The algae alternative

To owners of aquariums, algae is annoying. But to inventor Isaac Berzin, algae represents the future of energy. His Cambridge start-up, GreenFuel Technologies Corp., is launching a new technology platform that he believes will thrust the familiar green gunk into the center of hot-button debates around air pollution, global warming, and energy independence.

That's a lofty claim considering that the company's inventions are designed to harness such a simple substance. In addition to its ability to breed rapidly, algae has two lesser-known properties. First, algae can absorb waste gases such as carbon dioxide. Second, once algae is infused with carbon, it can be dried and burned instead of coal -- or along with coal -- to produce energy. But whereas black coal is the result of a process of bacterial decay and geothermal pressure that takes millions of years to work, Berzin's green biomass can be made almost instantly using a smidgen of smog, a dash of water, and lots of sunlight.

Berzin, a 37-year-old chemical engineer, often finds himself mesmerized by algae, as he spends significant stretches of time at his microscope, watching algae cells dance and multiply in reaction to light.

''Photosynthesis," he says. ''That's how all of nature survives. The division time of algae cells is measured in hours. It's very tolerant of everything. You can find it in the Charles River, in sewage, in boiling water, in ice, in Antarctica, in fresh water, in the Dead Sea."

Next week, GreenFuel is taking its systems and ideas out of the laboratory for its first major test drive in the real world. The pilot is set to take place on Vassar Street in Cambridge, on the roof of the MIT Cogeneration Plant, which is the main electrical power plant for the university's central campus. Pending final legal approval by MIT, GreenFuel plans to install a set of about 30 of its bioreactors on top of the plant.

Each of these bioreactors is an eight-foot-high set of clear tubes made of polycarbonate plastic and fashioned into a triangle. Inside the tubes, the emissions from the plant's exhaust will mix with specially designed algae cultures and sunlight. Through natural photosynthesis, the algae will grow in volume while absorbing the carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants. The chemical reaction traps the carbon in the algae and gives off oxygen and nitrogen, which by itself is a normal component of air. Finally, the heat from the power plant itself will help dry the algae soup into a flaky coal-like solid that can be recycled and used as fuel in place of natural gas, oil, or coal.

That's the plan, at least. Joseph Ferson, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, says that the GreenFuel pilot has been deemed safe and approved for beta test for one year. However, he adds, ''the actual [pollution] reductions that can be achieved by this process have not yet been shown."

The point of the pilot is to prove that carbon dioxide and other emissions from a live power plant, ''rather than being emitted into the air, can be consumed by the algae," says Peter Cooper, MIT's director of utilities. ''That's the part that has promise for the future. Sooner or later, the US is going to have to come to grips with global warming, and this is one technology for addressing this."

Cooper adds that the MIT plant's maximum allowable emissions is 15 parts per million of nitrogen oxides and 10 parts per million of carbon monoxide. The objective is to see whether this technology can help keep a power plant such as this one comfortably in the safe zone.

GreenFuel will also be installing a yearlong demonstration of its bioreactors in the lobby of the Museum of Science later this month, as a way of showcasing how a set of simple scientific ideas can have a dramatic effect, says David Rabkin, the museum's vice president of technologies.

''It's a real reframing of the pollution problem," Rabkin says. ''Isaac looked at the problem, and started thinking about how exhaust and algae could be useful."

The biggest questions surrounding GreenFuel is whether its systems can be scaled up and whether the economics work on a national level.

''It's a very promising technology," says Barry Worthington, executive director of the United States Energy Association, a nonprofit educational group of energy research organizations and corporations. Worthington has hosted Berzin in his Washington offices.

''I don't see any reason why technically it won't work," Worthington says. ''I don't see where there is the critical failure in upsizing it."

As Worthington understands it, GreenFuel can cut CO{-2} emissions by 10 to 45 percent, which exceeds the overall goal of the Kyoto Protocol, the international guidelines under which a group of developed nations have agreed to limit their greenhouse gases. At the same time, he says, it has been proven that you can substitute many types of biomass in with ordinary coal, thus reducing the need for coal by about 20 percent.

