progress has been made in the private sector.
