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• 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

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 B iofuels - “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 - Over-

expression of ACCase leads to overproduction of triglycerides

Harvesting• Long harvesting period

– GreenFuel - harvests algae daily– Advanced Biofuel Technologies - Over-

expression 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– OriginOil’s 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.

• Solena’s 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

• Valcent’s 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