A surprising concept may provide a sustainable basis for running cars on gasoline. The idea involves “milking” single-cell algae called diatoms that flourish in oceans and freshwater ecosystems.

Geologists believe diatom graveyards could be the birthplace of much of the world’s crude oil. When the algae—measuring barely a third of a strand of hair in diameter—die, they drift to the seafloor, depositing their shells and oil into the sediments.

A surprising concept may provide a sustainable basis for running cars on gasoline. The idea involves “milking” single-cell algae called diatoms that flourish in oceans and freshwater ecosystems. Geologists believe diatom graveyards could be the birthplace of much of the world’s crude oil. When the algae—measuring barely a third of a strand of hair in diameter—die, they drift to the seafloor, depositing their shells and oil into the sediments.

There seem to be several advantages to diatoms as a source of fuel compared to agricultural oil crops, such as soybean and oil palm. For one, estimates suggest diatoms could produce 10-to-200 times as much oil per acre as oil crops. Based on the photosynthetic efficiency and the growth potential of algae, calculations predict that an annual oil production greater than 200 barrels of algal oil per hectare of land may be achievable in mass culture of oleaginous algae—100-200 times greater than that of soybeans.

There seem to be several advantages to diatoms as a source of fuel compared to agricultural oil crops, such as soybean and oil palm. For one, estimates suggest diatoms could produce 10-to-200 times as much oil per acre as oil crops. Based on the photosynthetic efficiency and the growth potential of algae, calculations predict that an annual oil production greater than 200 barrels of algal oil per hectare of land may be achievable in mass culture of oleaginous algae—100-200 times greater than that of soybeans.

Genetically engineering single-cell algae known as diatoms to secrete gasoline may provide a way around the
puzzle of how to make algae that both grow quickly and have very high oil content

However, the problem is that when algae such as diatoms are grown rapidly, they produce very little oil per cell. When they are starved, they produce plenty of oil per cell, but few cells. This basic dichotomy led to an impasse in the crash program for algal biofuel in the US (1980-1995).

The scient i s t s sugges t a way around this.

“Milking of algae has been done by solvent extraction methods that don’t kill the cells, but in which they are otherwise passive. Here, we propose altering the cells so that they actively secrete their oil droplets,” says Ramachandra .

“If we could change diatoms by genetic engineering so that they secreted their oil the way cows do, we could milk them instead of grinding them up. The only difference between extracting biofuel from algae like diatoms and this procedure is the size of the individual organisms,” adds Gordon.

“If we could change diatoms by genetic engineering so that they secreted their oil the way cows do, we could milk them instead of grinding them up. The only difference between extracting biofuel from algae like diatoms and this procedure is the size of the individual organisms,” adds Gordon.

“If we could change diatoms by genetic engineering so that they secreted their oil the way cows do, we could milk them instead of grinding them up. The only difference between extracting biofuel from algae like diatoms and this procedure is the size of the individual organisms,” adds Gordon.

One remarkable aspect of the system is that since diatoms like other algae, sequester carbon, it could also address the problem of global warming to some degree. Diatoms are estimated to be responsible for up to a quarter of global carbon dioxide fixation.

Of course, there is much that needs to be done. The scientists anticipate a 10-year research program before these ideas can be brought to fruition. But “any country tackling this effort might place itself in a position of exporting the technology, while reducing or eliminating its dependence on imported oil,” points out Gordon.

Clearly, the fruit isn’t low-hanging.

BIOFUEL BARONS? The Indian Institute of Science's Ramachandra (left) and Balasubramanian are searching for a way to efficiently harvest oil from diatoms that could be used as biofuel.

BANGALORE, India—In the ongoing hunt for alternative fuel sources that are also costeffective, researchers are looking into making biofuel from genetically engineered diatoms, a type of single-celled algae with shells made of glasslike silica. These microscopic plants, commonly observed as a brown skin coating submerged stones in rivers and lakes and as phytoplankton in seas and oceans, typically contain oil droplets inside their cells. The oil is a food source for the plants in lean times. Scientific analysis of diatom oil has shown that it is very suitable for use as biofuel, says T. V. Ramachandra, a professor of ecological sciences at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here who is working on this project with IISc researchers Durga Mahapatra and Karthick Balasubramanian, along with Richard Gordon, a radiology professor at the University of Manitoba in Winnepeg. Sitting in his book-lined office in a leafy corner of the IISc campus in Bangalore, Ramachandra proposes it might just be possible "to milk diatoms for oil just as we milk cows." He and his colleagues have been talking about a solar panel that could extract this oil instead of producing electricity. The oil can be as much as a quarter of the total mass of a diatom cell, and if a way could be found to efficiently wrest it from diatoms, he adds, a hectare of "diatom cultivation could produce 10 to up to 200 times the oil that is produced by soybean cultivation," Ramachandra says. (This estimate has been borne out by other, independent research groups, as well.)

The researchers propose creating a biological solar panel, which will contain diatoms instead of photovoltaic cells. Diatoms would float about in a nutrient-rich water solution and produce oil when exposed to sunlight. Diatoms already secrete silica by exocytosis—a biological process by which cells direct secreted material outside the cell walls. If diatoms could be made to similarly secrete the oil they produce, then it could be easily harvested. (Because the oil is used as a reserve nutrient—like fat—diatoms have evolved no mechanism to secrete it.)

New diatom species
Diatoms may have other advantages when it comes to oil production. They multiply rapidly—some species double their biomass in as little as five hours. Diatoms are also quite numerous, with the estimated number of species exceeding one million. "There are 2,500 species of diatoms in India alone," says Balasubramanian, who is writing his doctoral thesis on these algae. He discovered three new species in India while hunting for those with the most oil content.

