Video: 16 yr-old Turns Algae to Biofuel and Wins Intel Science Award

Evie Sobczak is a freakin' rock star, and you want to know her. Why? Because what started out as Evie's 8th grade science fair project just won Intel's International Science and Engineering Fair. That's a big deal because, as Sobczak puts it, "It's, like, the biggest science fair ever!"

Evie's project is, in a nutshell, a chemical/catalyst-free process in which algae is processed into fuel-grade ethanol. In addition to collecting her algae stock from the type of blooms common in Florida (ensuring that no special processes or algae strains are required), Sobczak designed and engineered all of the equipment for her project herself, creating a totally chemical-free way to grow algae, extract the oil, and use it as biodiesel. Plus, her process produced as much as 20 percent more oil than current methods, which could make biofuels even cheaper (compared to gasoline) than they already are!

You can check out Evie's summary of her project, in her own words, below. Enjoy!

Source: Tampa Tribune, via Grist.
The post Video: 16 yr-old Turns Algae to Biofuel and Wins Intel Science Award appeared first on Gas 2.

http://gas2.org/2013/06/21/16-yr-old-evie-sobczak-turns-algae-into-bio

UDRI researchers conclude that an algal renewable jet fuel strategy that maximizes the highest liquid fuel yield should focus on renewable diesel

Researchers at the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) investigating the conversion of algal triglycerides to renewable diesel and HEFA (hydrotreated esters and fatty acids) renewable jet fuel have concluded that a renewable aviation turbine fuel strategy that preserves the overall highest liquid fuel yield from the renewable feedstocks would target the production of primarily diesel fuel.

Renewable aviation fuel would be recovered from the cracked fraction that naturally accompanies the hydroisomerization of the original n-alkanes derived from the algal triglycerides to the extent required for meeting an appropriate diesel fuel pour point specification. Such an approach would limit the loss of algal alkane fuel value to less than 10%, according to their paper published in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels.

To convert renewable triglycerides to liquid transportation fuels, either diesel or HEFA (hydrotreated esters and fatty acids) jet, a number of chemical transformations must be undertaken. First, the triglycerides must be converted to normal alkanes. This can be accomplished by catalytic deoxygenation of (1) triglycerides; (2) free fatty acids derived from triglycerides; or (3) secondary esters produced by the transesterification of triglycerides with an inexpensive alcohol. Next, the normal alkanes must be catalytically isomerized and hydrocracked to a distribution of alkane isomers and the fractions appropriate for diesel and HEFA jet recovered.

Hydrocracking is required for producing HEFA jet because the naturally occurring distribution of fatty acid chain lengths found in the triglycerides yields alkanes with boiling points near or above the high temperature limit of the boiling point distribution in both commercial and military aviation fuels. Similarly, when considering the low temperature requirements for these fuels, any remaining normal alkanes in a very highly isomerized mixture of the initial alkane distribution will have a freezing point considerably higher than the −40 °C required by the Jet-A commercial specification and further still from the −47 °C required for military JP-8.

On the other hand, the native distribution of fatty acid chain lengths yields alkanes that are quite suitable for use as a diesel fuel. To improve cold flow properties, the normal paraffins would require only a relatively mild hydroisomerization treatment. Consequently, productionof diesel fuel would result in a much higher yield to a commercial product. However, the European renewable fuels initiative has set targets for renewable fuel use by energy consuming sector. Consequently, it will be necessary to produce aviation fuel from renewable sources.

...While much effort has been focused on the production of alkanes from the triglycerides, much less has been published with regard to the further conversion of these alkanes to actual fuel compositions.

-Robota et al.

In their study, the UDRI team converted algae-derived triglycerides to a mixture of normal alkanes using a 3% Pd/carbon catalyst in a hydrogen stream with an approximate H₂/triglyceride molar feed ratio of 30. The starting triglyceride was composed of 10.5% C₁₆ and 85.2% C₁₈ fatty acids. Rather than targeting complete conversion to alkanes in a single reactor pass, they selected operating conditions which gave a product alkane content between 70 and 85 mass percent. The alkane yield increased as the run progressed with an increasing fraction of the even-numbered alkanes.

These first pass alkanes were concentrated by distillation into a composite in which the alkane concentration was nearly 95%. The remaining high boiling liquids were then converted in a second catalytic pass to produce additional alkanes, which were again concentrated by distillation and aggregated with the first pass alkanes for further conversion into fuel compositions.

