Biofuels coming of age: Green crude gains ground in the desert in 2009
Kevin Robinson-AvilaSapphire Energy is helping to build a new industry in New Mexico, literally from the ground up.
The company will invest $100 million over the next two years in a 300-acre biofuel operation in Luna County in southern New Mexico that will convert desert-grown algae into more than 1 million gallons per year of gasoline, biodiesel and jet fuel.
In the long-term, Sapphire plans to expand the operation to 1,200 acres or more, employing thousands of workers in one of the state’s poorest counties, said CEO Jason Pyle.
“The target site encompasses about 2,000 acres, so we have ample real estate to accomplish our goals,” Pyle said. “We want to become a major employer in the state. We’d like to develop 16,000 or more jobs here over the next 20 years.”
Grandiose goals, for sure, but Sapphire took a major step forward this year to turn its vision into reality.
The U.S. Department of Energy approved a $50 million stimulus grant in December for Sapphire’s initial 300-acre project. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also awarded a $54.5 million loan guarantee.
The federal money will become available in March, construction will ramp up in the second half of 2010, and green crude will begin flowing in incremental stages starting in 2011, Pyle said
“We’ve already done a lot of work at the site, including geological surveying, water testing and soil analysis,” Pyle said. “By the time federal money starts flowing, we’ll have invested more than $5 million.”
Sapphire also invested $8 million in a test-and-development facility at the West Mesa Industrial Park in Las Cruces that began operating last December. The company experiments with algae seed varieties grown in nine industrial ponds at the West Mesa facility, and it conducts wet and dry oil productivity and processing tests at a 15,000-square-foot lab there.
In Luna County, Sapphire will replace pond-grown algae with desert farming, using saline and brackish water from aquifers.
“It will look a lot like rice farming in the desert,” Pyle said. “We have plenty of underground water available for the project.”
