Here is what we know about algae: it&#8217;s often green and always loaded with potential. Its growth rate of 30 to 100 times that of terrestrial plants is alarming. And the whispers that once told us microalgae, an organism much smaller than the size of a pinhead, could change the way we think about filling our tanks and fueling our planes get louder-much louder. Apparently the city of San Diego was listening from the start, and now the idea of growing, harvesting and tweaking algae, or anything that has to do with it, represents a topic the city is not shy about touting. &#8220;It seems simple to me,&#8221; says Jason Anderson, vice president and executive director for CleanTech San Diego. &#8220;But that may be because it is something that San Diego does so well.&#8221; 

 
 And that may be an understatement. In the city and surrounding area alone, there is a mix of more than 30 algae-based research centers, laboratories, startup companies and well-established players. For all the touting and talk by the city on algae development, for all the time spent in the university labs or the high-tech facilities working to find the perfect strain or the best growing method, there is one thing, of all the things that we don&#8217;t know, that we especially want to know: When? For all the talk of a &#8220;green bullet&#8221; that can ignite our energy independent future and squash any debate over food, land or air, that question of when might our algae dreams come true is what everyone wants to know. After all, if we can find out what some celebrity in Asia is doing at this exact minute by reading a tweet, or if our latest technological device can be outdated the day after we buy it, why can&#8217;t we get a solid guess as to algae&#8217;s arrival? The answer is complicated, as Tim Zenk, vice president of corporate affairs for Sapphire Energy, says. &#8220;This isn&#8217;t software-this is changing the world type stuff.&#8221; 
 
 Although one guess as to a scaled-up, economical path to algae utilization-two months, two years, 20 years, never-might be as good as the next, the scene in San Diego is unveiling the one thing we really need to know about that slimy green sludge with all the potential, and it has nothing to do with time. 
 
 To begin, look at the University of California-San Diego&#8217;s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Greg Mitchell, research biologist and senior lecturer, along with his team, work with algae every day. The team represents a small part of the scene in San Diego, a group of well-groomed, intelligent speaking individuals who have answers for just about every algae question one might have. &#8220;We are working on breakthroughs that will take us to large-scale production,&#8221; Elizabeth Trentacoste, a graduate student working with Mitchell, says on a portion of the university research. Another member working with Trentacoste, R. Cameron Coates, says that one of the unique traits the lab possesses &#8220;is the ability to analyze samples with a high degree of accuracy using tools that are standard to organic chemistry.&#8221; When it comes down to biofuel components, Coates says, &#8220;It&#8217;s analyzing those compounds and figuring out the genes and the enzymes that are required to make those.&#8221; Although some of the work at UCSD may sound familiar-a good idea relating to algae and a university that spends money to explore that idea-be assured it is different. 

 
 Mitchell&#8217;s team has already worked with General Atomics in a phase one development project, and Mitchell&#8217;s work sets the UCSD facility apart. Mitchell focuses on how many photons are used in photosynthesis and the quantity of biomass that is actually produced. &#8220;While people are running really fast inside the labs to make strains that are elite, sooner or later they are going to come to the physiology lab (UCSD&#8217;s) to see how they perform,&#8221; Mitchell says. &#8220;The industrials are going to need to know performance of their organisms and they&#8217;re going to need to have models that predict performance. They aren&#8217;t going to go out there willy-nilly with a strain and say &#8216;Hey, I hope it works.&#8217;&#8221; 
 
 
 The &#8216;Best&#8217; Application 

 While Mitchell and the others at Scripps may meet the smart-speaking, serious and passionate researcher standards we expect from such a highly touted lab, the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology just up the street from Scripps (literally) is a bit of the same-but different. Led by Stephen Mayfield, director of the SD-CAB, the team also works with algae 24/7 but is headed in a different direction. Mayfield&#8217;s crew, also a mix of researchers and grad students, is working to understand algae genes. &#8220;For many, many things that we are going to do, whether it&#8217;s lipid composition or growth rate or salt tolerance, all of those we can get without ever understanding what the gene is,&#8221; Mayfield says. &#8220;Just by selection, we can take 10 million of these guys and put them through selection and some volunteer will step forward and say, &#8216;I&#8217;ll survive in salt.&#8217;&#8221; If that gene can be understood, however, Mayfield says, &#8220;You can get there much quicker.&#8221; 
 
 The place where SD-CAB&#8217;s genetic work might go isn&#8217;t just about biofuels either. Along with the incredible research facilities, the multitude of options or &#8220;places&#8221; that algae may end up is just another part of the scene San Diego is revealing. Already, a large pharmaceutical company has approached Mayfield on the possibility of an algae-based pill used for vaccinations. The idea, he says, is that &#8220;if you make these (the pills) with algae, then instead of 100 bucks a dose, we might be at one buck a dose.&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 

