Can Microalgae Solve Global Fuel and Environmental Challenges?

[Ivan Seeking]

B. braunii are notoriously slow growing despite the high percentage of lipid contents. Did "four or five harvest cycles" represent the entire harvest number in the six months work with the species? I was very pleased to hear that it was "like pea soup", since the DoE and DoA are currently running a competition to see if someone can concentrate a one gram per liter solution of algae into a 20% solids suspension, at something less than current industry capital and operating costs, therefore I would like to know, were you speaking of a post-concentration process thickness, or the raw batch after a month or more of cultivation?

Hello Doc . Thanks for chiming in. "pea soup" might have been an unfortunate reference, I was referring to the optical density, not the mass density. The raw harvested solution had about a 1% mass density.

I chose B braunii because I assumed the high lipid content would be helpful given my limited means of processing. :) But I never got anywhere near the theoretical limit for Bb [about 60-70%. IIRC]. I think the highest I saw was about 20% by weight. That was some years ago now so I can only offer my best recollections.

For that matter, with the high lipid content were the B. braunii predominantly floating on the surface of the growth medium, or were you using a churning dispersion method of solve the self-shadowing problem that prevented the natural floating buoyancy?

I was using unlimited aeration to provide churning dispersion. While not applicable at scale [too much energy demand per harvest cycle], at the time I was focused on the bioreactor design and didn't worry about the energy. But that was one nagging issue that I never resolved satisfactorily. I was always worried about the energy demand required for circulation, in practice. I decided that a very low-power mechanical solution [stirring] was the only viable option. I intended to minimize the air flow and consequential energy demand by using a CO2-enriched air supply.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I was running two bioreactors and had a few false starts. We had a hot early summer and I burned and cooked a few crops before getting the sunlight and temp under control. So in all I probably had 2 or 3 successful harvests per bioreactor over a period of about six months. And by December the growth has slowed to a crawl. But these were outside in a field, not in a lab.

 

[Doc Williamon]

I was running two bioreactors and had a few false starts. We had a hot early summer and I burned and cooked a few crops before getting the sunlight and temp under control. So in all I probably had 2 or 3 successful harvests per bioreactor over a period of about six months. And by December the growth has slowed to a crawl. But these were outside in a field, not in a lab.

B.Braunii is worth investigating at the genetic level to see why it stores so much of its energy as lipids (i.e. 60 -70% some claim), but more for finding that gene that promotes the high percentage lipid energy storage than trying to grow the species as a significant source for lipids. Of course the opposite is true too, if you could substitute a fast growth gene for the one that causes B. braunii to grow so slowly, you would have a major winner there. Which leads me to my quest/major premise: forget the lipid content percentage, any old common algae will do, with 15 or 20% lipids (by weight) if it replicates 3 or 4 times a day. (some do, grow that fast, so I've read, but I don't remember anyone mentioning any specific species that does so - if you know, please share that information!) As you can readily see from the math, it only take a couple of days to outpace a "slow" growing high lipid content species. What people don't give sufficient "weight" to, is the fact that all those cells that are "only 20%" lipids are also producing 80% of a very nutritious blend of starches and proteins, i.e. food, or for that matter if you separate the starches from the proteins, then the starches are the main raw material ingredient for organic plastics, and the protein is very much like a soy protein substitute. This single minded approach of "how much fuel can we squeeze from this algae?" is turning a blind eye to the real potential of algae.
NREL has two studies of how to process algae (http://www.osti.gov/scitech/biblio/1159351 and http://www.osti.gov/scitech/biblio/1126336 ) in which they "waste" all this food value making extra ethanol fuel.
It is also not only selfish, but bordering on crazy that no one involved in algae development and research seems to see (or at least not acknowledge) that by envisioning this as a "fuel PLUS food" enterprise, it not only serves needs for North American fuel self-sufficiency, it also offers a vastly more efficient method of food ingredient products, and that as such it is also a solution for the world's fuel and food problems. That is to say, that emerging nations (from China to Senegal) can also use these processes that leapfrog use of large amounts of fossil derived carbon (i.e. coal and oil and "natural gas" [which is mostly just methane anyway]) into a sustainable process to produce fuel locally as well as have abundant food as a "byproduct" of this fuel making process. We need someone with real vision to redirect the course of exploration around the whole potential of algae. IM(NS)HO

Stafford "Doc" Williamson

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Indeed, algae does not need to compete with food crops for arable land and fresh water as do other alternative fuel crops. Additionally, algae fuel production offers an entirely new food source for fish farms and cattle as well as humans.

