July 11, 2010
Aquatic Biofuels is the extraction of any form of renewable energy that can be extracted from aquatic resources.
So far these have comprised
• Fish waste to produce bio-diesel
• Micro-algae to produce crude oil for diesel production
• Micro-algae to produce bio gas
• Micro-algae to produce ethanol
• & to a smaller extent the use of macro-algae to produce all of the above energy sources.
There has been lots of talk recently on the potential of duckweed or as it is botanically called “Lemnaceae” as a feedstock for ethanol production.
Duckweed is a small plant that lives in water and is very similar to micro-algae in that it can feed off wastewater and it can suck up CO2, similar to some strains of algae duckweed contain large amounts of starch that can be processed to create ethanol. This would not only lessen the burden on current corn to ethanol production and the debates on fuel vs food, but it would also lower CO2 emissions and hence contribute to mitigating climate change.
The total starch content of duckweed can vary from 3-75% of the dry weight depending on trains and species. Other factors like nutrients and concentration play a large role in the accumulation of starch in duckweed. Some species like Spirodela polyrrhiza combined with swine wastewater and grown anaerobically can contain a starch content of almost 46%.
Duckweed biomass can produce appreciable quantity of starch that can be readily fermented into ethanol. Duckweed has a great potential for the development of an environmentally friendly, economically viable ethanol production.
The First plant, Louisiana Bio Fuels, will be built on a 380 acre site, The site is close to an existing Rice Mill, The rice mill will provide Rice chaff to be used as a feed filler to Dilute the high protein Distillers by product to produce a complete pellet cattle feed to be sold to local markets.
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Posted by Tony Piccolo - Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
June 8, 2010
While the United States and BP are desperately trying to cap the crude oil spurting out from the BP platform in the Gulf of Mexico, Canada is preparing to set up its first major algae to oil pilot plant. $5M project (US$4.7 million), have been awarded by the Government of Canada to grow, harvest and produce algal-oil in Nova Scotia.
The new algae project brings Canada in line with other countries that are also investingating the potential of algae, these beign primarily the US, but also counties in Europe like, Spain, Italy and Germany.
The National Research Council (NRC), and the Institute of Marine Sciences are the main actors in the project and they are in a unique position because they are using local species of algae, eliminating the risk to the environment. Sixty-four species have been collected and studied so far, twenty-four of these species have been brought into cultivation and about six have exceptional oil yields.
The pilot plant which should be located in Ketch Harbour Marine Research Station and will produce 50,000 litres as well as producing valuable by-products like nutriceuticals or high protein animal feed.
Some of the companies NRC will collaborate with include
- Ocean Nutrition Canada in Halifax;
- Menova Energy Inc. of Markham, Ontario;
- POS Pilot Plant from Saskatoon;
- and the international consortium Carbon2Algae Solutions (C2A)
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome-Italy
Picture: Courtesy of Wikipedia
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Posted by Tony Piccolo - Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
June 6, 2010
AQUATIC BIOFUELS – New Options for Bioenergy
Copies of my Dissertation can be purchased through dissertation.com for $US 17 by clicking either the image on the left or the link above.
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome-Italy
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Posted by Tony Piccolo - Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
June 2, 2010
Whereas we all agree that Renewable Energy is the way to go in the future, we cannot but have to admit that oil will still be around for yet a little while longer. It seems that renewable energy will not be able to fulfill all our energy requirements and future needs which will increase as population increases. Dependence on oil and especially imports from the Middle East will remain with us for a little while longer.
When you begin to look closely at all the renewable energy sources available, you notice that most of these technologies available focus on electricity generation and production, very little is being done for other kinds of energy sources like for example transport fuels.
1st and 2nd generation biofuels, especially the ones generated from food stocks like corn, cassava etc, appeared for a while to be a solution to the liquid fuel problem, but this soon phased out as we slowely came to the realisation that food was being used to produce fuel (food vs fuel debate) and that the hungry, particularly in developing countries were becoming hungrier. Nevertheless many companies are growing and producing fuel from plants especially grown for oil or ethanol production, but these will never solve the world’s transport fuel problem and we will have to rely on oil and oil imports for many, many decades to come.
One of the proposed solutions could be oil from algae, crude oil which can be brought to refineries very similar to standard crude oil and made into biodiesel. Airline companies in particular are very interested due to the increasing fuel prices and due to the fact that algae oil would leave no carbon footprint. The CO2 that is emitted would equal the CO2 absorbed by the algae during their growing period.
China and the US last week launched a joint research venture to produce fuel for Chinese airlines from primarily algae and oily nuts, and went on to say that a test flight could come as early as this year, with a plan to scale up and commercialize anywhere between 3 to 5 years from now.
The two sides signed a series of research partnerships between Boeing Co., U.S. government agencies and Chinese research institutions as well as state companies including Air China Ltd. and PetroChina Ltd.
“Today we’ve proven it can be flown,” “It’s a matter of scaling it up so it can be commercialized.” says Al Bryant, vice president for research and technology in China.
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome-Italy
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Posted by Tony Piccolo - Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
May 25, 2010
The large pioneering Bullet 580 is a 71.6 mt long and about 20 mt wide ship which can lift up to 900kg, up to 6000mt in the air.
The amazing thing about this incredibly large air ship (the biggest since the Hindenburg disaster over 70 years ago), is that the air ship can be powered by algae fuel.
The £ 5.5 million craft can be operated remotely or by a crew, and can hover over an area a week at a time, something neither a plane nor a satellite can do. This could prove to be interesting for monitoring things such as oil spills (like the Gulf of Mexico) or pirates in the Somalian seas.