They then examined three different bifunctional catalytic cracking strategies for producing HEFA jet using a composite of first and second pass normal alkanes. In the first hydrocracking approach, the single pass conversion is higher than that used for mildly isomerizing the feed alkanes to a diesel-type of composition, with net cracking targeted near 50%.

The feed n-alkanes become substantially isomerized and can be separated from the jet fraction and used directly as a diesel fuel composition. This heavier fraction could also be recombined with fresh feed in a recycle to extinction strategy and eventually wholly converted to jet and naphtha fractions. Under these mildest of cracking conditions, the cracked product distribution would remain unchanged by further, secondary cracking of the initial product distribution, the team found.

The second strategy was designed such that secondary cracking of products could just be clearly detected. Again, the heavier-than-jet fraction could be separated and either used directly as diesel or recycled to extinction.

The third strategy, the most aggressive, resulted in near 100% cracking of the feed alkanes in a single reactor pass; only a negligible portion of the composition heavier than jet remained. This would result in no diesel and require only the separation of the naphtha fraction from the jet fraction.

The three conditions result in about 43%, 59%, and 93% net cracking at temperatures of 268 °C, 272 °C, and 278 °C, respectively.

Only under the most aggressive single pass conditions are the heaviest molecules sufficiently reduced in abundance that no recycle of the insufficiently converted fraction would be needed in a continuous conversion process. Under the least aggressive conditions, it is doubtful that the amount of remaining n-C₁₄ and n-C₁₅ is low enough that the HEFA jet fraction would meet the ‚àí47 ¬∞C freezing point requirement under MIL-DTL-83133G for JP-8. Under these three conditions, losses to the C8‚àínaphtha fraction when normalized to the C₉‚àíC₁₅ fraction comprise 41%, 44%, and 75%, respectively.

Because of these high losses, a renewable aviation turbine fuel strategy that preserves the overall highest liquid fuel yield would target the production of primarily diesel fuel. The aviation fuel would then be recovered from the cracked fraction that naturally accompanies the hydroisomerization of the original n-alkanes to the extent required for meeting an appropriate diesel fuel pour point specification. Such an approach would limit the loss of algal alkane fuel value to less than 10%.

-Robota et al.

Resources

• Heinz J. Robota, Jhoanna C. Alger, and Linda Shafer (2013) Converting Algal Triglycerides to Diesel and HEFA Jet Fuel Fractions. Energy & Fuels doi: 10.1021/ef301977b

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2013/02/udri-20130208.htm

DOE announces funding opportunity for enhancing algal biomass yield to support cost-competitive algal biofuels

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to support longer-term projects to boost significantly the yield per acre cultivation equivalent of algae for use as a feedstock for algal biofuels. Approximately $10-20 million is expected to be available for new awards in FY 2013, and an additional $10-20 million is expected to be available for continuation awards made under this announcement in FY2014 through FY2016. DOE anticipates selecting 2 to 7 applications under this FOA.

The objective of the Advancements in Algal Biomass Yield (ABY) funding opportunity DE-FOA-0000811) is to demonstrate, at a process development unit scale of 1 acre cultivation equivalent, algal biofuel intermediate yield of 2,500 gallons of biofuel feedstock (or equivalent dry weight basis) per acre per year by 2018. The Biomass Technologies Office believes this target is an important milestone in reducing the cost of algal biofuels to cost-competitive levels on the way to achieving 5,000 gallons per acre by 2022.

A one (1) acre cultivation equivalent means a suite of operations, including inoculation, cultivation, harvest, and processing sized with the capability to process and produce gallons of algal biofuel intermediate per day. A biofuel intermediate is a biomass-based feedstock that will serve as a petroleum replacement in downstream refining.

Low algal biomass yields are identified as a key driver of the high cost of algal biofuels because of the high capital investment projected as necessary to achieve commercial-scale volumes of biofuel. Increased yields achieved by demonstrating radical improvement and innovative alternatives to the baseline will decrease the amount of capital investment needed, better utilize fixed assets, and improve the environmental sustainability of algal biofuels.

Background. The DOE Biomass Technologies Office (BTO) began scoping activities to understand the critical technical barriers to affordable and scalable algae-based biofuels with the 2008 National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap Workshop. Results of that workshop, published as The National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap (the Roadmap), serve as guidance for DOE to identify topics needing additional research funding. (Earlier post.)

Subsequently, DOE selected four research consortia to begin a national applied research program (DE-FOA-0000123, earlier post) to address many of the technical challenges identified in the Roadmap for successful large-scale algae biomass production.