I saw that UTEX is now offering algae workshops
Managing Microalgal Cultures
UTEX Training Workshop | January 29 - 30, 2015
This 2-day workshop is designed to enhance the knowledge of those who are already familiar with algae, and provide an introduction to algal culture management for those with no prior experience. Many topics are of direct relevance for those who are interested in commercialization of algae.
For additional information, including a sample schedule, please visit the UTEX Training Workshop page.

 

[OmCheeto]

Haven't had time to research this yet, but I came up with a very similar idea several years ago. Based on this thread, of course.

​

He is known for building Algae Mobile, a device that converts carbon dioxide emitted from a car into oxygen.
...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

What’s Up with the Algae Biofuels Industry?
Six years after 2009’s “summer of algae”, we look at who’s doing what now, as the industry diversifies heavily into nutraceuticals in search of sustaining product revenue. 31 Algae players, what do they make now, and how are they making out?

Algae, algae, algae — biofuels made from and by the littleist creatures in the advanced bioeconomy is back in focus this week, as the DOE puts $18 million in funding into the marlet aimed at stimulating sub-$5 per gallon algae biofuels by 2019.

What are the current generation of algae technologies and companies up to? What are they making, and how are they making out, exactly? Here’s our company by company guide to 31 of the players on the scene — project developers and technology suppliers.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/07/what-s-up-with-the-algae-biofuels-industry.html

 

[timallard]

The drawing, lofting the curved air galleries of a photo-bioreactor cube 1/2m a side, insulated with LED lighting, air & power piped in, they stack to 6 or so for less footprint and rough estimate it takes 4-6 per person to handle sewage volume per day using algae to purify the water, these are water purifiers.

Recall that the reason for a treatment plant is to prevent algae blooms, the irony is that it could have supplied a high-volume local source of biodiesel from a neglected renewable non-food resource for all local transportation.

My research was in Phoenix, AZ, their main plant 10M-gal/day, 21000-tons of nutrients coming at you in the water to grow them daily and worth 3M-gal/day in biodiesel and there are two other plants in the basin of similar volume for scale. I visited labs where DARPA research was done & did phone interviews with plant managers.

The nutrients as $400/ton high-quality fertilizer are worth $8.3-million a day the metric that matters to replicate the value of the resource, this can only be done at treatment plants. Then, envision 3-pumps at the gas station to handle mixes compatible with an engine's seals & plastics, biodiesel runs in any internal combustion engine, people can tune them up given a kit a lot of popular classic engines don't lose power and get 10% more energy per tank for more miles.

It's a box of glass plates that conduct the light and encourage algae to grow on the glass then squeegeed off in the clean-harvest cycle and the whole idea is the pond is lit and aerated bottom to top the analogy, all in perfect growing conditions w/o using more power than other bioreactor methods [50w/person for lighting], and the big deal able to work being insulated 24x7 any climate to keep up with volume.

In the research at ASU's libraries I found that 50% oil species were hybridized pre-WW2, cheap oil set such work aside, sigh. Where I'm at is this air gallery instead of using holes which clog then are hard to clean are slits which solve that ...

Years ago now I had a rural power & wastewater utility interested as the units are semi-portable usable for cleaning up farm spills on-site, followed Origin-Oil's use of EMF to harvest as that was the difficulty for a home unit, growing is not the problem.

They couldn't get funding ... been my time-n-dime & I'm small-time & don't give up easy as good ideas that flourish result often from persistence from seeing the merit clearly, timing and connecting to the right people.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The nutrients as $400/ton high-quality fertilizer are worth $8.3-million a day the metric that matters to replicate the value of the resource, this can only be done at treatment plants. .