Considering that coal accounts for about 55 percent of electricity production in the United States, that type of reduction is a big number, he says. If GreenFuel could be made cheaply and reduce pollution in the process, ''it would have enormous potential," he concludes.

The son of an inventor, Berzin grew up in Israel and received his doctorate in chemical engineering from an Israeli university. He has lively dark eyes, a calm demeanor, a quick laugh, and an Israeli accent. In 2001, he began his postdoctoral work at MIT, where he launched his GreenFuel project under the guidance of several MIT professors, among them Robert Langer, Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, and Charles Fine, who is now on the board of GreenFuel.

Also integral to the incubation of GreenFuel has been Payload Systems, a 20-year-old technology company that develops astronautical gear under contract from NASA. Berzin launched his company in a basement laboratory at Payload's headquarters near Kendall Square. Berzin also licensed Payload's desktop cell culture instrument, which was originally built for deployment on the International Space Station.

Fashioned from tubes and electronics, a specially modified version of the system, called AlgaTec, enables GreenFuel to tailor algae cultures to match the specific emissions profile of any power plant. Julianne Zimmerman, a space engineer who moved over from Payload to join GreenFuel as director of business development, likens these algal samples to the starter cultures of sourdough bread. Each power plant requires the creation of a customized culture, she says.

A 2001 recipient of a $1,000 grant in the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition, GreenFuel earlier this year received its first infusion of professional venture capital. Access Industries, a New York equity firm that invests in energy and biotech, made a multimillion-dollar bet, with the hope of a long-term payoff.

''This is not a silver bullet" that will solve all the world's energy problems, cautions Peter Thoren, the firm's executive vice president. ''This is a new system that people will have to get comfortable with."

Researchers at the US Department of Energy have known about this specific carbon-algae reaction for years. The department's own experiments in the late 1980s involved growing algae in an open pond in New Mexico and pumping exhaust gases into the pond's water.

That turned out to be an inefficient and ineffective way to grow the carbon-infused algae. Only the top of the pond received sunlight, and it received too much. This meant that the pond had to be churned by heavy machinery, itself a process that requires energy. And harvesting the carbon-infused algae from the pond was also cumbersome and expensive.

John Benemann, who ran the open pond project for the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, says that the research ''collapsed on itself," and that the challenges of making the idea economically viable remained.

Assembling cross-disciplinary teams of biologists, engineers, chemists, and energy experts, Berzin is attacking those challenges with his squad of four full-time and four part-time employees. Until now, the GreenFuel project was being conducted indoors, in Payload's basement, using gas tanks of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides instead of live emissions, and using full-spectrum fluorescent lighting instead of the sun. Over the past 18 months, Berzin has also been filing for patents on his equipment and his methodology. As a result, his project has been kept relatively quiet during this time.

His reticence is understandable, given the volatile nature of the energy debate.

''For the environmental people, their philosophy is to fight [the polluters]," says Berzin. ''But this is a pragmatic approach. I don't think fossil fuels will end completely. This could even end up boosting the coal industry."

In addition to producing a new kind of green coal, the GreenFuel project could give rise to a whole host of offshoot inventions and technologies. Just as natural gas can be reformulated into hydrogen fuel, so can GreenFuel, via a chemical gasification process. GreenFuel can also be used to produce biodiesel fuel and bioplastic products, according to Berzin.

But first, he must prove that his basic ideas work in practice. For that, he is relying on nature itself.

''You need the sun to make the miracle," he says. And the sun's strength and reliability vary widely in different parts of the world.

''It's not going to work everywhere," says the USEA's Worthington. So for now, the future of energy is at least partly riding on the weather in Boston.

Evan I. Schwartz is the author of ''Juice: The Creative Fuel that Drives World-Class Inventors," out in September. He can be reached at eis@theworld.com.