Optimising productivity through improved systems
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High contamination risks associated with open pond systems as well as expensive setup costs of photobioreactors have contributed to the expensive price of algal biofuels at present. Many innovative companies have focused on reducing these costs with state-of-the-art technology and methods to optimise biomass production.
This page presents a overview of new techniques in the pipeline for developing cheaper algal cultivation through new and improved systems.
Integrated Systems
Carbon capture and sequestration
Recycling CO2 given off from industrial processes into algal cultivation systems provides a cheap source of CO2, essential for algal growth, with the additional benefit of reduced emmissions. A number of companies have been developing this approach as a means of reducing production costs.
To learn more about how this process works in an open pond system, follow the link to watch a short video by Israeli based biofuel company Seambiotic Ltd.
Wastewater Treatment
Integrating large scale algae farming with the treatment of wastewater has the potential to have huge benefits to both processes. Valuable nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus and CO2 are abundant in untreated wastewater. The wastewater would provide adequate inputs of nutrients and CO2 at extremely low costs for enhanced algal growth. This assimilation of nutrients would aid in treatment processing providing additional environmental and economic benefits.
In addition to valuable nutrients, wastewater can however contain heavy metals and excessive trace metals as well as other contaminents. Heavy metals such as cadmium have been shown to have detrimental effects on lipid biosynthesis and other cellular processes. These contaminants should therefore be of considerable concern.
Low cost algae harvesting through the process of bioflocculation, still in the developmental stages, may provide further advantages of this integrated system. For more information on the role of bioflocculation in separating algae follow the link.
Further research overcoming problems of contamination may be an important factor into the success of wastewater algae farming, a promising system to the future of commercial biofuels.
This integrated cultivation system, known as OMEGA and developed by NASA, incorporates the treatment of wastewater and CO2 emissions into a series of specially made floating photobioreactors. By combining the two systems in a marine environment, algal biofuels and by-products can be produced from the treatment of wastwater whilst providing marine habitat to promote biodiversity and aquaculture.
To learn more about this system works and the benefits it may provide, follow the link below to watch the ted talk from OMEGA's lead researching scientist Jonathan Trent:
Photo courtesy of wreporter.com
Strain Selection
Algae are made up of thousands of different species. Within these species there are indefinite number of genetic variants, or strains. The Aquatic Species Program, set up by the US Government in the 70s assessed 3000 algal strains for their potential in bioenergy. This initial research has been the jumping off point in selecting the best performing microalgae for biofuel production. Genomics is the name given to the study of genes and their functions. Recent advances in this field have enabled scientists to gather large databases containing the sequences of different genes. With the use of genetic screening techniques, scientists are able to identify if an algal strain contains a particular set of favourable genes and therefore make a better-informed decision on what strain to use.
Advancements in genetic engineering techniques have provided promising development in future algal strain improvement. To learn more about the role these techniques may play in the future success of algal biofuels follow the link: