BOULDER - Jim Sears isn't the kind of guy to sit around and let the quest for a new kind of fuel go on without him.

Sears, who founded and helped launch Solix Biofuels last year, left that company in January to start another with the same aim: to develop a process that would extract oil from algae on a commercially viable basis.

Sears says his separation from Solix was a mutual decision and he is not bitter about it. "I've been an entrepreneur in Boulder for about 18 years and it's how the world works," he said. "It's what you do with those opportunities that's important."

Sears linked up with partner Mark Allen, a licensed civil engineer with 25 years of experience in environmental and infrastructure engineering, to form A2BE Carbon Capture LLC. The company, while pursuing the development of oil from specific varieties of algae, has larger goals than large-scale algae-to-oil production.

Allen, who serves as company CEO while Sears fills the role of chief technology officer, said A2BE is looking more toward the capture and reuse of carbon dioxide - the main culprit in the process of global warming - in a world that's moving toward reducing its CO2 emissions.

Allen said that, while the race is on worldwide to produce biofuel from algae, "the larger race is to commercialize this in a way that industry can address capturing their carbon emissions while providing a substitute for fossil fuel.

"We are positioning ourselves for that bigger race," he said.



Report sparked interest

Sears' interest in algae as a source for biofuel began in 2004 when he was doing some research on the Internet and discovered a federal government document called the Aquatic Species Report, published in 1997. The report on the recently shut down Aquatic Species Program begun under the Carter administration said oil from algae had promise but too many obstacles to make it economically feasible.

"I thought, 'If it's this good, why aren't we doing it now?'" recalled Sears. He delved into coming up with his own ways around the obstacles, including growing the algae in huge, enclosed plastic bags with as few energy inputs as possible.

Those ideas resulted in the high-profile launch of Solix last fall. But disagreements over some of Sears' designs led to a parting of ways with his colleagues at Solix a few months later. Sears said his pursuit of algae-created oil goes on with his original ideas intact.

"I don't know exactly what they're doing now," he says of his former company. "We've split, like cell division. We're drawing from the same core of intellectual property and putting our own slant on it."

Sam Jaffe, Solix Biofuels' business development coordinator, said Solix is pursuing its own path of research at the Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory in north Fort Collins. He has not been closely following Sears or his new company.

"We're not aware of what his present plans are," Jaffe told the Business Report in a July 25 interview. "We can say that we have a very good relationship with Jim and wish him the best in any venture he undertakes."

Jaffe said Solix remains on track to develop its own algae-to-oil model that will initially be set up as a demonstration project for potential partners and investors. Solix is also partnering with CSU, where research is being conducted under the guidance of Bryan Willson, mechanical engineering professor and Engines Lab director.

Willson said plans call for the 20-meter prototype "bioreactor" now being fine-tuned at the engines lab to be reproduced on a 100-meter scale at the New Belgium Brewing Co. brewery in Fort Collins.

"We're targeting to get something going with New Belgium by the end of this year and full-scale operation going by the second quarter of '08," he said. The bioreactor at New Belgium would take advantage of the brewery's CO2 emissions to help grow the algae.

Willson said nine biologists are working at the engines lab to figure out the optimal growing conditions for the algae to reproduce most quickly for oil extraction.



Proven technology

Jaffe said the algae-to-oil technology has been repeatedly proven on a small scale as teams of researchers around the nation and the world race to find a way to make it work on a large scale and at the lowest possible price.

"That's 98 percent of what Solix is focusing on - how to take what's in the lab out to the world and build it inexpensively," he said.

Meanwhile, Sears and Allen are working to get their version of an algae bioreactor up and running. Sears said he thinks they may even collaborate with Solix at some point.

"My vision is we'll work together in various collaborative ways in the future because what we're all working toward is a new industry and that's going to take us all working together," he said.

"The more people who are out there and successful in this endeavor, the better," he added. "When we get this licked, there's going to be enough for everyone."

Allen said he believes the A2BE model is a strong contender in the race, citing its "extremely low energy use," its enclosed "biosecure" algae-growing system and its multiple benefits, including animal feed protein, fertilizer, methane gas, pure oxygen and CO2 capture.

"We're looking at a much bigger economy and not being tied to a particular thing but a mix of products that generate revenue," he said.

Sears and Allen say they expect to have a full-scale bioreactor operating within the next two years and to be capturing carbon with the next four years. That's about the time they foresee a worldwide demand for carbon capture and trading as a way to reduce CO2 emissions and slow global warming.

The European Union has had a carbon emissions trading program since 2005, with CO2-producing companies in all 27 of its member countries required to buy carbon credits if they pollute more than a cap set by the government.

That kind of system will eventually come to the United States as well, Allen and Sears believe. "I think any reasonable person can see the writing on the wall," Sears said.

Allen said A2BE is having "very meaningful discussions" with a "big science organization" to help get the company's model up and running and ultimately into a commercial version.

"We are assembling a consortium that can truly get this to a commercial scale," he said.

Sears said raising money is not the main obstacle to achieving success. "It takes more than money," he said. "It takes long-term experience in all the disciplines that need to come together to bring this to fruition.

"We're talking about generating a new industry that's never existed before."