BTO further built upon the R&D activities through the funding of research projects in the Advancements in Sustainable Algal Production (ASAP) FOA (DE-FOA-0000615, earlier post). These projects, currently underway, support the development of technologies for algal biomass production that demonstrate minimal water and external nutrient inputs and establish Regional Algal Feedstock Testbed (RAFT) partnerships.

Advancements in Algal Biomass Yield. This new FOA is focused on a longer-term (up to 60 months) effort to integrate research and development on comprehensive mid-scale processes from strain development to production of biofuel intermediates. This work is intended to complement and build upon the current body of research to support enhanced algal biomass yields. The FOA establishes one comprehensive topic area encouraging integrated research that focuses on the following three main priority areas:

1. Improvements in Algal Biomass Productivity;
2. Improvements in Preprocessing Technologies; and
3. Technical Advances that Enable Integration of Algal Biomass Unit Operations.

Priority Area 1: Improvements in Algal Biomass Productivity. This Priority Area is targeted at applied research that will accelerate the development of promising algal strains and cultivation techniques that will result in increased algal biomass productivity in outdoor cultivation environments relevant to commercial scales.

BTO's baseline analysis results show that conservative modeled productivities (13 grams per meter squared per day - g/m²/day on an annual average basis) are associated with high resource use, high costs, and high GHG emissions for algal biofuel systems. Priority Area 1 is focused on demonstrating increased algal biomass productivity that, in combination with improvements in other downstream processes, will meet the biofuel intermediate productivity goal of 2,500 gallons per acre per year by 2018.

Productivities above 25 g/m²/day are achievable in the lab and advanced biotechnology may further increase this; however, a clear barrier exists in translating laboratory success to demonstrated, scalable, outdoor cultivation environments that capture all of the variables not present in laboratory systems.

DOE expects that research conducted in the selected projects will include an iterative process whereby the results obtained from experiments in outdoor environments will be used to inform the laboratory experiments and vice versa. This continuous feedback loop is expected to expedite the lessons learned and ensure they are relevant for large scale algal biofuel production.

Improvements to increase algal biomass productivity may include, but are not limited to: advances made to systems biology approaches; gains in knowledge related to fundamental algal processes (e.g., photosynthesis); strain improvement from breeding to modification and/or genetic engineering; improvements in cultivation strategies, such as crop protection, water and nutrient management, carbon dioxide delivery and utilization, light optimization, temperature management, and seasonal succession; and cultivation infrastructure engineering to maximize biomass yields while minimizing land, capital, and operating costs.

Acceptable algae cultivation systems include open ponds, attached growth systems, and closed photobioreactors (PBRs), combinations of these systems, or other systems with similarly justifiable scalable potential.

Priority Area 2: Improvements in Pre-processing Technologies. This priority area is aimed at applied research and engineering to build and operate innovative harvesting, dewatering, and intermediate processing (e.g., extraction) unit operations that can be integrated at scale with biomass production (i.e., support appropriate volumetric flow-through); can be operated efficiently so that the energy expended does not exceed 10% of the energy content contained in the biofuel intermediate; and are low cost (both capital and operational expenditures) to scale.

There are scalable technologies/unit operations within other processing industries, such as wastewater and mining that are currently being analyzed, tested, and used in the algal biofuel industry. However, even known technologies from other industries must be researched, tested and scaled appropriately within an integrated algal system before one can state that it will work within a specific algal technology pathway or process. Pre-processing technologies can be high in capital and operating costs as well.

Priority Area 2 is focused on accelerating the development of the most innovative ideas for pre-processing technologies that can bridge the gap between laboratory scales and process relevant scales in an outdoor, real world environment and result in significant advances toward achieving a more economical process while maintaining or improving yields.

Areas of significant interest include improving extraction and fractionation of cellular metabolites, separations, parasitic energy loss (or energy return on investment), and capital and operating costs.

Priority Area 3: Technical Advances that Enable Integration of Algal Biomass Unit Operations. This Priority Area is aimed at ensuring that the integrated system is capable of meeting target yields and can be scaled and operated to produce cost-competitive fuels and products.

The foundation of this FOA rests on the application of Priority Area 3 to the first two priority areas. For example, the work performed by phycologists and biologists to engineer a particular strain for enhanced lipid-producing characteristics needs to be integrated with work performed by downstream engineers who are focused on harvesting solutions. BTO seeks to foster this type of communication upfront to streamline technology development and decrease time spent on "fatally flawed" approaches.