One thing that became clear to me in all of this is the energy costs of production, play a big role, and can be a positive. Any algae farm will require at least 50% of the fuel it produces, to operate; probably more like 60%. Rather than playing musical energy chairs and using grid power for the farm, power generated onsite using algae-powered diesel engines provides a number of significant benefits. Firstly, the generator's exhaust can be directed to the algae beds as a heavily enriched supply of CO2, which not only increases the rate of growth, but also reduces the air flow requirements to the algae beds. Additionally, the energy loss for driving the exhaust gases is already accounted for in the efficiency of the generator. The mufflers can be removed and the system can be tuned for the proper backpressure and fed to the water system. So no need for additional pressurized air flow which has a big energy cost.

The ready supply of CO2 also helps to regulate the pH of the water [this is normally done by bubbling CO2 through the water]. And as another significant kicker, presumably the high pressures and temperatures in the combustion chambers of the engines makes moot any concerns about parasitic or bacterial contamination from the air supply - the engine itself. So there is no need for HEPA filtration, which comes with significant energy costs as well as high maintenance costs.

Lastly, diesel engines are a fantastic source of oxides of nitrogen, By reacting the exhaust with water, an inherent supply of Nitrogen [nitric acid] is found - a significant cost of farming! It appears that by adjusting the size of the fuel droplets from the injectors, and maximizing the compression ratio of the engine, perhaps all of the nitric acid required can be supplied by the generators needed to power the farm. Note also that great effort has been made to reduce the oxides of nitrogen from diesels. But they are great producers of oxides of nitrogen with minor modifications. How elegant is that?! What seems to be a huge negative - the energy cost of running the farm - ends up solving a number of significant problems, if done properly. This is no different than other carbon capture applications but instead of coal or petroleum products, the source of energy is the algae itself.

Almost forget, by maximizing the compression ratios of the engines, we also increase their efficiency.

 

[timallard]

My first kudos back is engine designers need to do two basic biodiesel engines, the first runs with glycerol in the biodiesel the other not.

For my home-farm-ranch scale the issue is urban vs real farms or ranches that can handle methanol and DIY refining for diesel motors so self-sufficient for agriculture no diesel bills just a monthly for the capacity in capital investment yet you have to know what plastics are used in seals so refined biodiesel will likely have 3-grades.

The other issue I've become aware of as being more important than anything else now for IC-engines is waste-heat, same for Steam-Age power plants.

This is from dealing with sea-ice loss and direct heat gain there it's now global forcing of 0.21-watts/m^2, that's a lot. Now multiply the wattage of all the power plants in the world by 2 to get the Joules of waste-heat of direct warming because using steam for electrons is 40% thermally efficient, use 1/3, so burns twice the fuel per watt on the wire.

Globally that's enough to keep warming ongoing with zero emissions for numbers. For transportation and engines some prototypes for commuters that recycle this heat at the home look worthy, with so many engines running it's worth the trouble.

For myself working on a photo-bioreactor that stack, a cube 1/2m a side with glass plates to grow algae from sewage effluent at home-farm-ranch scales up to the largest cities at treatment plants to provide fuel for all transportation locally.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

My first kudos back is engine designers need to do two basic biodiesel engines, the first runs with glycerol in the biodiesel the other not.

Yes, some oils will not undergo transesterification and allegedly those oils burn more cleanly than those with glycerol. But... IIRC, oils with glycerol have a higher energy content...? I think that was the advantage. And of course you can make biodiesel from those. I believe Boeing used algae oil [no transesterfication] for their flight test of the 737. But it was mixed with other oils, like jatropha oil.

The other issue I've become aware of as being more important than anything else now for IC-engines is waste-heat, same for Steam-Age power plants.

On the farm in my head, excess heat from the engines/generators can be used for driving the tranesterification process in the production of fuel. Only a low temp heat source is needed. I think I even did the energy calculation for that but don't remember for sure... I do remember thinking it should work.

 

[timallard]

Right, my grades are w/glycerol so an old vdub can use it with the right plugs & ports next are by plastics main change to injection not melting, aviation another specialty like algae-to-crude, that supports bio-gasoline similar to corn ethanol in green.