Ramachandra and his colleagues propose to genetically modify diatoms by manipulating the genes that produce oil so that they enhance its production. "It may be possible to genetically engineer diatoms so that they exocytose [release] their oil droplets," the researchers wrote in a paper outlining their thoughts, published in a recent issue of the American Chemical Society's journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research: "This could lead to continuous harvesting with clean separation of the oil from the diatoms, provided by the diatoms themselves."

For instance, the water-based nutrient solution in the solar panel will cause the oil to separate out. Ramachandra envisages a process similar to cream rising to the top in milk.

As he and his collaborators put it, "with at least a boundary layer of water on the diatoms, secreted oil droplets would separate under gravity, rising to the top of a tilted panel forming an unstable emulsion, which should progressively separate. The oil could then be skimmed, very similar to the cream that rises to the top of mammalian milk that has not been homogenized."

Production cost
Many experts are intrigued by this study but point out that it is still too early to know how it will play out. Mark Hildebrand, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, says, "A major consideration" in development of such technology "is the economic costs of production."

To date, models have shown that "the only economically viable way to produce the large amount of biomass required to supplant a large portion of our fossil-fuel needs requires an open-pond system," Hildebrand says. Although he does not discount the value of systems such as proposed by Ramachandra, which could be especially useful for research, he says it's still too early to know.

"The basic concept is similar to proposing to grow agriculture crops in greenhouses instead of in open fields," he says. "On a large scale, it just costs too much."

Sustainable farming
But Ramachandra insists an advantage of the diatom solar panel is that it can be created and maintained with equipment and methods that are inexpensive. This is different from photovoltaic solar panels, which require sophisticated fabrication facilities, Ramachandra says. In tropical countries like India with an abundance of sunlight, biofuel-producing solar panels containing local diatoms could be placed in every village. Investigation has shown that diatom oil can be used as biofuel without further processing, says Ramachandra—another advantage. A further advantage is that diatoms consume carbon dioxide, so the diatom solar panels would be very sustainable.

So far, the team has cultured and studied different diatoms and explored approaches to genetically engineering them, but has yet to build a solar panel. Nevertheless, corporations such as Hindustan Unilever, Ltd., (the Indian subsidiary of the multinational Unilever) have shown interest by talking to the researchers a number of times.

The next step, Ramachandra says, is to figure out how to implement the diatom solar panel at the lowest possible cost.

Algae, it appears, are the new green in the quest for a sustainable biofuel that can run cars, put airplanes in the sky and be made into shopping bags.

Paul Woods was 22 and studying genetics at the University of Western Ontario when he realized that under certain conditions some species of algae naturally produce small quantities of ethanol. It was 1984, oil prices appeared to be heading higher, and Woods wondered whether pond scum could be genetically engineered to produce large volumes of the renewable fuel as an alternative to gasoline. The Toronto-born biology student needed some expert advice, so he tracked down plant biologist John Coleman at the University of Toronto and laid out his wish list. "He basically walked into my lab and asked, `Do you think this is a possibility?' " recalls Coleman, a senior professor in the university's department of cell and systems biology. "I sat down, thought about it for a little while, and we started coming up with more ideas." Twenty-five years later, Woods, now 47, is founder and chief executive of Florida-based Algenol Biofuels and Coleman is its chief scientific officer. No longer are they just mucking around in the lab. Algenol announced last month a partnership with chemical powerhouse Dow Chemical to build and operate a demonstration algae-to-ethanol plant at one of Dow's manufacturing sites in Texas.

Algae, it appears, are the new green in the quest for a sustainable biofuel that can run cars, put airplanes in the sky and be made into shopping bags. Dozens of start-ups have sprung out of universities, government labs and corporate R&D divisions, all hoping to break the world's addiction to oil in a way that's economical and doesn't compete against food production. More significantly, corporate titans – Dow Chemical just one among them – are entering the game.

It came as a surprise earlier this month when ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil company, said it would invest $600 million (U.S.) to research and develop algae-derived oil, and possibly billions of dollars more to commercialize a product.

Honeywell International, through its subsidiary UOP, has been working with Boeing, Airbus and major airlines since 2008 to create a new kind of jet fuel derived from algae oil. Its process was developed under contract with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to create renewable fuels for the military. The green fuel was successfully tested last month on two engines used in small jetliners.

Algenol is keeping its focus on ethanol. It has developed strains of blue-green algae – also known as cyanobacteria – that are genetically enhanced to create sugars when exposed to sunlight and carbon dioxide. Enzymes within each microbe have been boosted to convert as much of the sugar as possible into ethanol, which naturally seeps out of the algae cells and is collected.

Dow plans to populate its 24-acre site in Texas with 3,100 "photobioreactors," horizontal chambers about 1.5 metres wide and 15 metres long. The algae would be "fed" a constant stream of CO2 pumped in from a neighbouring Dow chemical facility. The algae would grow in salt water within the reactors, each capable of holding 4,000 litres.

The goal: produce 380,000 litres of ethanol a year. Dow can use ethanol to replace fossil fuels in the production of ethylene, a chemical feedstock for the manufacture of plastics. Andrew Liveris, chairman and chief executive of Dow, calls the initiative a "ground-breaking alternative energy project."

The wave of interest has been a long time coming, says Woods, calling the work he and Coleman did during the 1980s and 1990s a "glorified hobby" with little market value at the time. Oil prices began falling again in the late 1980s and the concept of "peak oil" was on hardly anyone's radar screen. Woods couldn't sit back and wait for a market to emerge; he had to get on with making a living.

