How To Transform Algae Biomass Into Usable BioDiesel Fuel?

Written by Philip Brody Tuesday, 14 June 2011 07:33

One of probably the most discussed alternative fuel sources in the past few years has been algae biofuels. With the world-wide efforts to attempt to cut down on our reliance on fossil fuels, algal biofuels have been showing potential on being able to scale to the quantities of production to inexpensively replace our dependence on traditional oil sources. Beyond the benefits of currently being renewable, algal biofuels have also shown that they're considerably much better for the environment through the reduced quantities of Carbon Dioxide released at the time of their use. Bio-diesel from algae is one of the alternative fuel sources currently being explored for potential widespread usage. To comprehend this we must first answer the question of what is bio-fuel?

One of probably the most discussed alternative fuel sources in the past few years has been algae biofuels. With the world-wide efforts to attempt to cut down on our reliance on fossil fuels, algal biofuels have been showing potential on being able to scale to the quantities of production to inexpensively replace our dependence on traditional oil sources. Beyond the benefits of currently being renewable, algal biofuels have also shown that they're considerably much better for the environment through the reduced quantities of Carbon Dioxide released at the time of their use. Bio-diesel from algae is one of the alternative fuel sources currently being explored for potential widespread usage. To comprehend this we must first answer the question of what is bio-fuel?

What Makes Up a Biofuel?

Biofuels may be in different forms to including liquid, gas, or solid materials. Biofuels can be made from any biological carbon-based substances, with corn and soy beans being the most popular crops utilized for biodiesel production. Working with these crops needs the land normally used to grow food that we eat. As a result, the renewable fuels industry has been investing time and energy into refining the method to remove biofuel from algal mass as a third generation biofuel.

Algae Fuel Advantages

Algae will develop at 50 to a hundred times faster than corn or soy, and don't need freshwater or farm land to be developed. Algae may be grown in non potable water or suspended containers located exactly where the land can not be used to grow food. The conventional barriers to successful use of algae as a biodiesel have been the relative low expense of oil when compared to the cost of extracting the biofuel from algae, however, with enhanced technology and increased crude oil costs this distance has decreased over the past couple of years.

When developed in closed photo bioreactor systems, the algae growth process may be controlled leading to greater yields and increase bio-diesel manufacturing. One more advantage of the algae development process is the algae pulls carbon dioxide from the air and replaces it with clean oxygen. This makes biodiesel algae farms more attractive to place near manufacturing plants that produce excessive amounts of carbon dioxide to help decrease pollution but also benefit the algae grower.

Biodiesel algae has the potential to substitute all crude oil world wide. If algae farms can live up to their potential, then this could be completed 100 million acres in contrast it would take exponentially much more land to achieve the same effect with traditional bio-fuel crops.

How Is Oil Removed from Algae?

Extracting the oil from algae biomass has been the major expense barrier for the growth of algae biodiesel into the industry. Once the algae are harvested, the oils are then extracted through the algae cells. The most rudimentary method to do this is to use an oil press which is similar to how an palm oil press functions. The oil press has roughly a 75 % extraction rate. Another method used to extract the oil is the hexane solvent extraction. This method results in approximately a 95 percent extraction rate of the oil from the algae.

The third method used is the supercritical fluids method which can get up to one hundred % of the algae oil out from the algae biomass. In this method, carbon dioxide is used to act as the supercritical fluid. The algae is pressurized and heated up to change it into a fluid and gaseous state. Then, the CO2 is mixed with the algae which turns it almost completely into oil. This method requires a considerable investment in equipment and incurs considerable expense. As soon as the algae oil is extracted, it is then processed making use of the transesterification method in which sodium hydroxide is mixed with ethanol to create biodiesel from algae biomass.