Algae Energy - Challenges & Efforts

Narasimhan Santhanam, Oilgae Presentation in Oct, 2008, Texas, USA

How difficult is it to achieve the energy Holy Grail?

Contents
For each of the various aspects of algal energy
Problems present Efforts & solutions

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

End Products
Biodiesel Ethanol Hydrogen Methane Biomass

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

Biodiesel - continued
Seambiotic - CO2 from powerplants Cellena

Ethanol
Ethanol from GM cyanobacteria (Univ of Hawaii) Algodyne - algae PBR that can produce multiple end products (fuels), including ethanol Algenol - algae produce ethanol in the gas form

Hydrogen
Using hydrogenase enzymes (triggered by sulphur 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

Methane
Methane production by pyrolysis (Wu et al, 1999) - direct pyrolysis of marine nanoplankton

Biomass
Under favourable conditions, some algae strains have produced over 180 T / ha /yr of biomass Solena - Uses high temperatures to gasify algae.

Strains
NRELs 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

Strains
Others:
Neochloris oleoabundans Scenedesmus dimorphus Euglena gracilis Prymnesium parvum Phaedactylum carterae Tetraselmius chui Tetraselmius suecica Isochrysis galbana Nannochloropsis salina Botryococcus braunii

Oil Yield
Increasing oil yield by:
Nutrient deprivation - Sulphur & Nitrogen deprivation Silicon depletion

ACCase gene placed to increase fatty acid

GMO
PetroAlgae - Environmentally-friendly algae Solazyme - Optimizing biochemical pathways for hydrocarbon production

Photosynthesis or Fermentation?
Photosynthesis - many companies Fermentation - Solazyme FAO - direct extraction of lipids appears to be a more efficient method for obtaining energy, than fermentation

Choice of Plant
Single or multi-purpose Multi-purpose
Combined with power plants Combined with wastewater treatments and sewage Greenfuel - power plants Aquaflow - sewage Inventure - power plants?

Cultivation Problems
Formulation of Medium
Calcium, Magnesium can cause precipitation problems Water might require conditioning Montana Micronutrient Booster - GSPI

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

Cultivation Problems
Water Circulation
Paddle wheels Airlift pump Archimedes screw pump Gas lift mixing

Problems in Open Pond

Light penetration
Circulate algae using paddle wheels Placing the light in the system - submerged into the tank Passive optical system - Bionavitas

Problems in Open Pond

Odour related problems
Result mainly owing to lack of oxygen Planned cultivation and harvesting should take care of this

Problems in Open Pond

Contamination, temperature, pH & salinity fluctations
Owing to:
Temperature & light variances Infiltration from local algae Evaporation, dust particles, rain.

Solution
Hybrid algae product system - cross between open and closed pond systems - GSPI Combo of open pond and PBR - Enhanced Biofuels & Technologies

Photobioreactor Problems
Choice of PBR
Dynamic Biogenics develops low-cost, scalable bioreactors Solix Biofuels - Massively scalable PBRs Texas Clean Fuels - optimized for CO2 sequestration and biofuel feedstock production Valcent - vertical bioreactor

Photobioreactor Problems
Choice of PBR
Origin Oil - Helix bioreactor Academic & Univ Centre in Nove Hrady Czech Republic - Penthouse PBR using solar concentrators with linear fresnel lenses

Photobioreactor Problems
Cost of PBR
DEC Simgae system - simple, benefits of both & closed systems

Harvesting
Method of Harvesting
Besides simple sedimentation, all other methods are expensive
The expensive methods - straining, filtering, flocculation

Cost-effective (?) methods

Induced bio-flocculation followed by sedimentation or flotation AlgoDyne Ethanol Energy - new process to harvest biomass from marine algal blooms

Harvesting
Long harvesting period
GreenFuel - harvests algae daily Advanced Biofuel Technologies - Overexpression of ACCase leads to overproduction of triglycerides

Harvesting
Long harvesting period
GreenFuel - harvests algae daily Advanced Biofuel Technologies - Overexpression of ACCase leads to overproduction of triglycerides

Harvesting
Time of Harvesting
Ability to determine the right time to extract oil from feedstock is critical Current methods to determine these are expensive, time consuming and unreliable BioGauge bio-profiling technology - from International Energy Inc.

Harvesting
Harvesting Cost
Aquaflow - developed a scalable method for harvesting algae in the wild

Extraction
Choice of extraction
Primary
Expeller Solvent Extraction Super critical fluid extraction

Less well-known
Enzymatic extraction Osmotic shock Ultrasonic assisted extraction Soxhlet extraction

Extraction
Cost of extraction
Numbers quoted are quite high - what are the real numbers?

Energy requirements
OriginOils new method to extract oil without resorting to chemical solvents, using a process called lysing, built on their patented method of Quantum Fracturing

Transesterification
High FFA could create transesterification problems
Basu & Norris (2005) have developed a process to produce esters from feedstock that have a high FFA content using calcium and barium acetate as a catalyst. SRS Biodiesel - FSP-Series Acid Esterification pretreatment system for high-FFA feedstock

Energy Input & Output

Best-case - Macro-algae can generate 11000 MJ/dry algae & micro-algae 9500 MJ/T. Solenas plasma gasification tech consumes less than 1/4 of the energy it produces

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 a desert Valcents Vertigro uses area above a plot of land. Algae grown in sewage ponds - Aquaflow Bionomic

Scaling Up
When transferred to outdoor test facility, growth rate, % oil yield decreased dramatically from those from laboratory results (NREL) (biodiesel produced per acre in OTF was just 10% of that produced in lab)

Algae Biodiesel Quality

Not enough data High FFA content Solazyme tests algae biodiesel that has superior performance under cold weather conditions (algae engineered to produce an oil with optimized fatty acid profile) One way of bridging quality gaps is to blend biodiesel from different feedstocks?

Conclusion
We are still not yet there, but the clarity about the problems we face and the diversity of solutions being attempted make the goal look more reachable than ever before.

Thank You