OriginOil and Aquaviridis team up in Mexicali for algae project

n California, OriginOil has announced a joint venture with algae producer Aquaviridis, based in Mexico. Commerical scale production capacity is expected by the second quarter of 2013. Says OriginOil’s VP of marketing, Ken Reynolds, “The Mexicali Valley is a great place to develop an algae industry, given its climate and access to industry research and resources throughout North America.”

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Study: Algal biofuels show huge potential

It appears that algal biofuels could be a legitimate solution in the efforts to combat lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s the verdict of a study by ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, MIT and Synthetic Genomics in the paper Environmental Science and Technology.

Its study looked into how various technology options could affect greenhouse gas emissions and on-site freshwater consumption and it found that when produced in large volumes algae has the potential to produce huge amounts of fuel per unit area of production. Therefore, it could potentially expand transportation energy supplies without needing a significant displacement of land and water resources. However, the researchers do point out that algal production remains at an early stage of its research and development and that there may be many possible technology configurations.

It’s not the first time that the companies have looked into algal biofuel production. In 2009, ExxonMobil launched a new programme to research and develop advanced biofuels from photosynthetic algae that would be compatible with today’s fuels. Then in 2011, at the Algae Biomass Summit in Minneapolis, it provided a summary of its efforts to tackle the challenges of large scale production, including: achieving high bio-oil yields at lower costs; the best product systems for growing strains; establishing a bio-oil upgrading process compatible with existing refinery infrastructures; and determining the best product systems for growing strains.

For the latest study they looked at a small-scale open pond facility with three distinct oil recovery options: dry extraction, secretion and wet extraction.

Among its findings were that with wet extraction there is potential for more than 50 per cent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and the energy balance can also be favourable. It also found that algal biofuels in saline systems using brackish makeup water can have freshwater consumption that compares to petrol fuels.

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Research under way to harness algae qualities

A research cell under the marine biotechnology department of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute here is conducting research into harnessing the qualities of various algae for diverse uses such as making biofuels, carbon dioxide sequestration, waste water treatment, livestock feed, high protein nutrients and others.

“Bio-chemical profiling of more than 150 algae has been done. These have been cultured and steps are being initiated to look at developing food products, bio-diesel and aquaculture and hatchery feed,” said the department head, Dr K.K. Vijayan.

As a next step, the institute would look at isolating the genes that give these algae their qualities, so that know-how can be given to the industry for the manufacture of different food products and other uses.

Culturing of these algae, massive production and supply to various end-users would also contribute to putting a check on climate change since these algae absorb a lot of carbon-dioxide and instead release oxygen, says the senior research fellow, Ms Preetha. K. They have been seen as major contributors to carbon dioxide sequestration and waste water treatments.

The demand for these algae, also “green cell factories”, has been growing over the years.

The high protein content make them an unconventional food source and some of them have the essential fatty acids and are the rich sources of long chain poly unsaturated fatty acids.

Besides, some of them can also be used as natural colourants. They can have a number of neutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications.

Some of the microalgae are sold as health food or food supplement in the form of tablets, capsules and liquids and they act as antioxidants and probiotics, she adds.

Certain species of microalgae contain high amounts of oil which could be processed and refined into transportation fuels. A section of the microalgae can also be used as bio-fertilizers.

“The research would look at new technical approaches in mass culture, in designing photobioreactors,”Dr Vijayan added.

and in processing methods which will support the extensive production systems. Genetic modification would also be a new area of research, Dr Vijayan added.

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OriginOil demos low-energy Algae Appliance and mobile algae harvester at NAA meet-up

In California, OriginOil demonstrated a low-energy Algae Appliance to industry executives from a National Algae Associate hosted workshop. OriginOil also showed new technologies in laboratory development, and the Max One mobile algae harvester. Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil CEO commented that this was the first time the Algae Appliance was shown to an industry group in the U.S.

The Algae Appliance is a continuous-flow ‘wet harvest’ system that can remove up to 90 percent of the water in which algae lives.

