Microalgae for production of biofuels, food and chemicals

René H. Wijffelswww.algae.wur.nl

Contents

Biodiesel from microalgae

Feasibility study Biorefinery of

microalgae Research agenda

Biodiesel from microalgae

Botryococcus Alkanes (C34) High concentrations (40-70%)

Other algae 20-60% lipids

High productivity Palm oil: 6,000 l/ha/year Algae: 20,000-80,000 l/ha/year No competition with food Salt water

Feasibility study Delta nv

Horizontal tubes

Raceway ponds

Flat panels

Biomass production cost

Centrifuge w estfalia separator AG Centrifuge Feed Pump Medium Filter Unit

Medium Feed pump Medium preparation tank Harvest broth storage tank

Seaw ater pump station Automatic Weighing Station w ith Silos Culture circulation pump

Installations costs Instrumentation and control Piping

Buildings Polyethylene tubes Photobioreactor Culture medium

Carbon dioxide Media Filters Air f ilters

Pow er Labor Payroll charges

Maintenance General plant overheads

4.02 € / kg biomass

10.62 € / kg biomass

0.4 € / kg biomass15 €/GJ

89% decrease

1 ha

100 ha

potential

Labor 28% Power 22%

Power 42%

Bulk chemicals and biofuels in 1,000 kg microalgae 400 kg lipids

100 kg as feedstock chemical industry (2 €/kg lipids)

300 kg as transport fuel (0.50 €/kg lipids)

500 kg proteins 100 kg for food (5 €/kg protein) 400 kg for feed (0.75 €/kg

protein) 100 kg polysaccharides

1 €/kg polysaccharides 70 kg of N removed

2 €/kg nitrogen 1,600 kg oxygen produced

0.16 €/kg oxygen Production costs: 0.40 €/kg

biomass Value: 1.65 €/kg biomass

Sugars100 €

N removal140 €

Oxygen 256 €

Chemicals 200 €

Biofuels150 €

Food proteins 500 €

Feed proteins 300 €

Economical Viability: biorefinery of microalgae

Wageningen research agenda Photobioreactor design O2 removal and CO2

supply Biofilms for post-

treatment wastewater Control of primary

metabolism Harvesting and Oil

extraction Biorefinery Design scenarios AlgaePARC

Photobioreactor design Closed photobioreactors Maximization of

photosynthetic efficiency/productivity High light intensity/shading High biomass density Energy input Shear effects Growth inhibition Light guides Flashing light effect Variations in light intensity

Real productivity?9.0 %

reflection on PBR x 0.96

night biomass loss x 0.90

maintenance x 0.95

8.6 %

7.8 %

What’s left ?... 7.4%

Practice?... 3 - 4%

Light saturation?

Nutrient limitations? CO2

Inhibition? O2, light

Process design

Light dilution in the lab Dilution of light By vertical flat panels Imitation of day/night cycles Model system: Chlorella

sorokiniana 1.4 cm panel reactor

Light dilution in the lab

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Time / min

PF

D /

mic

rom

ol

m-2

s-1

Vertical east-west

horizontal

PE = 6.5 %

PE = 4.2 %

Light dilution in practice

Vertical panels Submerged (Solix

Biofuels) Inflatable bags

(Proviron

Control primary metabolism Objective: control metabolism High yield on light Production of lipids Production of colorants

Metabolic network model and flux calculations to predict rates in primary metabolism

Research reactor to apply wide range of cultivation conditions

On-line monitoring of production and consumption rates (CO2, O2, N, biomass)

Building a metabolic model

Model organism: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii A metabolic model was built

About 300 enzymatic reactions were modeled Lumping linear pathways 159 reactions and 161 metabolites

35 enzymes were not annotated 28 were retrieved in the C. reinhardtii genome with

sequences of related organisms 7 remain missing

Checked by comparing Photosynthetic Quotient (O2 production rate/CO2 uptake rate, Quantum Requirement (mol light quanta needed per mol O2 produced) and Biomass yield (g biomass/mol photons)

