Idaho National Labs Orders Two OriginOil Systems

July 27, 2012
AlgaeIndustryMagazine.com

riginOil, Inc. has announced that it has received purchase orders for two test scale units from the United States Department of Energy’s Idaho National Labs (INL) under its research agreement. One unit is designed to dewater algae continuously and with very low energy, while the other can recover 98 percent of contaminants from “frac” water in a single pass, as shown in third party testing.

Deborah T. Newby, molecular biologist at INL’s Biofuels and Renewable Energy Department commented, “We are anxious to test OriginOil’s new equipment in our algal dewatering research. The system appears to have the potential to significantly reduce the algal dewatering barrier, allowing us to dewater large quantities of algae for use in applications, including the production of formulated feedstocks blended from algal and terrestrial biomass.”

Newby added, “We also are interested in testing OriginOil’s system for processing frac flowback water. The boom in hydraulic fracturing is urgently forcing new practices in water conservation, and OriginOil’s system may be a key part of the answer.”

In an in-kind transaction under its Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with OriginOil, INL will purchase an Algae Appliance™ Model 4, which can continuously concentrate up to four liters of algae production per minute; and a Solids Out of Solution™ (SOS) Model 2K, which is capable of handling first-stage cleanup of up to 2,000 gallons of frac flowback water per day.

In operation since 1949, the Idaho National Laboratory (www.inl.gov) is a science-based, applied engineering national laboratory dedicated to supporting the DOE on energy research and national defense.