Yeah Boeing did 50-50 yet 100% algae now along the line to about mass-volume by this outfit likely battered like a better carburetor ... http://www.treehugger.com/aviation/worlds-first-flight-powered-by-100-algae-biofuels-completed.html

The sodium salt idea now fairly refined in one system didn't save the blurb looked good, so, for row-crop, high-loss ag way important to do it, consider moving dirt ... the waste-heat per watt saved for other uses is huge.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

This is from dealing with sea-ice loss and direct heat gain there it's now global forcing of 0.21-watts/m^2, that's a lot. Now multiply the wattage of all the power plants in the world by 2 to get the Joules of waste-heat of direct warming because using steam for electrons is 40% thermally efficient, use 1/3, so burns twice the fuel per watt on the wire.

I haven't thought this through completely but I think your concerns about heat are moot when it comes to carbon-neutral fuels. The heat energy released by burning the fuel was first absorbed from sunlight via photosynthesis - an endothermic reaction. So the heat generated by combustion is just delayed heating due to sunlight and would have occurred anyway. In the case of fossil fuels, the same applies, but that sun energy was absorbed millions of years ago. [yes, I was stewing for a moment to be sure there aren't any hidden variables, but those would all be hidden energy in the growth and production of fuel. Provided there aren't any hidden sources of energy in the supply chain, and the operation is completely self powered, carbon neutral means thermal neutral.]

Ironically, nuclear power creates new heat. The energy in nuclear power does not originate from sunlight, rather from the fusion reaction in some star somewhere, I guess.

One obvious source of hidden energy is the energy contained in the fertilizers - which mainly means the nitrogen source. This is another reason why using diesel-produced NOxs is so cool. The energy contained in the fertilizer is already accounted for in the losses in the diesel engines. Not only that, the more we increase the compression ratio, the more NOxs we make, and the more efficient the engines.

 

[timallard]

I haven't thought this through completely but I think your concerns about heat are moot when it comes to carbon-neutral fuels. The heat energy released by burning the fuel was first absorbed from sunlight via photosynthesis - an endothermic reaction. So the heat generated by combustion is just delayed heating due to sunlight and would have occurred anyway. In the case of fossil fuels, the same applies, but that sun energy was absorbed millions of years ago.

Ironically, nuclear power creates new heat. The energy in nuclear power does not originate from sunlight, rather from the fusion reaction in some star somewhere, I guess.

My stance is leave the Steam-Age burn boil nothing for watts the reason is waste-heat, it's far worse than re-emitted radiation on the short-term that matter more to the future than 20-years from now.

An example if you collect-store-use thermal energy where you can gains 80% of all needs with a thermal-mass in the architecture used that way, those grid needs go away by distributing heat to on-site systems that are easy to build vs a power plant [concentrating collectors for higher latitudes].

Even solar-thermal is too lossy in a steam plant in that you need twice the thermal input & storage per watt on-the-wire for the installation's capacity, so, capital expenses went way up to boil water for electrons in a desert. Love that one. If the heat-of-condensation isn't co-generated, which over many decades has never proven viable nobody does it, they heat the planet instead.

So that's the fundamental, the total steam-plant output times 2 in direct heating in Joules is enough to keep the planet heating for centuries, it's a lot of heat that needs to be removed or that's what happens the way the planet works.

So if you want to cool the planet direct waste-heat and Arctic albedo-loss need to be the priority, critical in how fast the planet is heated, that forcing feedbacks and accelerates ones already going.

The next ongoing observable tipping-point is what's called a bluewater event in the Arctic sea-ice.

Right now if you halve the sea-ice minimum you jump global forcing from 0.21-w/m^2, it's a lot of heat. Total forcing gain since 1990 for CO2 was 0.9w/m^2 so Arctic albedo-loss currently is 23% of it. Land albedo-loss is roughly estimated to be the same in the Arctic with both adding more energy to be reflected to the greenhousing, a very strong source of global heating.

A more recent idea trying to quantify what a joule of heat-gain in albedo-loss is to the assumed cooling in emissions reductions to allow priorities on what matters as a solution that is the most bang.

Following that thought, this applies to any latitude & climate hot or cold thus a broad application to reduce waste-heat going into the sky, soils & water for all situations and applied locally with simple changes like do paint roofs white in a desert and don't use black tarmac, just don't do it

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A more recent idea trying to quantify what a joule of heat-gain in albedo-loss is to the assumed cooling in emissions reductions to allow priorities on what matters as a solution that is the most bang.