Projects

Genome based metabolic flux model for Chlamydomonas (Annette Kliphuis)

Metabolic flux models and lipid accumulation in green algae (Anne Klok)

Metabolic flux models and lipid accumulation in diatoms (Packo Lamers)

Metabolic flux models and colorant production (Kim Mulders)

Metabolic flux models and alkane accumulation in Botryococcus (contract negotiation)

Design scenarios - Ellen Slegers Objective

Develop scenarios for production of energy carriers at very large scale

Why Logistics: complexity and energy use of supply of

materials Research issues

Sustainability Scale Location

Pre and post processing

Environment

Algae cultivation

energy (light & mechanical

nutrients (CO2, N, P)

H2O

others

solution containing biomass

other products (e.g. O2)

loca

tion

(ligh

t, te

mpe

ratu

re)

reac

tor t

ype

alga

e sp

ecie

s (g

row

th

char

acte

ristic

s)

AlgaePARCAlgae Production And Research Centre

Build up an international , open and independent centre for applied research

Translate research towards applications Acquire Information for design of full scale plants Develop competitive technology (economic viability and positive

energy balance)

Cradle to Cradle: Closing material loops - CO2, N, P

To be applied in and outside the Netherlands Defined Research Programme (5 years) & Contract research Production of algal biomass for bulk chemicals, food and feed

ingredients and biofuels Pilot as intermediate between lab and demo

Algae PARC: Objectives

Translate research towards applications

FundamentalResearch

2.5 m2 25 m2

Demos25 000 m2

AlgaePARC Industrial partnersWUR / WETSUS

Encountered problems are to be rethought and solved at previous stages

Stage 1 R&D Stage 2 test & pilot

Stage 3 Scale-up

AlgaePARC: Algae Production and Research Center Development of a process chain Experience with systems Information for design of full scale plants Comparison of systems Comparison of strains Comparison of feeds (nutrients, CO2, sunlight…) Supply of biomass for

further processing Further processing

Algae PARC

Main Features

Uniqueness - 4 different systems that can run in parallel (minimum)

Fundamental aspects for successful operation and scale up of photobioreactors to commercial plants

Control Units: accurate online measurements and control of a wide range of metabolic and environmental parameters

Flexibility: The reactors should be easily changeable to allow fast testing of different systems

Budget & Time plan

Q2-Q3 2010 engineering and building

Q4 2010 Test runs

Facilities 2010 (2.8 M€)

Research Programme 2010 -2014 (4 M€, 14 Industrial partners)

Q2 2010 consortium agreement

What we aim at…

AlgaePARC : the European test centre for microalgae technology

Conclusions

We are developing a new technology for cost-effective production of fuels, foods and chemicals from algae

Requires a multidisciplinary approach

We are active in all these disciplines

4 examples were shown: reactor technology, metabolic modelling, system design and AlgaePARC

Product

processing

Application

development

Design

Fermentation

technology

Analytics

Chains

Systems

Design

Systems

Biology

Strain

Development

Metabolic

Modelling

Bioprocess

Engineering

Scale-up

Biorefinery

Alg: taaie rakker die zich niet zo maar laat krakenDagblad van het Noorden22 oktober 2009

Is er een groenere bron van brandstof denkbaar dan de alg? Wie er in slaagt op grote schaal olie en biogas te winnen uit dit welig tierende micro-organisme, boort een onuitputtelijke energievoorraad aan. Het bedrijf Proces-Groningen is daar dichtbij. Maar naarmate het doel meer in zicht komt, groeit de twijfel.

“…. Al die stappen zijn "vreselijk moeilijk", weet Banning na vier maanden experimenteren… Persoonlijk geloof ik dan ook niet in algen als de nieuwe groene biobrandstof."

www.algae.wur.nl