Aquaculture waste to produce biofuels
Odd Grydeland Just as news came about a biofuel project in Abu Dhabi where Boeing is one of the investors in a pilot project aimed at demonstrating the use of fish farm waste to grow oil-producing plants in the desert sun, another story emerges from Africa, where companies are gearing up for a large scale project using the same technology, as this release in the Renewable Energy Magazine explains;Energy Allied International, a Houston-based energy projects development company, and The Seawater Foundation and Global Seawater, Inc., pioneers in the development of Integrated Seawater Agriculture Systems (ISAS), have executed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop “the world’s first commercial scale seawater-based biofuels project” in Egypt. The project, New Nile Co, will be one of the largest biofuels investments to date in the Middle East or Africa. ISAS is an advanced biofuels production model that uses effluent from seawater aquaculture (e.g. fish and shrimp ponds) as a natural fertilizer to cultivate sizable plantations of salicornia, a halophyte (i.e. naturally salt resistant plant) capable of yielding large volumes of high grade vegetable oil for use as a biofuel feedstock. According to Dr. Carl Hodges, Chairman of The Seawater Foundation and Co-Chairman of Global Seawater, Inc, “Energy Allied International’s expertise in developing large scale energy projects in the Middle East and Africa, tied with The Seawater Foundation’s and Global Seawater, Inc.’s extensive knowledge of developing and operating ISAS models, is a winning combination to ensure the success of the world’s first, commercial scale, seawater-based biofuels project.” Unlike first-generation biofuels producers which threaten to displace traditional food crops (e.g. corn) due to reliance upon freshwater and nutrient-rich soil, New Nile Co will produce advanced biofuels by applying the ISAS model, which relies exclusively upon the use of untreated seawater and arid, desert and degraded lands that are currently unproductive. New Nile Co intends to produce tens of millions of litres of biofuels from a fifty thousand hectare (roughly 125,000 acre) project site. Together with Gensler, one of the world’s leading architecture design firms and the project’s lead Planning Advisor, the developers are presently assessing a number of potential site locations situated inland, along the Mediterranean and Red Sea coastlines. Having already successfully applied the ISAS model in Eritrea, following extensive research and development in Mexico, the developers are confident of achieving similar positive results in Egypt. “New Nile Co is poised to launch a great agricultural revolution in Egypt, by making productive use of the country’s abundant agricultural-skilled labour, unlimited access to seawater and vast desert lands,” claimed Mike Nassar, Chairman of Energy Allied International.In addition to automotive markets requiring the use of blended biofuels, New Nile Co will target the European civil aviation market which is subject to strict EU regulations, with aviation entering the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in 2012. New Nile Co’s developers are presently engaged in discussions with the Egyptian government with respect to the potential project site locations and intend to complete the bankable feasibility study in 2010, with construction to begin in early 2011. The evolutionary seawater farming concept developed by Dr. Carl Hodges and will also be applied in another project to produce biofuel for the aviation industry involving the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Boeing, Etihad Airways and Honeywell's UOP.
