Staff Writer
Among the City of Signal Hill’s recent surge in green businesses, Sustainable Now Technologies (SNT) is a budding company focused on producing biodiesel from the Earth’s earliest and simplest form of life— algae.
“We are bringing you the pump,” said Eric Grimm-Woolery, SNT’s director of Product Production.
Founded in 2009, SNT has developed a machine that converts algae into biodiesel, and the company is beginning its first corporate partnership with another Signal Hill business— Americana Termite Company (ATC). Grimm-Woolery and his father, ATC’s owner Gary Woolery, are taking advantage of their common interest in green technology. “ATC has a business need,” Grimm-Woolery said of the familial ties. “We own the machine, he owns the fuel.”
The next step for this new company is completing The Gamma, their pilot project site where 100 ten-gallon aquarium tanks will reproduce algae that will then be turned into biodiesel for ATC’s vehicle consumption. SNT anticipates having a full analysis next year of the amount of biodiesel produced.
ATC, an ecofriendly pesticide business that uses organic chemicals such as the high citric acid chemical Orange Oil to kill termites, is anticipated to purchase The Gamma from SNT. The termite-extermination company, whose drivers travel as far north as Malibu and as far south as San Diego daily, expects significant cost savings with the algae-to-biodiesel machine.
The energy-conversion machine
The Gamma will use a self-sustainable, biodiesel-producing machine referred to as the Energy Conversion Machine (ECM) to process the biodiesel. Each ECM consists of one or more aquarium tanks that will be filled with eight to nine gallons of algae water, according to Director of Product Development Tim Bentley.
The algae survive off of nutrients and photosynthesis. A solar panel, which will be placed on the roof of the building, will charge a battery-operated, artificial light that will keep feeding the algae 24 hours a day.
Once a day, the algae water will be drained to one gallon. The rest of the algae water will flow through a filtration system that uses hydrosonic pulses to break the algae walls, producing biodiesel and biomass, which will stay in the filter, with the biodiesel draining into a bucket.
The biomass is where carbon dioxide is stored and may be used as a fertilizer and placed back into the Earth, reducing greenhouse gases. The biodiesel will be transferred directly into the vehicle. The tank is refilled, and the algae reproduce in the fresh water.
SNT predicts that the ECM’s price will drop to around $35,000 in the future, making it more available for general use. “At $4 a gallon [at the gas stations], it would take eight years to pay off,” said Nathan Morrison, director of Research and Development.
The machine is projected to last for 20 years. When replacement is necessary, parts can be purchased at local stores. Most importantly, if the vehicle owners are far from their ECMs, they can fill up on diesel at almost any gas station.
SNT will want to partner with agricultural and solar industries related to the production of the ECM, according to Morrison.
Cars that use biodiesel
Any diesel vehicles made after 1983 can support biodiesel because they have a fuel temperature censor, which is needed to burn the biodiesel. According to biodiesel.org, there are many manufacturers that produce diesel vehicles, such as Volkswagen, Chevrolet, Nissan and others. Long Beach BMW, 2998 Cherry Ave., for example, sells two diesel vehicles.
Other alternative methods
“Currently, we have less production and more import, and that’s unsustainable,” Grimm-Woolery said. “At least 62 percent of oil comes from across seas.”
SNT promotes all types of alternative energy, such as that which comes from sugar cane, peanuts, canola and corn, but they do believe that algae is the most cost-effective biofuel among them all.
Morrison expressed his concern for corn energy at the Sierra Club meeting on Oct. 5. at the Long Beach Environmental Services building, 2929 E. Willow St.
“The U.S. government has cut down acres of South American rainforests to grow corn,” Morrison said, while showing a photo of a cornfield among hundreds of trees. “Biofuels made from vegetable farms require harvesting two times a year; algae reproduces every day, sometimes five times a day. We have algae that has survived since 2007.”
Government funding
The Aquatic Species Program, funded by the Department of Energy from 1978 to 1996, tested algae for its biofuel capabilities, determining it as a “very promising fuel,” according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s report A Look Back at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Aquatic Species Program: Biodiesel from Algae.
The government then applied this green technology to wastewater-treatment facilities, and those strains of algae learned to eat metals and other undesirable entities in our drinking water.
SNT requests that residents petition their legislators to continue funding the algae industry.
Sustainable Now Technologies is located at 1711 E. 20th St. Suite A.
For more information call (415) 602-9199 or email Eric Woolery-Grimm at eric@sustainablenowtechnologies.com or visit sustainablenowtechnologies.com
