01_Algae Biofuel Talk 6 October Peer Schenk

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Microalgae-based biofuel

technology

Peer Schenk

School of Biological SciencesFaculty of Science

The University of QueenslandAustralia

[email protected]

6 October 20092009 Microalgae Technology Conference

Taiwan



IMPORTANCE OF CO2 SEQUESTRATION



GEOTHERMAL: 92,000 TW-YR

TIDAL POWER: 0.1 TW-YR

BIOMASS: 172 TW-YR

OCEAN THERMAL: 10 TW-YR

WIND: 5 TW-YR

WAVE: 2 TW-YR

SOLAR: 126,000 TW

GEOTHERMAL: 92,000 TW

TIDAL POWER: 0.1 TW

BIOMASS: 172 TW

OCEAN THERMAL: 10 TW

WIND: 5 TW

WAVE: 2 TW

Renewable, CO2-free

energy sources …

vs. current

energy demand

WORLD ENERGY DEMAND: 13 TW

RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

Plants



Search for renewable fuels

• increased attention on climate change

• decline in fossil fuel reserves

• fuels account for ⅔ of global energy demand

• increasing cost

• environmental damage

• need for sustainable biofuel production without

competing for arable land



BIO-FUEL PRODUCTION: PHOTOSYNTHESIS IS CENTRAL

1. DRIVES FIRST STEP IN THE CONVERSION OF LIGHT TO CHEMICAL ENERGY

2. PRODUCES FEEDSTOCKS FOR FUEL SYNTHESIS

3. BUT CONVENTIONAL CROPS HAVE ~1-3% PHOTOSYNTHETIC EFFICIENCY

4. INCREASING PHOTOSYNTHETIC EFFICIENCY INCREASES ECONOMIC VIABILITY



Why Algae biofuels?• Increasing demand for Biofuels

– Fossil fuel depletion / Effect on Climate change

– Transport fuels: 66 % of total energy use

– biodiesel: high energy content and easy to process.

• Problems with Terrestial Biofuels: – Large land requirements (low energy conversion efficiency)

– Only possible on scarce arable land

• Competition with food production

• Deforestation – High water consumption (runoff, evaporation)

– Inefficient nutrient consumption (runoff N2O emissions)



Advantages of Algae Fuel• No Arable land required

• High yields due to: – High biomass density no roots, leaves, stems

– High growth rates (DT as fast as ~3.5 h)

– High tryacylglyceride (TAG) content (~20 - 70 %)

• Low water consumption: – Seawater/ agricultural runoff water / waste water.

– No loss due to runoff

– No evaporation in closed bioreactor

• Efficient use of nutrients

• CO2 capture possible

• Residuemethane/ethanol, cattle feed,



The ultimate energy cycle

Hydrogen

Production

Biodiesel &

Bioethanol

Production

Waste to

Power plantWaste from

Sewage plant

CO2 & NOX



Algae Biotechnology

http://www.cmtevents.com

Agrichar (carbon sequestration)

Biohydrogen



The University of Queensland

Algae Biodiesel Project• Collection & culture of microalgae

– freshwater, brackish, marine environments

(SE Queensland) – Pure culture

– Identification (microscopy/ribosomal DNA sequencing)

• Selection criteria

– Growth rate

– Biomass

– Lipids

– Flocculation/oil extraction• Algae breeding

• Midscale outdoor cultivation



Microalgae collection - BR



Pure culture



identified microalgaeidentified microalgaeCulture ID Given Name Accession Number

BR2 Scenedesmus sp. isolate BR2 EU729732BR8a Scenedesmus sp. isolate BR8a EU729729

BR8b Desmodesmus sp. isolate BR8b EU729730

AR1, BR17, PAG Chlorella ducis EU502834

BR19 Desmodesmus tenuis EU502832

BR25 Desmodesmus irritus EU502835

BR30 Chlorella caelum EU502833

SD3 Chlorella optimates EU502837

ESK TOWER Chlorella sp. Esk Tower EU729731

P1 Desmodesmus viridis EU502836

Timmins, et al., 2008 Eukaryotic Cell



Nile red stained culture x400 uv fluorescence

Nile red staining



Lipid analysis (TLC and GC-MS)Fatty Acid BR2 BR8 BR20 BR21 BR30 ORI1 ORI4 ESK TOWER