In 1989, he ended up forming Toronto-based natural gas marketer Alliance Gas Management, one of the first companies in Ontario to take advantage of market deregulation. It grew to 300,000 customers before being merged into Direct Energy in 1999. Woods then moved to the United States and founded a similar company called United Gas Management, which ran into financial troubles and was sold. All the while, he was working on the algae-to-ethanol project on the side.

It wasn't until oil prices started to creep up again and climate-change issues began to grab headlines that he saw an opportunity with algae.

In the spring of 2006, he decided to formally establish Algenol as a company.

"It was a confluence of events," he recalls. "You had high oil prices, renewed value in fresh water, and a real concern about CO2 emissions. It was really only algae that could address those issues broadly and directly."

Not that the road ahead will be easy. It's no secret that biofuels – whether ethanol or biodiesel – have gotten a bum rap over the past two years. Most of the ethanol produced in North America today comes from corn, and a fierce debate has emerged over whether prime agricultural land should be used to grow crops for fuel instead of food. Many researchers have also questioned whether corn-based ethanol, taking into account the energy required to grow, harvest and process the corn, offers enough of an energy and environmental payback to make it worthwhile.

The rush to produce biodiesel, meanwhile, has seen rainforests cut down in Indonesia to make room for palm plants. It's a classic case of unintended consequences that some scientists call an ecological disaster. But biofuels themselves aren't the problem, which has more to do with how they're produced, and that's why algae have re-energized interest in this emerging market.

Many algae species can grow in salt water, so there's no draw on fresh water – in fact, fresh water is often a useable by-product.

Algae production doesn't compete with food, and it doesn't require prime agricultural land to grow. By some estimates, it uses one-tenth the land required for growing corn. The biggest challenge is to develop an approach to producing oil or ethanol from algae that can be done at a competitive cost on a massive, global scale.

Most methods to date involve continually growing algae in large open or closed ponds. The algae are then harvested and processed in a way that extracts the natural oils inside the microbe cells.

It's a costly, imperfect process that has hobbled efforts at making the alternative fuel economical.

Better, argue scientists, to let the algae live and design them to secrete the oils or ethanol naturally – allowing us, in a word, to "milk" the algae like we do cows.

"We do not harvest milk from cows by grinding them up and extracting the milk," wrote theoretical biologist Richard Gordon, a professor at the University of Manitoba, in a recently published research paper about diatoms, a type of single-cell algae. "Instead, we let them secrete milk at their own pace, and selectively breed the cattle and alter their environment to maximize the rate of milk secretion. Perhaps we could do the same with diatoms."

Algenol is doing exactly that, but it's not alone. Catilin Inc. of Iowa is taking a similar approach, but like most others is focusing on oil production instead of ethanol.

Exxon, which spent two years searching the world for the best biotechnology partner, ended up hitching its wagon with California-based Synthetic Genomics Inc., whose famous founder Craig Venter has engineered algae cells to secrete oils that are good enough to drop into a refinery with other petroleum streams.

If anyone can perfect the process, it's Venter, the man credited for first sequencing the human genome.

"This is the largest single investment in really trying to produce biofuels on a global basis right now," Venter said at a recent conference with Emil Jacobs, vice-president of R&D with ExxonMobil research and engineering.

Venter says the effort is just as much about macro-engineering as it is micro-engineering of algae. Exxon's role will be crucial if there's any hope of economically taking the oil produced from algae and dropping it into existing petroleum-industry infrastructure. Integration with today's refineries and pipelines will be key to achieving global scale.

"This would not happen without the oil industry stepping up and taking part," he says.

At the same time, Jacobs warned that the excitement around Exxon's involvement should be tempered by a healthy dose of reality.

"This is not going to be easy and there are no guarantees of success," he says.

Biofuel extracted from algae using sunlight                                                                                                                      timesofindia.com

Bangalore: Imagine extracting oil from genetically engineered algae and by using a solar panel. That’s precisely what scientist T V Ramachandra and researchers Durga Mahapatra and Karthik Balasubramaniam (all from the Indian Institute of Science here) and Prof. Richard Gordon of the University of Manitoba have done.

They propose extraction from genetically engineered diatoms or single-celled algae, as they are commonly known. The solar panels, instead of having photovoltaic cells, will contain the algae and float in a water solution. The panel will be exposed to sunlight following which the algae secrete the oil, which could be used as biofuel.

Algae, which are basically plants, are present as coatings in rivers and lakes and have oil droplets in their cells. These droplets are being squeezed out of the algae using sunlight.

The quantity of oil that can be extracted could be up to 25% of the mass of a diatom cell. Ramachandra has said that “if a novel way could be found to efficiently wrest it from diatoms, a hectare of diatom cultivation could produce up to 200 times the oil produced by soybean cultivation”. The algae have many advantages as a source of oil: they multiply rapidly and some species double their biomass in merely 5 hours. Diatoms are also numerous, with the estimated number of species exceeding 1 million. According to B a l a s u b r a m a n i a m , there are 2,500 species of diatoms in India alone. He has discovered three new species in India while hunting for those with the most oil content. The challenge for the researchers will be to devise a method that will permit extraction of oil in large quantities and to genetically engineer algae so as to produce them in millions.

Mumbai: In their effort to find an alternate and cost-effective fuel, scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have found it possible to extract oil from a type of single-celled microscopic algae 'Diatoms' by housing them within 'biological solar panels'.

The scientists proposed creating a biological solar panel, which will contain diatoms instead of photovoltaic cells.

Diatoms would float about in a nutrient-rich water solution and produce oil when exposed to sunlight.

Diatoms, commonly observed as a brown-skin coating on submerged stones in rivers and lakes and as phytoplankton in seas and oceans, typically contain oil droplets inside their cells, quite similar to petroleum.

