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Algae Energy - Challenges &
Efforts Narasimhan Santhanam, Oilgae
Presentation in Oct, 2008, Texas,USA
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How difficult is it to achieve the
energy Holy Grail?
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Contents
• For each of the various aspects of algalenergy
– Problems present
– Efforts & solutions
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Aspects Considered• End products• Strains
• Oil yields• GMOs• Methods to grow algae• Choice of cultivation
plant• Problems in
cultivation
• Open pond systems• Photobioreactors
• Harvesting• Extraction• Transesterification• Energy input/output• Land requirements• Scaling up• Quality of biodiesel
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End Products
• Biodiesel• Ethanol• Hydrogen• Methane
• Biomass
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Biodiesel
• Greenfuel - recycled CO2• Solazyme - fermentation• Blue Marble - polluted water systems• Inventure - algae-jet-fuel
• Aquaflow - algae in sewage• Aurora - GM algae• Solix - CO2 from breweries
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Biodiesel - continued
• Seambiotic - CO2 from powerplants• Cellena
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Ethanol
• Ethanol from GM cyanobacteria (Univ ofHawaii)
• Algodyne - algae PBR that can producemultiple end products (fuels), includingethanol
• Algenol - “algae produce ethanol in the gasform”
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Hydrogen
• Using hydrogenase enzymes (triggered bysulphur deprivation) - biophotolysis
• Using Cu to block oxygen generation• Manipulating genes that control the amount
of chlorophyll• DIY Algae Hydrogen Kit - Amy
Franceschini & Jonathan Meuser - biophotolysis
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Methane
• Methane production by pyrolysis (Wu et al,1999) - direct pyrolysis of marine
nanoplankton
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Biomass
• “Under favourable conditions, some algaestrains have produced over 180 T / ha /yr of
biomass” • Solena - Uses high temperatures to gasify
algae.
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Strains• NREL’s ASP did not specify any one
species as the best, though they concluded
diatoms and green algae were promising• Microalgae or macroalgae?• Blue Marble - wild algae blooms
• Solazyme - Dunaliella species• C. reinhardtii - sulphur deprived to produce
hydrogen
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Strains• Others:
– Neochloris oleoabundans – Scenedesmus dimorphus
– Euglena gracilis – Prymnesium parvum – Phaedactylum carterae – Tetraselmius chui
– Tetraselmius suecica – Isochrysis galbana – Nannochloropsis salina – Botryococcus braunii
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Oil Yield
• Increasing oil yield by: – Nutrient deprivation - Sulphur & Nitrogen
deprivation – Silicon depletion
• ACCase gene placed to increase fatty acid
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GMO
• PetroAlgae - Environmentally-friendlyalgae
• Solazyme - Optimizing biochemical pathways for hydrocarbon production
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Cultivation Problems
• Formulation of Medium – Calcium, Magnesium can cause precipitation
problems – Water might require conditioning – Montana Micronutrient Booster - GSPI
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Cultivation Problems
• Provision of CO2 – CO2 could cover a large part of operating costs
– Covered area carbonators - bubble covers – In-pond carbonation sumps – Recycling of non-lipid carbon from extraction
residues
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Cultivation Problems
• Water Circulation – Paddle wheels
– Airlift pump – Archimedes screw pump – Gas lift mixing
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Problems in Open Pond
• Light penetration – Circulate algae using paddle wheels
– Placing the light in the system - submerged intothe tank
– Passive optical system - Bionavitas
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Problems in Open Pond
• Odour related problems – Result mainly owing to lack of oxygen
– Planned cultivation and harvesting should takecare of this
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Photobioreactor Problems
• Choice of PBR – Dynamic Biogenics develops low-cost, scalable
bioreactors
– Solix B iofuels - “Massively scalable PBRs” – Texas Clean Fuels - optimized for CO2sequestration and biofuel feedstock production
– Valcent - vertical bioreactor
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Photobioreactor Problems
• Choice of PBR – Origin Oil - Helix bioreactor – Academic & Univ Centre in Nove Hrady -
Czech Republic - Penthouse PBR using solarconcentrators with linear fresnel lenses
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Photobioreactor Problems
• Cost of PBR – DEC Simgae system - simple, benefits of both
& closed systems
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Harvesting
• Long harvesting period – GreenFuel - harvests algae daily – Advanced Biofuel Technologies - Over-
expression of ACCase leads to overproductionof triglycerides
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Harvesting
• Long harvesting period – GreenFuel - harvests algae daily – Advanced Biofuel Technologies - Over-
expression of ACCase leads to overproductionof triglycerides
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Harvesting
• Time of Harvesting – Ability to determine the right time to extract oil
from feedstock is critical
– Current methods to determine these areexpensive, time consuming and unreliable – BioGauge “bio - profiling” technology - from
International Energy Inc.
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Extraction
• Choice of extraction – Primary
• Expeller• Solvent Extraction• Super critical fluid extraction
– Less well-known• Enzymatic extraction
• Osmotic shock• Ultrasonic assisted extraction• Soxhlet extraction
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Extraction
• Cost of extraction – Numbers quoted are quite high - what are the
real numbers?
• Energy requirements – OriginOil’s new method to extract oil without
resorting to chemical solvents, using a processcalled lysing, built on their patented method of“Quantum Fracturing”
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Transesterification
• High FFA could create transesterification problems – Basu & Norris (2005) have developed a process
to produce esters from feedstock that have ahigh FFA content using calcium and bariumacetate as a catalyst.
– SRS Biodiesel - FSP-Series Acid Esterification
pretreatment system for high-FFA feedstock
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Energy Input & Output
• Best-case - Macro-algae can generate 11000MJ/dry algae & micro-algae 9500 MJ/T.
• Solena’s plasma gasification tech consumes
less than 1/4 of the energy it produces
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Land Requirements
• Growing algae on solid carriers in ocean -Kansas State Univ. - Jun 2008
• Nutrients for algae in sea water - algae grew
much faster when supplied with dust from adesert• Valcent’s Vertigro uses area above a plot of
land.• Algae grown in sewage ponds - Aquaflow
Bionomic
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Scaling Up
• When transferred to outdoor test facility,growth rate, % oil yield decreaseddramatically from those from laboratory
results (NREL) (biodiesel produced per acrein OTF was just 10% of that produced inlab)
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Algae Biodiesel Quality
• Not enough data• High FFA content• Solazyme tests algae biodiesel that has
superior performance under cold weatherconditions (algae engineered to produce anoil with optimized fatty acid profile)
• One way of bridging quality gaps is to blend biodiesel from different feedstocks?
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Thank You