C10:0 3.02 6.55 3.14 3.19 2.04 1.27 3.81

C12:0 1.44

C14:0 4.75 11.84 3.52 5.65

C14:1 2.19 2.31

C16:0 61.94 15.12 60.87 69.89 46.41 26.83 35.62 21.86

C16:1 5.24 4.04 4.07 6.92 8.54 10.8 10.25

C16:1 iso 5.51

C16:2 1.45 4.47 4.55 1.51 5.33 4.27

C16:3 1.55 3.63 2.68

C18:0 2.16 18.45 0.83 3.61 7.42

C18:1 7.59 5.83 12.68 1.79 3.76 6.59

C18:1 iso 1.41 13.26

C18:2 3.53 22.09 3.23 3.22 5.82 8.41 7.35 6.97

C18:3 12.53 15.13 7.79

C18:4 11.07 31.28 13.13 27.4 25.85 19.91

C18:5 7.23

C20:3 3.55

C20:4 1TOTAL 99.99 100.00 99.99 100.00 99.99 99.99 99.99 99.99

• Quality of fuel

• Low PUFA (polyunsaturated

fatty acids)

– Less oxidation

– Long term storage

• High PUFA

– Good cold flowproperties

– Overcomes cold filterplugging point (CFPP)

• An ‘Ideal mix’• (Schenk, et al., 2008 Bioenergy Research)

– 16:1, 18:1 and 14:0 inthe ratio 5:4:1



Search for inexpensive nutrient sources

Soil extract medium

Wastewater UQ Tennis courts

AWMC



Algae testing and media optimisation

10-Litre Bioreactor

Raceway pond

(low nutrient)



Split system design for synchronised TAG

induction and avoidance of contamination

Raceway pond(low nutrient)

Bioreactor(high nutrient)

Wastewater

CO2

Cleanwater

sunBatch

transfer



Split system design for synchronised TAG

induction and avoidance of contaminationLaboratory inoculum(exponential growth)

Nutrients, Wastewater, Seawater, CO2


Bioreactor(continuous exponential growth)

Open raceway ponds



TAG Induction, Extraction and Biodiesel

SynthesisOpen raceway ponds(low nutrient water)

Harvest after 3 days and replace with culture

Oil extraction(foam fractionation)

Biodiesel synthesis(transesterification)



ALGAE BREEDING

Adaptive evolution of microalgae to select for high TAG cells

red

yellow



BR2 evolved for high TAG production

(synchronised induction)

Nutrients, Wastewater, Seawater, CO2





Bioreactor team



UQ Algae biodiesel team

Coordination• Peer Schenk

Algae collection• Skye Thomas-Hall

• Eugene Zhang

• Stephanie Ewert

• Bart Nijland

• Priyanka NayakPUFA analysis• Matthew Timmins

• Philipp Keymer

Media

• Fauzi Haroon• Alex Metcalf

Algae Breeding/Adaptive Evolution• Adam Posthuma

• Yamini KashimshettyMidscale Outdoor Cultivation• Miklos Deme

• Kalpesh Sharma

• Sourabh Garg

Oil Extraction/Biodiesel Synthesis• Liguang Wang

• Steve Welsh

• Christopher Beavon

Grant applications

• Stephen Su

North Queensland & Pacific Pty Ltd



Photo-Biological Hydrogen Productionin the Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

GENETIC SCREENING



2 H2 O22 H2 O2

2 H2O2 H2O

Solar

Energy

Solar

Energy

AlgaeAlgae

Focus: Developing economic solar-powered H2 production from H2O

using engineered green algal cells.

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

GENETIC SCREENING

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

BIOCHEMISTRY

NATURAL

SURVIVAL

MECHANISM

Ph t th ti H d ti i l



Photosynthetic H2 production in green algae

Small scale Experimental set-up:

Measurement of gas purity via GC

Monitoring Dissolved Oxygen and pH

Sampling and injecting possible

Gas-volume determination

H2 produced can power a fuel cell car



Photosynthetic H2 production in green algae

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

GENETIC SCREENING



Starch StoreStarch StoreStm6Stm6

WTWT

Mutant with high efficiency H2 production

1. H20 > H+ + e- > H2

2. STARCH > H+ + e- > H2



BIOCHEMISTRY: SOLAR POWERED H2 PRODUCTION FROM H2O

- S





Microarray Analysis

• 4650 genes differentially expressed

• 644 genes significantly induced or repressed.







Rearrangement of

photosynthetic

antenna





Skye Thomas-Hall, Anh Vu Nguyen, Alizée Malnoë,Matthew Timmins, Evan Stephens, Jan H. Mussgnug

[email protected]

Documents

01_Algae Biofuel Talk 6 October Peer Schenk