New Port Richey Demo Plant Showcases New Clean Energy Process

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL – Tampa-based Culturing Solutions hosted the grand opening of the first algae to biofuel demonstration plant Thursday in New Port Richey. The innovative process uses algae to produce products including transportation fuel, energy, nutritional products, cosmetics, medicine and other household items, according to the company. They say that the initial trials of using technologies to harness the power of algae have been successful, but have been cost prohibitive to function in today’s marketplace until now.

A "phyta-pond" at the demonstration plant

Culturing Solutions says they've changed that through an application that captures carbon dioxide from industrial gases and reuses them before they are delivered to the atmosphere. The company produces algae to create a variety of products by using waste gases emitted by industrial facilities to feed the algae. They say their process uses the by-product emission that would normally contribute to air pollution and climate change and recycles the harmful greenhouse gas to dramatically increase the growth rate of the algae.

Cogeneration, or the process of locating the algae facilities near power facilities, can benefit both the company and the energy provider, as improved efficiencies can lead to the production of more power at a lower price for consumers with significantly less pollution – all while reducing the nation’s dependency on oil by producing cleaner, greener transportation fuel, not to mention a myriad of other products available to the open market.

The demonstration plant will showcase the new technology. A digester that converts the algae to ethanol will also be on-site. This process has been considered a key component of this alternative to oil based gasoline, as it has the potential to be much more scalable than corn, sugar and other ethanols. These will certainly processes for green energy enthusiasts to keep their eyes on and having a local demonstration plant will hopefully keep our state on the cutting edge of such technologies.