Algae production: an overview of

existing options
Yusuf Chisti
School of Engineering
Massey University, Palmerston North
New Zealand
b)
Outline
2. Algal fuels a conceptual production process
7. Summary and conclusions
6. Improving prospects of algal energy
3. Algal biomass production options
1. Microalgae an only option for biofuels
3 m
4. What affects productivity in photobioreactors?
5. Attributes of a commercial alga
United States biodiesel needs = 0.53 billion m
3
(to replace all transport fuel 2007 data)
Crop Oil yield
(L/ha)
Land area
needed (M ha)


Percent of
existing US
cropping area


Corn 172 3,080 1,692
Soybean 446 1,188 652
Canola 1,190 446 244
Jatropha 1,892 280 154
Coconut 2,689 198 108
Oil palm 5,950 90 48
Microalgae 35,202 15.2 8
Microalgae 70,405 7.6 4

Microalgae 35,202 15.2 8
Microalgae 70,405 7.6 4

20% w/w oil in biomass
40% w/w oil in biomass
Not feasible
Microalgae an only option for biofuels
Proved productivity
1.535 kg m
3
day
1
(~158 tons ha
1
year
1
)
The case of biodiesel
Microalgal fuels process concept
A necessary step
Biogas quality: 16.230.6 MJ m
3
Yield: 0.150.65 m
3
kg
1
dry biomass
Biomass
extraction
Algal oil
Liquid fuels
- Diesel
- Gasoline
- Jet fuel
Algal biomass
production
Biomass
recovery
Water + nutrients
Light
CO
2
H
2
O/nutrients
Animal feed
Other products
Effluent
- Fertilizer
- Irrigation
Anaerobic
digestion
Power
generation
Biogas
CO
2
Power
for algae
production
Microalgal biomass production
Option 1: Raceway ponds
Typical biomass productivity
0.025 kg m
2
day
1
(~82 tons ha
1
year
1
)
Maximum biomass concentration
1 kg m
3
(0.5 kg m
3
typical)
Cyanotech, USA
Paddlewheel
Yaeyama, Japan
Aquacarotene, Australia
Option 2: Tubular photobioreactors
Microalgal biomass production
Proved biomass productivity
1.535 kg m
3
day
1
(~158 tons ha
1
year
1
)
Biomass concentration
4 kg m
3
Javan, Tajikistan (Tredici, 1999)
Photobioreactors Ltd, Cartagena, Spain
Option 3: Vertical column photobioreactors and variants
Microalgal biomass production
Biomass productivity
- Greater than raceways
- Less than tubular photobioreactors
www.bioenergy-noe.org
www.nerc.ac.uk
Novagreen GmbH, Germany
Option 4a: Thin channel airlift and forced flow photobioreactors
Microalgal biomass production
Vertigro Energy
- Relatively inexpensive
- High surface-to-volume ratio
Option 4b: Thin channel airlift and forced flow photobioreactors
Microalgal biomass production
Dr. Peter Ripplinger
Subitec GmbH, Germany
Futuristic photobioreactors (architects and artists concepts)
www.inhabitat.com
Microalgal biomass production
Production in the sea
Turks & Caicos
Maldives
- Vertically floating columns, bags, thin channels
- Individually anchored to seabed
- Glass columns, protective fenders, active coatings
- Tubing networks for nutrient feeding/harvesting
- Each with individual solar powered control unit
- Central compressors, etc.
A tubular photobioreactor
Degassing
column
Exhaust
Air
Harvest
Fresh
medium
Solar array
Pump
Cooling
water
Cyanotech, USA
Factors that affect algal culture in photobioreactors
Photoinhibition
Irradiance, I
0 2 4 6

0
1

max
Photoinhibited
growth
Fig. 30
Fluid mechanics
- Shear sensitivity of cells
- Mass transfer
- Temperature control
Irradiance
Growth kinetics
n
av
n
av max
I K
I
n
+

Mass transfer
- CO
2
supply
- O
2
removal
Thermal engineering
- Temperature control
Culture medium
Flashing light effect
Capital cost of culture systems
US$ (2008)
$125,000/ha
Raceways
$1.1 M/ha
(8-10 x raceway)
Tubular photobioreactors
Less than tubular photobioreactors?
Less than raceways?
Thin channel airlift
photobioreactor
Less than tubular
photobioreactors
Vertical columns
Vertical bags
$181,000/ha
(95 ha facility)
Attributes of a commercial microalga
Desired characteristics
- High oil productivity during growth
- Open culture tolerant of high/variable salinity
good resistance to competitors
- Morphology large, freely suspended cells
no films, filaments, surface growth
- Temperature tolerance both high and low
- Robustness low sensitivity to shear force
- High value of light saturation constant
Improving the energy prospects of algae
Genetic and metabolic engineering issues
1. Increase photosynthetic efficiency and biomass yield
2. Biochemistry of oil synthesis - increase oil content in biomass
3. Improve temperature tolerance of algae
4. Eliminate the light saturation phenomenon
5. Reduce/eliminate photoinhibition
6. Engineer nitrogen fixation in algae
Genetic and metabolic engineering
7. Incorporate age-dependent cell lysis to simplify oil recovery
Improving the energy prospects
Mussgnug et al.,
Plant Biotechnol. J., vol. 5, pp. 802814 (2007)
Cell concentration = 610
6
cells/mL
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
Parent strain Transformed strain
Relative chlorophyll concentrations
1.0 1.8
Relative photosynthetic quantum yield
8. Improve light penetration reduce light harvesting antenna size
to enhance photon capture efficiency under high light
Summary and conclusions
4. Factors that influence biomass productivity
3. Biomass production options raceways and photobioreactors
- thoughts on sea-based production
2. A conceptual process for producing algal oils
5. Desired traits in a commercial alga
1. Microalgae as an only source of liquid transport fuels
6. Strategies for improving the prospects for algal energy