The oil is a food source for the plants in lean times. Scientific analysis of diatom oil has shown that it is very suitable for use as biofuel.

"Here, we propose altering cells of the diatoms so that they actively secrete their oil droplets. We propose "milking" of diatoms without killing their cells similar to secretion of milk by selective breeding of cattle and alter their environment to maximise the rate of milk secretion," Prof TV Ramachandra of Centre for Ecological Sciences at IISc told PTI from Bangalore.

Indian and Canadian scientists are on a unique experiment that could well kill two birds with one stone. They are jointly researching ways and means to use algae to generate oil to replenish the diminishing oil reserves. But in doing so, they plan to increase the algae volumes, which would cut down greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The project involves researchers from the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and those from Canada-based Manitoba University.
But the first step, which CES researchers are involved in, is to identify which algae secrete more oil than the others.

This is a tough task in itself as there are more than 20,000 known algae species the world over. Simultaneously, there is a process on to develop a method to genetically manipulate the identified algae to ensure they secrete more oil than otherwise, according to TV Ramachandra, senior CES faculty member who is heading the IISc team in this venture.

The genetic manipulation would be done by the Manitoba University team, led by Richard Gordon, a senior researcher from the university's department of radiology.
At the IISc lab, the researchers are culturing the algae to identify the ones which produce maximum yield of oil, and which are sustainable. And for continuous secretion and milking of oil, Gordon has suggested genetic manipulation. "He (Gordon) hit upon the idea based on mammary glands in humans, which do not degrade, but grow. Hence the manipulation will not let the cell degrade but re-grow and continuously secrete oil for consumption," Ramachandra explained.

Algae are primitive chlorophyll-containing, mainly aquatic organisms, lacking true stems, roots and leaves, which are more popularly known as fungus. These form on pool surfaces or are found in suspension in marine environment.

The researchers plan to exploit the algae for oil as these suspended or floating plant-like structures just sink to the sea-bed and are consumed by fish.

Once on the sea-beds, they deposit oil and shells into the sediments. IISc and Manitoba researchers plan to utilise these algae in a better way by exploiting the oil, which otherwise goes waste. The added advantage is that algae produce about 10 to 200 times more oil per acre when compared to soyabean. "It takes millions of years for an oil bed to be ready, but here (with algae) we are looking at much faster secretion of oil," said Ramachandra.

The researchers are building a panel, similar to a solar panel, where the algae colonies are being developed, and where the oil would be secreted and collected. "This would produce enough oil to meet the requirement of the increasing population," Ramachandra said.

The second benefit from the algae is that they feed on carbon, thereby going through the process of photosynthesis which prevents the release of green house gases into the atmosphere. This contributes to the reduction of global warming. Algae have been used for monitoring environment conditions for several years now, including making them bloom so that they rise to the sea surface to consume more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

"The idea came up when Gordon visited IISc last November and we called it 'milking algae', since we extract the oil from live algae. We have reviewed the literature available for four months, and proceeded on building an effective technology for the procedure of milking the oil from the diatom (algae)," Ramachandra said. The technology would be ready in three years for use. "It has quick application value and is a viable option of alternative energy. Since it also addresses the issue of climate change, I say this is the right option," he argued.

A pathbreaking study conducted by scientists from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bangalore, proposes that diatoms, which are single celled algae, could provide us with an unlimited source of energy, in fact, precious oil, points out Sharath Ahuja

The recent soaring and crashing of oil prices and diminishing world oil reserves, coupled with greenhouse gas emissions and the threat of climate change, have generated considerable interest in using algae as alternative and renewable feedstock for energy production. Also, in the face of increasing CO2 emissions from conventional energy (gasoline), and the anticipated scarcity of crude oil, a worldwide effort is underway for cost-effective renewable alternative energy sources. Harvesting oil from diatoms In a pathbreaking review article to be published in the international journal Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, scientists from the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, led by T V Ramachandra (also with the Centre for Sustainable Technology, CST, IISc), in collaboration with Richard Gordon, Department of Radiology, University of Manitoba, Canada, have proposed that diatoms, which are single celled algae with silica shells, could provide us with an unlimited source of energy, in fact, precious oil. Gordon and Ramachandra feel that “despite approximately 170 years of research on the relationship between diatoms and crude oil, we still know very little about the oil inside diatoms itself. The primary producers within phytoplankton in terms of net productions and contributors to sedimentary organic matter are the diatoms. Therefore, living diatoms may also point the way to a sustainable source of oil.” The scientists use a simple line of reasoning: (a) geologists claim that much crude oil comes from diatoms; (b) diatoms do indeed make oil; (c) agriculturists claim that diatoms could make 10-200 times as much oil per hectare as oil seeds; and (d) therefore, sustainable energy could be made from diatoms.  The scientists, “propose ways of harvesting oil from diatoms, using biochemical engineering and also a new solar panel approach that utilises genomically modifiable aspects of diatom biology, offering the prospect of “milking” diatoms for sustainable energy by altering them to actively secrete oil products”. Gordon and Ramachandra say, “Based on the photosynthetic efficiency and the growth potential of algae, theoretical calculations suggest that an annual oil production of greater than 30000 litres (or approximately 200 barrels) of algal oil per hectare of land may be achievable in mass culture of oleaginous algae, which is 100-200 times greater than that of soybeans. “The per unit area yield of oil from algae is estimated to be between 5,000 and 20,000 gallons per acre (56,000 to 2,25,000 litres per hectare) per year, which is 7-31 times greater than the next best crop, palm oil,” they add. Diatoms, unlike other oil crops, grow extremely rapidly, and some can double their biomass within 5 h to 24 h. Even “in the wild”, doubling times can be 2-10 days, which includes photosynthesis and photorespiration periods. Diatoms have been regarded as C3 photosynthesisers, and their photosynthetic efficiency is enhanced by concentrating CO2 around Rubisco, diminishing photorespiration. It is estimated that diatoms are responsible for up to 20 per cent of global CO2 fixation.  Clearly, if diatoms could be used to make gasoline, then we could continue using our gasoline-based motor vehicles without a major change in technology or our way of life. The private automobile becomes a sustainable proposition. We could continue to use the combustion engine, which would then remain a major competitor to other propulsion technologies. It sounds like an easy resolution to the current situation, a way to “have our cake and eat it too”. Thus, in this regard, diatoms are worthy of serious consideration. Diatom solar panel The milking of algae has been done by solvent extraction methods that do not kill the cells, but in which they are otherwise passive. Gordon and Ramachandra propose altering cells so that they actively secrete their oil droplets. Unlike ordinary solar panels that produce electricity, a diatom solar panel would produce oil for us; therefore, in designing it, we would have to solve various optical and mass transport problems. The scientists say, “we pose this here as an engineering and genomics challenge, rather than presuming to give a complete solution”. Role in oil production Diatoms may have a major role to play in the coming years, with regard to mass production of oil. This entails appropriate cultivation and extraction of oil, using advanced technologies that mimic the natural process while cutting down the time period involved in oil formation. According to Gordon and Ramachandra’s conclusions, geologists claim that much crude oil comes from diatoms, diatoms do indeed make oil, agriculturists claim that diatoms make 10 times as much oil per hectare as oil seeds, with theoretical estimates reaching 200 times, and, therefore, sustainable energy could be made from diatoms. We may be able to get diatoms to secrete their oil, perhaps even as gasoline, and therefore milk them. With more than 2,00,000 species from which to choose, and all the combinatorics of nutrient and genome manipulation, finding or creating the “best” diatom for sustainable gasoline will be quite a task. Gordon and Ramachandra feel the quest for finding the “Holy Grail” in harvesting oil from diatoms has just begun.