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome-Italy
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Posted by Tony Piccolo - Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
March 17, 2010
Join the worlds leading experts in algae fuel production and learn the latest on the technologies, by attending the Algae World Summit 2010. The event will take place at the:
Hilton Del Mar, 15575 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, CA 92014-1901,
Tel: (898) 792-5200
May 17, 2010 – May 19, 2010.
The event will highlight some key issues like;
- co-product algae purchasers
- oil and chemical companies
- utilities
- industrial CO2 generators
- wastewater treatment operators
- algae technology developers
- algae equipment suppliers
- algae project developers
- biofuels refiners
- financiers
- transportation companies
- and government representatives
Click here for more details
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome-Italy
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Posted by Tony Piccolo - Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
January 18, 2010
An energy company in Lousiana, USA, called “Aquatic Energy” is making progress in the production of algae oil from micro-algae in open pond systems. The company which formerly had less than a hectare, will slowely expand into a 12 hectare demonstration project plant, which will yield about 9500 litres per hectare (approx. 4000 squared metres).
Interestingly enough more than 70% of the CO2 comes from the atmosphere and the remaining 30% is being generated from the natural gas burned in the algae plant itself (used for drying the algae). Clay soils are used as opposed to lining which makes the ponds less expensive and easier to maintain.
Mr. David Johnston the CEO of Aquatic Energy chose the location of Louisiana due to the fact that rainfall exceeds evaporation rate, giving him free access to water resources, on top of that the former rice cultivation plants which have the clay soil base are suitable for the algae growth.
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome-Italy
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Posted by Tony Piccolo - Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
November 6, 2009
Up to now you may have only heard of growing micro-algae for fuel at experimental large scale in either open pond systems or Photo Bio-Reactors (PBR). However, two engineers from Kansas State Universitiy Wenqiao Yuan and Zhijian Pei, are designing systems to grow and harvest algae more efficiently and successfully in the open seas. The idea is to grow algae in the ocean on very large, supporting platforms. They have been awarded over $98, 000 as a Small Grant for Exploratory Research by the National Science Foundation.
Both professors who teach industrial manufacturing and systems engeneering at Kansas State claim that land from food production should not be used to grow and harvest algae for as feedstock for fuel. Studies are being carried out in their laboratories of the feasibility to grow large scale algae production in the ocean on specifically made production systems.
Professors Pei and Yuan are currently working to identify oil-rich strains that are inclined to grow on solid surfaces, this will make it easier to grow and harvest the algae once it has been produced.
“We think there is tremendous potential for algae oil production if we grow it on big platforms and incorporate the ocean into the system,” Yuan said. Professor Yuan went on to say that half the cost of growing algae is in providing a steady supply of food and water, the growth medium. Ocean water offers those in abundance.
In their studies two species of algae have been identified, these are particularly rich in oil content and fast growing and both have shown to attach well to the stainless steel film (dimpled) used as a platform, once the algae attach to the dimpled film they grow very very well. It was also shown that the chosen algae cannot grow as well on smooth surfaces and prefer a rougher more textured surface.
Pei and Yuan think large-scale algae production done on very large support surfaces in ocean water is quite feasible. They are imagining a long, continuously rolling surface like a conveyer belt.
The system works pretty much in this way: The algae would grow on the thin-film surface submerged under the ocean. At some point, the growth surface rolls up into the sunlight and the algae dries. A harvesting knife at the end of the conveyer system scrapes off dried algae, at which point the surface submerges to become home to the next growth of oil-rich algal material.
How feasible do you think such a system would be? What about transporting the harvest from the sea to the land and processing it, the cost of processing would not change, but only the drying mechanisms would (drying out at sea and not on land).
The main advantage of such a system seems to be land use – with this system there would be no land used to grow and harvest the algae. This is not really an issue with algae growth anyway as marginal and desert land is mainly used. Only if costs of production and investment are lower than open-pond or PBR’s systems then this could be a viable option.
Please leave any comments you may have below.
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome-Italy
Leave a Comment » | Algae, Biofuels, Renewable Energy | Tagged: Algae, algae fuel, algae-oil, Biofuels, energy, micro-algae, Renewable Energy | Permalink
Posted by Tony Piccolo - Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
September 25, 2009
The US Navy has awarded a contract for 1500 gallons of algae jet fuel to Solazyme. This is in addition to previous order of 20,000 gallons which was used for testing and certification. Solazyme will produce 1,500 of algae derived renewable F-76 navy distillate fuel to be used by navy ships of the US Navy.
Solazyme is an algae company in South San Francisco. It produces renewable clean fuels, chemicals and food products from algal technology. The CEO, Jonathan Wolfson, said that since their production of the world’s first algae derived jet fuel in September 2008, they have been focusing their research on developing a process to commercialise production and cut costs.
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome-Italy
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Posted by Tony Piccolo - Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
September 18, 2009
Dr. Gyungsoo Kim, CEO of Biolsystems Co Ltd (Seoul) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Governor of Bohol (Philippines) Erico Aumentado regarding a bioethanol project.
Accoding to the the MoU, the province of Bohol would give Biolsystems Co Ltd:
- 3 ha of land for aquaculture testing
- 500 ha to seedling plantations and at least
- 25,000-100,000 ha to aquaculture property.
Biolsystems Co Ltd would be given this over a 50 year period which may then extend for a further 25 years.
The aquaculture plantation will be more of a community than an aquaculture farm and 60 ha of the total land will be made available for housing, the farm will also provide over 300 jobs for ethanol extraction with a total investment of US $100 million. Training will also be provided to locals to increase awareness and to teach the techniques of farming and drying of algae.
Tony Piccolo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome-Italy
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Posted by Tony Piccolo - Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
Aquatic Biofuels is the extraction of any form of renewable energy that can be extracted from aquatic resources.
Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
