Algae Energy Challenges & Efforts

8/13/2019 Algae Energy Challenges & Efforts

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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

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Algae Energy Challenges & Efforts