BioDiesel from Algae

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BioDiesel from Algae

• Oil Extraction

By Kyle Fricker
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Background Information

• Acre-by-acre microalgae can produce 30-100 times
  the oil yield of soybeans for biodiesel
  production
• Algae can grow on marginal land and in brackish
  water
• The biomass left-over from oil-pressing can
  either be fed to cattle as a protein supplement,
  or fermented into ethanol (and possibly recycled
  into the biodiesel refining process)

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Oil Extraction Techniques
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Sonication

• Idea Send ultrasonic sound waves through
  algae/water solution, break algal cell walls, let
  oil collect at the top of the liquid and skim off
• Currently used in ponds to kill off troublesome
  algae
• Positive environmentally benign, relatively low
  cost
• Negative not effective yet, most internet
  sources claim using ultrasound along with other
  methods microwaves, solvents, mechanical
  presses

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Mechanical Press

• Mortar and pestle (not very economical)
• Screw Press numerous online sources claim to
  use this method with average yields
• Must be sized quite small since algal cells are
  microscopic
• Dutch company, AlgeaLink, sells screw presses
  along with photo reactors for growing the algae.
  They allege to yielding 50 oil by mass, but the
  cheapest press costs 7300
• Most industrial processes mechanically press,
  then treat the sludge with a solvent to extract
  the oil that remains

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Osmotic Shock

• Grow algae in high saline solution and harvest
  into a sludge
• After dumping the sludge into distilled water,
  the cells theoretically will burst with the mass
  exodus of salts
• Oil can then be skimmed off the surface
• I did not find any experimentation on this
  method, yet the theory makes sense and
  experimentation is relatively easy

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Freezing Deconstructive Decompression

• Is it possible to freeze and thaw a batch of
  algae to break the cell wall?
• When they are frozen, the cells will expand
• Once allowed to thaw, the change in size could
  rupture cell walls allowing for the lipids to be
  released

• Similarly, if algae were compressed and rapidly
  decompressed, would the force on the cells be too
  much to handle?
• Not much, if any, research has been done on these
  ideas yet they are easy experiments to perform

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Solvent Extraction

• Widely used, high yields
• Expensive deal with nasty chemicals
• Usually used in conjunction with
• other extraction techniques

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The Plan

• It seems the best yields and time consumption can
  be achieved by combining a few of the
  aforementioned
• I will be looking into sonication, freezing,
  deconstructive decompression, and possibly
  osmotic shock
• Results will be viewed
• under a light
• microscope

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Algae-to-BioFuel

• This stuff is actually happening
• PetroSun has a commercial
• algae-to-biofuel plant in
• southern Texas that opened
• in April 2008.
• Heres a picture of the facility
• taken from Google Earth

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Fossil Fuel is Fossil Thinking