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New Technique Discovered to Help Harvest Algae

At the UKs Sheffield University (SU) a team led by Professor Will Zimmerman in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering believes they have developed an inexpensive way of producing microbubbles that can float algae particles to the surface of the water, making harvesting easier, and saving biofuel-producing companies time and money.

One of the cost of production problems that holds algae back as a major biomatter resource is an efficient cost-effective method of harvesting and removing the water from the algae for it to be processed.

Algae have the potential to be a very efficient biofuel producer. The one cell plant produces oil that can be processed to create a useful biofuel. Biofuels made from plant material are considered important alternatives to fossil fuels. The carbohydrate portion can be used for food or to make more fuel.

The SU team’s new technique builds on previous research in which microbubbles were used to improve the way algae is cultivated. The early work used the microbubble technology to improve algae production methods, allowing producers to grow crops more rapidly and more densely and earned Zimmerman and the team the Moulton Medal, from the Institute of Chemical Engineers. The research paper is published in Biotechnology and Bioengineering.

Professor Zimmerman outlines the story saying, “We thought we had solved the major barrier to biofuel companies processing algae to use as fuel when we used microbubbles to grow the algae more densely. It turned out, however, that algae biofuels still couldn’t be produced economically, because of the difficulty in harvesting and dewatering the algae. We had to develop a solution to this problem and once again, microbubbles provided a solution.”

Microbubble Algae Separation at the University of Sheffield.

Microbubbles have been used for flotation before: water purification companies use the process to float out impurities, but it hasn’t been done in this context, partly because the previous methods have been very expensive.

The new system developed by Zimmerman´s team uses as little as one tenth of a percent of the energy to produce the microbubbles. Additionally, the cost of installing the Sheffield microbubble system is predicted to be much less than existing flotation systems.

Zimmerman explains the technology saying, “What we’ve found is that we can separate the microalgae from the water or harvest it using microbubbles that are created by a fluidic oscillator. A fluidic oscillator switches flows rapidly from one outlet to another, using feedback to do so with no moving parts. It is like an opening and closing mechanical valve that results in pulsing flow. Our bubbles are made under laminar flow and we use practically no more energy than is required to make the interface of the bubble.”

As a result of the low energy input, the bubbles rise very slowly, which is crucial as it means the algae particles can attach themselves to the bubbles more easily. Two chemicals added to the liquid in the process, a flocculant and a coagulant to help the algae bond to the rising microbubbles.

“The idea is to create a surface on the algae particles that is hydrophobic so the microbubbles are attracted to it,” said Zimmerman. When the bubbles and the particles reach the surface, the flocculant and the coaggulant keep the algae in a fixed layer. The blanket of algae can then be skimmed off the surface with something such as a belt skimmer. “In the lab, we use a knife.”

Zimmerman explained that the process is much cheaper than attempting to make microbubbles through an industrial process known as dissolved air flotation, which generates bubbles that are too turbulent to harvest algae.

Next up for the technology is to develop a pilot plant to test the system at an industrial scale. Professor Zimmerman is already working with Tata Steel at their site in Scunthorpe, where Tata Steel is recovering and using CO2 from their flue-gas stacks. Zimmerman and Tata plan to continue the partnership to test the new system.

The SU team’s technology may have other soon to be used attributes. Lakes that have a build-up of nutrients causing algal blooms to form called eutrophication, often attributed to agricultural fertilizers entering water bodies, need the algae harvested and removed instead of left to die and decompose.

The SU team is already in talks with Ken Shu, a scientific adviser to the Chinese government, to set up pilot-scale trials on remediating algal blooms in eutrophied lakes in China.

Zimmerman explains, “China has demographic drinking-water problems. They’re running out because the lakes that used to be used for drinking water are all eutrophied with algal blooms.”

It looks good in the lab. A lot of ideas have come and gone in trying to capture the algae cells in a low cost harvest. Algae, naturally, are pretty good at keeping themselves separate with each basking in the sunlight. It’s a significant attribute that makes the very high productivity possible as well as makes the harvest problematic.

Let’s hope the Brits have it nailed down now.

Original article available here.