June 28: Driving will soon be a pollution-friendly activity if a small team of scientists from India and Canada have their way. Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have collaborated with their counterparts in Canada to ensure that global warming becomes a thing of the past.

According to the scientists, the answer to a clean and sustainable energy production lies in the microscopic algae — diatoms.
Some geologists believe that a majority of the world’s crude oil originated from diatoms. “Diatoms are the lowest in the order of the food chain, but are known to have oil glands that can yield an effective amount of oil. They also act as carbon sequesters trapping in carbon and releasing oxygen. We hope that this could work as a replacement for conventional energy or gasoline paving the way for a clean fuel that can effectively work as a solution to tackle global warming,” said Dr T.V. Ramachandra at IISc.

The research, that will soon be published in an international journal, indicates that a solution to the impending crude oil scarcity exists. It offers solutions for a cost-effective renewable source of alternative energy and also helps stop the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to an extent. Diatoms can trap and store carbon, sending out emissions free of any pollutants.

The team that comprises IISc professors Durga Madhab Mahapatra, Karthick B. and Dr Ramachandra and Richard Gordon from the University of Manitoba in Canada have also proposed a new approach to sustainable energy that uses solar panels by incorporating altered diatoms that secrete oil products.

BANGALORE: Scientists in India and Canada are proposing a novel resolution to the global energy crisis by extracting oil from the single-cell algae which, according to fossil evidence, originated during or before the early Jurassic period.Indian Institute of Science (IISc) scientist, T V Ramachandra, Richard Gordon, Durga Madhab Mahapatra and Karthick Band, in a report to be published in the October edition of the American Chemical Society Journal -- Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, observe that most of the world’s crude originated from the single-cell algae called diatoms which produce an oily substance in their body.According to the report, barely one-third of a strand of hair in diameter, diatoms flourish in enormous numbers in oceans and other water sources. They die, drift to the sea floor, and deposit their shells and oil into the sediments. Estimates suggest that live diatoms could make 10-200 times as much oil per acre of cultivated area compared to oil seeds.The scientists have proposed to harvest oil from diatoms, using biochemical engineering and also a new solar panel approach that utilises genetically modifiable aspects of diatom biology, offering the prospect of milking diatoms for sustainable energy by altering them to actively secrete oil products.Dr T V Ramachandra, who is one of the research collaborators, told Express that further research is needed to study the technological part of milking diatoms for oil. The just announced work suggests that diatoms can triple the efficiency of electrical solar panels, an efficiency that should also apply to gasoline secreting solar panels.Fossil findingDiatoms are a major group of eukaryotic algae, and are one of the most common types of phytoplankton.Most diatoms are unicellular, although they can exist as colonies in the shape of filaments or ribbons, fans, zigzags, or stellate colonies.

