New acoustic technology developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory could help a Colorado startup gain a major edge in the emerging biofuels market.

Solix Biofuels Inc., headquartered in Fort Collins, signed a cooperative research and development agreement with LANL to further develop the technology and test it at Solix’s two algae-to-oil facilities at Fort Collins and at the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in southwest Colorado near Durango.

If the technology pans out, Solix will license it for incorporation into the company’s proprietary, algae-based production process, said chief technology officer Bryan Willson.

LANL is applying acoustics to separate algae from water, break it down and compartmentalize it into different elements, and then extract the oil from algae to make biofuels.

“This has the potential to be game-changing technology, but it’s still quite early in the process,” Willson said. “I’ve looked at other acoustic technologies and did not believe they would be successful, but LANL’s approach is compelling, and they have a good history in this field.”

Willson said the acoustic approach can greatly lower production costs compared with current algae-to-oil technology, which relies on giant centrifuges to separate algae from water, as well as chemical solvents for oil extraction.

“Centrifugal harvesting is much too costly,” Willson said. “LANL’s technology can reduce that cost by a factor of 100 or more.”

It will also reduce the carbon footprint of algal processing, because centrifuges consume a lot of energy. And it lowers the production of hazardous byproducts by eliminating use of solvents in extracting oil.

Greg Goddard, a LANL bioscientist and chief investigator for the acoustic technology, said the system applies sound waves at different frequencies, wavelengths, and focal points for the threefold process of getting oil and other usable products out of algae.

In the initial stage, sound waves separate algae from water, leaving behind concentrated clumps that make up a relatively thick sludge “on the order of mayonnaise or peanut butter,” Goddard said.

Next, high-intensity focused sound waves create separate piles of cellular debris that include proteins, sugars, and lipids.

“The sound waves rip it apart and open it all up,” Goddard said.

Finally, higher frequency acoustics are used to pull out and concentrate the lipids, or oil.