Following that thought, this applies to any latitude & climate hot or cold thus a broad application to reduce waste-heat going into the sky, soils & water for all situations and applied locally with simple changes like do paint roofs white in a desert and don't use black tarmac, just don't do it

By creating large algae blooms in the oceans, and possibly in deep lakes, we can create both large carbon sinks as well as thermal sinks. The algae grows, dies, sinks to the bottom and is preserved by the low temperatures. Again, all photosynthetic energy is trapped.

Also, thinking of the reefs, algae soaks up acids - nitric and carbonic acids. It would help to increase the pH of the water. One of the challenges in large-scale algae farming is keeping the pH low enough.

Some companies are planning to do this for the carbon credits to offset emissions from factories [as opposed to using CO2 remediation at the source].

 

[timallard]

By creating large algae blooms in the oceans, and possibly in deep lakes, we can create both large carbon sinks as well as thermal sinks. The algae grows, dies, sinks to the bottom and is preserved by the low temperatures. Again, all photosynthetic energy is trapped.

Also, thinking of the reefs, algae soaks up acids - nitric and carbonic acids. It would help to increase the pH of the water. One of the challenges in large-scale algae farming is keeping the pH low enough.

Some companies are planning to do this for the carbon credits to offset emissions from factories [as opposed to using CO2 remediation at the source].

" The algae grows, dies, sinks to the bottom and is preserved by the low temperatures."
The problem here is anaerobic bacteria take over and create methane & CO2 down there, hydrogen-sulfide at the end of the global heating process where extinctions occurred.

This is already happening in the Black Sea from warming and globally it's the final phase of mass-extinction, part of the oceans slowing down as the planet heats up.

Consider we have more electricity than we need by many times, our failure is to have strict engineering on heat-transfer so you don't convert forms of energy, if you need a comfy room using solar-thermal not watts, if you want to drive a car use that waste-heat to heat the house or hot-water for the house.

Being a designer for I did a line of spring-powered things wound up by windmills down to kitchen appliances for off-grid ... still makes sense, nobody funds ideas like that, they sell batteries ...

That's the level and detail we need, it's a thermal-engineering divide needing crossing.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

" The algae grows, dies, sinks to the bottom and is preserved by the low temperatures."
The problem here is anaerobic bacteria take over and create methane & CO2 down there, hydrogen-sulfide at the end of the global heating process where extinctions occurred.

At the ocean floor? This is the first I've heard of this in any relation to algae.

The black sea only goes to a little over 7000 feet deep. In the deep ocean we are talking about far greater depths and pressures.

Consider we have more electricity than we need by many times, our failure is to have strict engineering on heat-transfer so you don't convert forms of energy, if you need a comfy room using solar-thermal not watts, if you want to drive a car use that waste-heat to heat the house or hot-water for the house.

Being a designer for I did a line of spring-powered things wound up by windmills down to kitchen appliances for off-grid ... still makes sense, nobody funds ideas like that, they sell batteries .

I'm not so sure. At small scale the energy invested for the recovery systems and maintenance often exceeds the lifetime benefit of the hardware. And the cost benefit is often a good measure of this. Energy = $. If it makes economic sense, someone will capitalize on that, or would have already.

This speaks to a core problem with alternative fuels. The consumer makes the choice every day. If people would buy $5 fuel instead of $3 fuel, it would be a lot easier. And the cost driver is the cost of production - namely the energy. It is hard to beat the ease of sucking oil out of a hole.

I had developed a complete model for large scale algae farming [with a large number of assumptions, of course, this was early in the game]. I had to go to about 50,000 acres before it was clear the operation could be profitable - the economy of scale.

 

[timallard]

Quickly: The Black Sea has a sill that stratifies it to anoxia and bacteria in all oceans process detritus, the Gulf dead-zone the prime example that all sinks to the bottom where even without the overt stratification it's so large an input the normal bacteria there turn the bottom anoxic from this before currents can clear it out.

Acidifying the oceans takes as long to fix as adding too much carbon too fast to the atmosphere both centuries at best, the sea-air interface is tightly bound, this puts the planet on a different geophysical path due to stored resources, stored clathrate methane, the Greenland ice-sheet examples tied to heating the planet with CO2.