Scientists in Bangalore are designing a novel solar panel using diatoms which can produce oil in a jiffy. T.V. Jayan reports

In his lab located in a quiet corner of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, ecologist T.V. Ramachandra is preparing to design a unique solar panel. Millions of solar panels are in operation all over the world, but this one will trap sunlight to produce not electricity or heat but oil, which is quite similar to petroleum. Dotting the panel is not an array of photovoltaic cells that convert light into electricity, but tens of thousands of tiny single-celled marine plants called diatoms, which produce an oily substance. This oil, Ramchandra hopes, can be separated and tapped on a continuous basis. “It is quite like milking a cow,” he says. Diatoms, which belong to the algae family, are microscopic plants that frequently appear as phytoplankton in oceans or as a brown, slippery coating on submerged stones. There are more than 1,00,000 species. Barely a third of a hair strand in diameter, they are known for their intricate, beautifully sculpted shells that resemble fine lacework. When diatoms die, they drift to the seafloor and deposit their shells and oil into the sediments. This oil is believed to have played a crucial role in the formation of petroleum reserves millions of years ago. Such reserves are the source of nearly 70 per cent of the conventional energy in use today. However, they run the risk of exhaustion in the next few decades if the current levels of exploitation continue. “Diatoms are producers of much of our fossil oil, although their relative contribution hasn’t been quantified properly,” says Canadian scientist Richard Gordon, whose chance meeting with Ramachandra in Bangalore two years ago led to the innovative idea. “We hope they would be even more efficient in producing fresh oil,” says the professor of radiology at the University of Manitoba. “This offers a possibility to fast-track petroleum production,” adds Ramachandra. Ramachandra and Gordon, whose collaborative work appeared recently in the journal Industrial Engineering and Chemistry Research, delved deep into available scientific studies to come up with some astonishing facts. For instance, they found that nearly 25 per cent of the body weight of diatoms is purely oil, and that the figure goes up to 35 to 40 per cent when the organisms are starved of nitrogen. In contrast, only 5 per cent of the biomass of oil-bearing plants such as soybean and oil palm — which are widely used to produce biofuels — is oil. Also, diatoms — unlike other oil crops — have an extremely high rate of growth. Some species can actually double their biomass within five to 24 hours. Scientists have estimated that a hectare of diatom cultivation can yield 30,000 litres (nearly 200 barrels) of oil which is 100 to 200 times greater than the capacity of soybeans. It is these figures that prompted scientists to sit up and think. But although the idea is appealing, the path is strewn with difficulties, says Ramachandra. “The idea is still on the drawing board, even though we have a clear notion of how to proceed,” Ramachandra told KnowHow. One of the first things the scientists want to do is genetically manipulate diatoms so that they produce maximum oil. As envisaged, the diatoms floating in a nutrient-rich medium (water) inside the “biological” solar panel will harness sunlight to continuously produce oil, which can then be separated using simple techniques. The diatoms inside the panel will be periodically replaced as they live for only a few days. Ramachandra has already roped in biochemists and geneticists from other departments of the IISc to work on improving the lifespan and oil content of diatoms. And funding doesn’t seem to be a problem as a few international oil companies have evinced interest in the project. N.V. Joshi, a researcher at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, who is not connected with the study, feels this is an innovative and plausible idea. “It most certainly has the potential to be hugely successful,” he says. Joshi wonders why other scientists didn’t think of it earlier. “The information that forms the basis of the venture has been available all along,” he says. Gordon is happy to be associated with the project. There are a number of teams worldwide trying to exploit algae for biofuels. Prominent among them is Synthetic Genomics of San Diego, California. The founder of the firm is Craig Venter, the head of a privately financed version of the human genome project in the late 1990s. Clearly, a race is on to create a biofuel substitute for petroleum. And Gordon thinks there is no reason why India can’t lead the race. “It is a question of geopolitical motivation versus vested interests, the imagination of politicians and business people, and a willingness to take risks,” observes Gordon. “Venter has cash (US oil giant Exxon is funding his project), but the US has yet to achieve the necessary motivation,” he says, adding he would be glad to be an advisor to a team put together in India. If they succeed, Ramachandra and his colleagues may be able to cut short the protracted process of petroleum formation by millions of years.

ScienceDaily (June 23, 2009) — Scientists in Canada and India are proposing a surprising new solution to the global energy crisis —"milking" oil from the tiny, single-cell algae known as diatoms, renowned for their intricate, beautifully sculpted shells that resemble fine lacework. 

Richard Gordon, T. V. Ramachandra, Durga Madhab Mahapatra, and Karthick Band note that some geologists believe that much of the world's crude oil originated in diatoms, which produce an oily substance in their bodies. Barely one-third of a strand of hair in diameter, diatoms flourish in enormous numbers in oceans and other water sources. They die, drift to the seafloor, and deposit their shells and oil into the sediments. Estimates suggest that live diatoms could make 10−200 times as much oil per acre of cultivated area compared to oil seeds, Gordon says.

"We propose ways of harvesting oil from diatoms, using biochemical engineering and also a new solar panel approach that utilizes genetically modifiable aspects of diatom biology, offering the prospect of "milking" diatoms for sustainable energy by altering them to actively secrete oil products," the scientists say. "Secretion by and milking of diatoms may provide a way around the puzzle of how to make algae that both grow quickly and have a very high oil content."

Algae has a competitor coming for bio oil – diatoms have the potential to compete and may have a list of problems to price parity with petroleum that is different and may be less challenging.

The leading reasons behind diatom research are: Geologists claim that much crude oil comes from diatoms. Diatoms do indeed make oil. Agriculturists claim that diatoms could make 10−200 times as much oil per hectare as oil seeds. Therefore, sustainable energy could be made from diatoms. Richard Gordon of the University of Manitoba and T. V. Ramachandra, Durga Madhab Mahapatra and B. Karthick of the Centre for Ecological Sciences/Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India published a paper ‘Milking Diatoms for Sustainable Energy: Biochemical Engineering versus Gasoline-Secreting Diatom Solar Panels.’ The paper proposes ways of harvesting oil from diatoms, using biochemical engineering and also a newly conceived solar panel approach that utilizes genomically modifiable aspects of diatom biology. The “milking” comes from diatom’s natural oil secretion that offers the prospect of “milking” diatoms for sustainable energy by altering them to actively secrete oil products.  Secretion by and milking of diatoms may provide a way around the puzzle of how to make algae and other single cell based production that both grow quickly and have a very high oil content.  There is a genome to mine here.