Performance periods. Given the duration of the effort, DOE will divide the project into performance periods. Applications to this current FOA are for Performance Period 1, with a maximum of $5 million federal share and up to a 30-month scope of work. Subject to continuation Performance Period 1 may be scaled up in a second performance period to support demonstration of the minimum FOA objective of one acre cultivation equivalent.

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2013/01/aby-20130117.htm

Oil From Algae: The Goal 10,000 Barrels A Day By 2018

Sapphire Energy has built the world's first large-scale farm to grow algae and produce crude oil. If all goes according to plan, commercial production of perhaps 10,000 barrels a day will begin in 2018.
Algae have major potential, even the U.S. military is looking into algae as fuel source. Algae grow fast, do not need food, and build up oil in their cells after being exposed to sunlight and CO2. Algae is grown is salty ponds, so algae farms can be built on land where not much else will grow - thus the land is readily available and inexpensive. Into each pond go genetically engineered single-celled algae that mature in five days. The mature algae is then taken from the pond and put through a thermo-chemical "wet extraction" process that separates the oil.
Sapphire Energy has spent $60 million on 70 algae ponds that are each the size of a football field and a refinery for oil separation. The site sits on 2,200 acres of land in Columbus New Mexico. Oil refining began in the summer of 2012 and the first barrels of oil have aired hit the market.
Sapphire Energy's chief executive is Cynthia Warner. Ms. Warner's previous job - head of global refining at oil giant BP. To date Sapphire Energy has raised about $300 million to fund their operation.
So what is the problem; why is algae oil not a mainstream product? Simply put, it is expensive to make. Reports say it costs around $5,000 to produce 1 ton of algae. If there is 30% oil embedded in that ton, then that converts into around $50 per gallon of oil. And that is before extraction and conversion. Additionally, the energy needed to produce the oil from the algae costs more than the algae would put out.
Yes production costs are a problem. However, that does not mean that there is not potential in this new form of green oil production. Sapphire Energy plans for commercial production of 10,000 barrels of oil from algae a day beginning in 2018.
Source: money.cnn.com
Andrew Meggison was born in the state of Maine and educated in Massachusetts. Andrew earned a Bachelor's Degree in Government and International Relations from Clark University and a Master's Degree in Political Science from Northeastern University. Being an Eagle Scout, Andrew has a passion for all things environmental. In his free time Andrew enjoys writing, exploring the great outdoors, a good film, and a creative cocktail. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AndrewMeggison
The post Oil From Algae: The Goal 10,000 Barrels A Day By 2018 appeared first on Gas 2.

http://gas2.org/2013/01/14/oil-from-algae-the-goal-10000-barrels-a-day

GreenFuel Technologies

URL: 

GreenFuel Technologies

Description: 

A pioneer in the development of algae bioreactor technology to convert the CO2 in your smokestack gases into clean, renewable biofuels. GreenFuel's patented Emissions-to-Biofuels™ (E2B™) process harnesses photosynthesis to grow algae, capture CO2 and produce high-energy biomass. The process serves as a flexible platform for retrofitting fossil-fired power plants and other anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide. Using commercially available technology, the algae can be economically converted to solid fuel, methane, or liquid transportation fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol.

Fill your car with pond scum in 2010

One, global warming and the higher price of gas is prompting consumers and car makers to embrace alternative fuels such as ethanol and butanol.

Second, many believe we can harness microbes to do the dirty work of chemical transformation and fermentation for us. Dyadic International has found a prolific fungus that they believe can transform waste products from farms into fuel, while Microgy has a digester that turns a mix of cow manure and microbes into natural gas.

...What makes LiveFuels different than some of these is that it will make petroleum, which can be used in most cars. Most of these others are specializing in ethanol, an alcohol that can be added to petroleum and then burned in many, but not all, cars.

...You just can't fill a moat full of dirty water and wake up to find petroleum in thirty days.

Article Reference: 

Fill your car with pond scum in 2010

The challenge of algae fuel: An expert speaks

An acre of algae can produce 50 times more oil than an acre of soy, estimates John Sheehan, now vice president of strategy and sustainable development at LiveFuels.

...And to top it off, algae's not a massive food crop at the moment, so you aren't using a valuable food crop to gas cars.

...An NREL paper on algae--along with research from some of the national labs--forms the basis of a lot of the thinking around algae.

...Companies such as LiveFuels, GreenFuel Technologies and Solazyme hope to start seeing algae oil get into the fuel markets in a substantial way over the next few years, but it's still mostly experimental.

Article Reference: 

The challenge of algae fuel: An expert speaks