To next consider a concept then on refugia & eco-centric home-farm-ranch if you built one new or simple remodels the design problem. This became the Spartan Farmhouse based on Earthship water & power systems, with a few important additions one using flat-fresnel concentrating collectors in insulated rows, mandatory northern & cloudy sites, the pipe does 250C for the high-temp system the air ducted to a thermal-mass in the crawl space [Also stores heat from 3/4"-deep boxes under the solar panels, cold at night in summer].

The high-temp is for 3d-printing using thermal-fluids for the heat, 83% of the energy used in laser sintering for my target machine, and, owning the gear it's an asset on the books, depreciated on taxes for a small biz by-the-month bill, the other then reasonable to-do is solar-wind-storage and get the same benefit on the books. It means the cost-per-unit drops to competitive from prototype-only, it takes 450-watts per unit on a propeller I want to do on my target machine that's only 76.5-watts in electricity using the thermal system.

For mass-market mfg, 1M-units the basic mfg-unit this drops power from 450-Mw to 76.5-Mw per million-units, the thermal system on-site & an asset on the books not an expense, those reduce profits.

Ok, getting to the Earthship sewage system it's based on a septic-tank, final effluent used in outdoor gardening so I use that to grow algae in photo-bioreactors home-ranch-farm scale, it returns potable water. This gives biodiesel as the liquid fuel to run or heat from the wastewater, scales up to any size city plant, my study & interviews used existing 10M-gallon/day each Phoenix & Glendale, AZ.

Ponds don't scale and don't work in Anchorage in winter, photo-bioreactors run 24x7, mine are insulated cubes 1/2m a side that stack 6-high it's like a pond only fully lighted & aerated top-to-bottom, the whole volume the same conditions as the surface 6mm of a pond in sunlight 24x7, this produces growing rates to match.

Those are key issues to scale while based on home size to purify water for full recycling, my units are water purifiers that can be certified sources of freshwater in a home to well beyond the performance of current treatment plant freshwater supplies as tested containing any drug you want and those are certified, a case of the Flint's.

That was the design spec, I had a small utility in Oklahoma ready to do the biology as the cubes are semi-portable and usable for farm spills as well as provide a revenue stream from the biodiesel, they couldn't get funding nor I as a small-biz sole-proprietor is where it got to over 2007-2011. I'm to the air galleries on 3d-cad ... the parts are easy for 3d-printing.

The biodiesel is the intended need to have the system become a standard of having a full water recycle plant in your garage able to remove the mess using algae world's best water cleaners on a molecular scale. Origin-Oil pioneered using EMF to blast apart cells for harvesting, totally cheap-n-easy to then separate the oil. Their overall process is quite complex using algae, it's to industrial prototype scale for purifying fracking wastewater.

So we don't need that, a dairy can use the wash-down as algae food and run all field & barn operations on this idea the bonus getting the water back pure from a final purification step using treatment plant OTS filters & components for that volume. This can restore the small farm by removing all energy costs per-watt and replacing it with an investment on terms like a milking machine to leverage the resource.

Using algae biodiesel, given running all the IC-engines on the planet until we have a better way, the waste-heat emissions are now more important than the greenhouse emissions from the exhaust, the reason is that low-albedo surfaces absorb heat and that's what is getting greenhoused is longwave-infrared, a small portion of original energy sent back to the sky.

The problem is the total volume of carbon in the sky is so large it has an inertia, adding more CO2 doesn't increase the overall heat forcing so much as increasing the sources of heat, the example global ice where soot is creating direct heating supplying the conversion to water, then to refreeze that requires 80:1 calories per unit volume in cooling, we're in a warming world bad odds.

Therefore, the most important global albedo-loss switch is losing Arctic sea-ice, so, latest work is all on saving it, the main method by damming most of the warmer Pacific water flow into the Arctic basin and creating ice-polders in Bering Strait to keep the sea-ice far longer by actions not dependent on reducing emissions to work. If the methods in the ice-polders works it can be applied to the methane bubble zones one now called a "megaflare" of methane in the shallow seas surrounding the Arctic Ocean.

These measures will slow and delay the final act of our play, to all time we now act, we bequeath what we do today.