The paper discusses a problem that runs through the cell based oil production efforts saying,

“Generally, cell proliferation seems to be counterproductive to oil production on a per-cell basis, which is a problem that has been expressed as an unsolved Catch-22. However, this balance may shift in our favor when we start milking diatoms for oil instead of grinding them.” —Ramachandra et al.

While diatoms and algae are virtual brothers, diatoms are silica based shelled creatures.  That aspect offers, as the paper outlines, a variety of harvesting techniques.  Gordon explains diatoms are barely one-third of a strand of hair in diameter; they flourish in enormous numbers in oceans and other water sources. They die, drift to the seafloor, and deposit their shells and oil into the sediments. Estimates suggest that live diatoms could make 10-200 times as much oil per acre of cultivated area compared to oil seed plants.

The paper covers the potential this way:

“The transparent diatom silica shell consists of a pair of frustules and a varying number of girdle bands that both protect and constrain the size of the oil droplets within, and capture the light needed for their biosynthesis. We propose three methods: (a) biochemical engineering, to extract oil from diatoms and process it into gasoline; (b) a multiscale nanostructured leaf-like panel, using live diatoms genetically engineered to secrete oil (as accomplished by mammalian milk ducts), which is then processed into gasoline; and (c) the use of such a panel with diatoms that produce gasoline directly. The latter could be thought of as a solar panel that converts photons to gasoline rather than electricity or heat.”

Ready for some light confusion?  The authors note that milk is not harvested from cows by grinding them up and extracting the milk, they propose that diatoms essentially be allowed to secrete the oil at their own pace, with selective breeding and alterations of the environment maximizing production.

“Mammalian milk contains oil droplets that are exocytosed from the cells lining the milk ducts. It may be possible to genetically engineer diatoms so that they exocytose their oil droplets. This could lead to continuous harvesting with clean separation of the oil from the diatoms, provided by the diatoms themselves.  Higher plants have oil secretion glands, and diatoms already exocytose the silica contents of the silicalemma, adhesion and motility proteins, and polysaccharides, so the concept of secretion of oil by diatoms is not far-fetched.”

The oil itself is truly bull’s-eye stuff.  The diatoms the authors have seen have oil productionin the range of C7-C12 hydrocarbons, about 1/3 of tested diatoms produced α, β, γ, and δ-unsaturated aldehydes.

“With some optimism about the power of systems biology and how malleable microalgae might be, perhaps we could engineer diatoms that would make these compounds, or the lower-molecular-weight alkanes and alkenes, in great quantities.  Given that pathways exist for the production of many alkanes, starting with 12-alkane, the production of shorter alkanes within genetically manipulated diatoms might be plausible. If not, we could fall back on known organic chemistry reactions to convert the natural products to alkanes.”

With more than 200,000 species from which to choose, and all the possible combinations of nutrient and genome manipulation, finding or creating the “best” diatom for sustainable gasoline will be challenging.

The authors offer up some basic guidelines for starting the species hunt:

• Choose planktonic diatoms with positive buoyancy or at least neutral buoyancy.
• Choose diatoms that harbor symbiotic nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, which should reduce nutrient requirements.
• Choose diatoms that have high efficiency of photon use, perhaps from those that function at low light levels.
• Choose diatoms that are thermophilic, especially for solar panels subject to solar heating.
• Consider those genetics that have been demonstrated by paleogenetics that have contributed to fossil organics.
• For motile or sessile pennate diatoms that adhere to surfaces, buoyancy may be much less important than survival from desiccation, which seems to induce oil production. Therefore, the reaction of these diatoms to drying is a place to start. The reaction of oceanic planktonic species to drying has not been investigated, although one would anticipate that they have no special mechanisms for addressing this (for them) unusual situation.
• Genetic engineering of diatoms to enhance oil production has been attempted, but it has not yet been successful.

That’s a good beginning, a place to start.  The list of guides also makes clear the huge variety of diatom genetics.  The potential is factually non-calculable for now.

The innovative thing here is the author’s “head’s up” to look outside the algae field and into other species that offer oil production. While algae may be way further down the development road, there is a lot of road left to go.  Diatoms may well offer another alternative source of biofuels if the finding can get in to people eager to find another solution.  Then we’ll get so see what diatom production problems might be.  The oil market is looking for scale in bio oil production, and the first ones there will have to be very good and low cost.  Diatoms might just be the species to get there.

Scientists in Canada and India are proposing a surprising new solution to the global energy crisis - "milking" oil from the tiny, single-cell algae known as diatoms, renowned for their intricate, beautifully sculpted shells that resemble fine lacework. Their report appears online in the current issue of the ACS' bi-monthly journal Industrial + Engineering Chemistry Research. Richard Gordon, T. V. Ramachandra, Durga Madhab Mahapatra, and Karthick Band note that some geologists believe that much of the world’s crude oil originated in diatoms, which produce an oily substance in their bodies. Barely one-third of a strand of hair in diameter, diatoms flourish in enormous numbers in oceans and other water sources. They die, drift to the seafloor, and deposit their shells and oil into the sediments. Estimates suggest that live diatoms could make 10-200 times as much oil per acre of cultivated area compared to oil seeds, Gordon says. "We propose ways of harvesting oil from diatoms, using biochemical engineering and also a new solar panel approach that utilizes genetically modifiable aspects of diatom biology, offering the prospect of "milking" diatoms for sustainable energy by altering them to actively secrete oil products," the scientists say. "Secretion by and milking of diatoms may provide a way around the puzzle of how to make algae that both grow quickly and have a very high oil content."