 
 An algae company, Kent Bioenergy, just down the street from General Atomics (also literally), is in tune with the idea of other algae uses that don't involve biofuels. After starting in the fish business and now operating as a large algae harvester, Kent Bioenergy is looking into wastewater treatment. &#8220;Although the attraction of biofuels is really compelling as a business,&#8221; says Barry Toyonaga, chief business officer for Kent, &#8220;we actually think cleaning water might be the first order of business because, in the process of learning how to deal with vast amounts of water on different types of sites, we&#8217;ll learn a lot about what it takes to do larger scale installations for fuel productions.&#8221; 
 
 For Toyonaga and his team, treating wastewater via algae purification and extraction offers a prospect that they&#8217;ve already tested at a landfill site with significant results. Following work that turned a dark brown sludge from the landfill into an almost clear, almost drinkable solution, Toyonaga says they have already been approached by China and India. The success of the wastewater treatment process however is making the future for Kent difficult. &#8220;We are at the multifork in the road,&#8221; Toyonaga says. &#8220;The company can&#8217;t go down 10 paths at once.&#8221; 

 
 If Kent Bioenergy is undecided on which path to take the algae ride, there are others in San Diego who have no doubt where they will end up. Sapphire Energy knows exactly what it wants to do. &#8220;You solve the most difficult things first and move to the easy stuff later,&#8221; says Tim Zenk, vice president of public affairs. Fuel, whether renewable diesel or jet fuel, is Sapphire&#8217;s main focus. &#8220;If you can crack this market,&#8221; he says, &#8220;all the others will fall in place.&#8221; And Sapphire isn&#8217;t thinking small scale. One of the founders of the company, Mike Mendez, vice president of technology, says that in the beginning they approached the company&#8217;s future with a certain perspective. &#8220;If you couldn&#8217;t see our footprint from space,&#8221; Mendez says of that early company motto, &#8220;then why even bother.&#8221; Mendez says now Sapphire has taken algae from a kind of black magic or folklore species to something that is a daily routine. 

 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 
 New-Age Approach 
 The scene in San Diego, where the laboratories are filled with beakers of green algae (most of the time), the university hallways are sprinkled with algae experts, and companies in the business proliferate, might be best summarized by the setting in the lobby at Sapphire&#8217;s headquarters. A surfboard imprinted with the company&#8217;s logo leans against a wall, and security guards in dark blue uniforms stand watch. The view from one boardroom window shows brushes of the San Diego landscape&#8217;s sprawling valleys; and from the other, a small section of a lab unit scattered with miniature algae ponds and beakers, and more beakers. But beyond the surfboard, the guards and the labs lies the equipment that demonstrates to anyone with questions about algae everything they need to know. 
 
 In the middle of the facility is a large room, fully equipped with stainless steel refrigerators, countertops, large-screen televisions, Wii consoles, fancy couches, everything, it may seem, that has nothing to do with algae. Overhead a mix of current music pumps through the speakers and in the lab it&#8217;s no different, there&#8217;s music and a lot of bodies concentrating on algae strains. Zenk says the large room in the middle of the facility is for those long nights when the workers need a break before heading back into the lab. And that&#8217;s it, that&#8217;s what San Diego is showing us about algae. Like everything else, everybody might have a different take on &#8220;when&#8221; algae might fulfill its promises. But, if you think not knowing when is reason enough to dismiss that &#8220;green bullet,&#8221; then look at that large room in the Sapphire headquarters. Its whole purpose is based on the presumption that a worker will want to&nbsp; spend all day researching algae and, after a break, will want to return to that work. 

 
 They&#8217;ve made an algae facility a home away from home, and it&#8217;s working to turn that folkloric species into a reality, even during those long nights. Kent Bioenergy doesn&#8217;t know what the future holds either, but they know they want to get there with algae. And if a city&#8217;s effort isn&#8217;t enough, if algae activity and commitment isn&#8217;t equal to achievement, then look at Mayfield, one of the founders of Sapphire, that promising facility working around the clock with algae. For Mayfield, who&#8217;s back in the lab working again on algae at SD-CAB, &#8220;There is a lot of room for a lot of Sapphires.&#8221; When, who knows, but if one had to guess, San Diego or other cities like it might be good places to continue watching for answers. 
 
 
 Author: Luke Geiver 

 Associate Editor, Biorefining 
 (701) 738-4944 
 <a target="_blank" title="&quot;An Algae Scene Worth Seeing&quot; - Biorefining, November 2010" href="&#109;&#97;&#105;&#108;&#116;&#111;&#58;&#108;&#103;&#101;&#105;&#118;&#101;&#114;&#64;&#98;&#98;&#105;&#105;&#110;&#116;&#101;&#114;&#110;&#97;&#116;&#105;&#111;&#110;&#97;&#108;&#46;&#99;&#111;&#109;&#32;">lgeiver@bbiinternational.com </a>

Here is what we know about algae: it's often green and always loaded with potential. Its growth rate of 30 to 100 times that of terrestrial plants is alarming.

An Algae Scene Worth Seeing

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