Microscopic diatoms like the one shown above could yield massive amounts of oil, scientists say. Credit: The American Chemical Society

Scientists in Canada and India are proposing a variety of ways of harvesting oil from diatoms—single cell algae with silica shells—using biochemical engineering and also a new solar panel approach that utilizes genomically modifiable aspects of diatom biology, offering the prospect of “milking” diatoms for sustainable energy by altering them to actively secrete oil products. Their communication appears online in the current issue of the ACS’ bi-monthly journal Industrial Engineering & Chemical Research. Richard Gordon, T. V. Ramachandra, Durga Madhab Mahapatra, and Karthick B note that some geologists believe that much of the world’s crude oil originated in diatoms, which produce an oily substance in their bodies. Barely one-third of a strand of hair in diameter, diatoms flourish in enormous numbers in oceans and other water sources. They die, drift to the seafloor, and deposit their shells and oil into the sediments. Estimates suggest that live diatoms could make 10-200 times as much oil per acre of cultivated area compared to oil seeds, Gordon says.

A pennate diatom, NaVicula sp., showing an oil droplet. Click to enlarge.

Their report appears online in the American Chemical Society's bi-monthly journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.

T. V. Ramachandra, Durga Madhab Mahapatra and Karthick B from the Centre for Ecological Sciences/Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Richard Gordon from the Department of Radiology, University of Manitoba say that in the face of increasing CO2 emissions from conventional energy (gasoline), and the anticipated scarcity of crude oil, a worldwide effort is underway for cost-effective renewable alternative energy sources.

They say: "Geologists claim that much crude oil comes from diatoms. Diatoms do indeed make oil and agriculturists claim that diatoms could make 10-200 times as much oil per hectare as oil seeds.

"Therefore, sustainable energy could be made from diatoms.

"We propose ways of harvesting oil from diatoms, using biochemical engineering and also a new solar panel approach that utilises genomically modifiable aspects of diatom biology, offering the prospect of “milking” diatoms for sustainable energy by altering them to actively secrete oil products.
"Secretion by and milking of diatoms may provide a way around the puzzle of how to make algae that both grow quickly and have a very high oil content," the scientists conclude.

Microscopic diatoms like the one shown above could yield massive amounts of oil, scientists say. Credit: The American Chemical Society Scientists in Canada and India are proposing a surprising new solution to the global energy crisis —“milking” oil from the tiny, single-cell algae known as diatoms, renowned for their intricate, beautifully sculpted shells that resemble fine lacework. Their report appears online in the current issue of the ACS’ bi-monthly journal Industrial Engineering & Chemical Research. Richard Gordon, T. V. Ramachandra, Durga Madhab Mahapatra, and Karthick Band note that some geologists believe that much of the world’s crude oil originated in diatoms, which produce an oily substance in their bodies. Barely one-third of a strand of hair in diameter, diatoms flourish in enormous numbers in oceans and other water sources. They die, drift to the seafloor, and deposit their shells and oil into the sediments. Estimates suggest that live diatoms could make 10−200 times as much oil per acre of cultivated area compared to oil seeds, Gordon says. “We propose ways of harvesting oil from diatoms, using biochemical engineering and also a new solar panel approach that utilizes genetically modifiable aspects of diatom biology, offering the prospect of “milking” diatoms for sustainable energy by altering them to actively secrete oil products,” the scientists say. “Secretion by and milking of diatoms may provide a way around the puzzle of how to make algae that both grow quickly and have a very high oil content.” More information: Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Journal Article: “Milking Diatoms for Sustainable Energy: Biochemical Engineering Versus Gasoline-Secreting Diatom Solar Panels” Source: American Chemical Society (news : web)

Scientists in Canada and India are proposing a surprising new solution to the global energy crisis —”milking” oil from the tiny, single-cell algae known as diatoms, renowned for their intricate, beautifully sculpted shells that resemble fine lacework.

Richard Gordon, T. V. Ramachandra, Durga Madhab Mahapatra, and Karthick Band note that some geologists believe that much of the world’s crude oil originated in diatoms, which produce an oily substance in their bodies. Barely one-third of a strand of hair in diameter, diatoms flourish in enormous numbers in oceans and other water sources. They die, drift to the seafloor, and deposit their shells and oil into the sediments. Estimates suggest that live diatoms could make 10−200 times as much oil per acre of cultivated area compared to oil seeds, Gordon says.

Scientists in Canada and India are proposing a surprising new solution to the global energy crisis "milking" oil from the tiny, single-cell algae known as diatoms, renowned for their intricate, beautifully sculpted shells that resemble fine lacework. Their report appears online in the current issue of the ACS' bi-monthly journal Industrial Engineering & Chemical Research.

Richard Gordon, T. V. Ramachandra, Durga Madhab Mahapatra, and Karthick Band note that some geologists believe that much of the world's crude oil originated in diatoms, which produce an oily substance in their bodies. Barely one-third of a strand of hair in diameter, diatoms flourish in enormous numbers in oceans and other water sources. They die, drift to the seafloor, and deposit their shells and oil into the sediments. Estimates suggest that live diatoms could make 10−200 times as much oil per acre of cultivated area compared to oil seeds, Gordon says.

"We propose ways of harvesting oil from diatoms, using biochemical engineering and also a new solar panel approach that utilizes genetically modifiable aspects of diatom biology, offering the prospect of "milking" diatoms for sustainable energy by altering them to actively secrete oil products," the scientists

It looks as if oil yields from diatoms are comparable to algal oil production per acre. This means that research and development into diatomaceous oils will be in competition with R & D into algal oils. The only way to do justice to both areas of research is to slash funding for climate catastrophe orthodoxies in government, academia, industry, and the media -- and apply those resources to development of high yield biofuels.