Ongoing Research
Companies such as Sapphire Energy and Bio Solar Cells are using genetic engineering to make algae fuel production more efficient. According to Klein Lankhorst of Bio Solar Cells, genetic engineering could vastly improve algae fuel efficiency as algae can be modified to only build short carbon chains instead of long chains of carbohydrates. Sapphire Energy also uses chemically induced mutations to produce algae suitable for use as a crop.
Proviron has been working on a new type of reactor (using flat plates) which reduces the cost of algae cultivation. At AlgaePARC similar research is being conducted using 4 grow systems (1 open pond system and 3 types of closed systems). According to René Wijffels the current systems do not yet allow algae fuel to be produced competitively. However using new (closed) systems, and by scaling up the production it would be possible to reduce costs by 10X, up to a price of 0,4 € per kg of algae.
Some commercial interests into large-scale algal-cultivation systems are looking to tie in to existing infrastructures, such as cement factories, coal power plants, or sewage treatment facilities. This approach changes wastes into resources to provide the raw materials, CO2 and nutrients, for the system.
A feasibility study using marine microalgae in a photobioreactor is being done by The International Research Consortium on Continental Margins at the Jacobs University Bremen.
The Department of Environmental Science at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, is working on producing biofuel from a local species of algae.
NBB's Feedstock Development program is addressing production of algae on the horizon to expand available material for biodiesel in a sustainable manner.
The European Commission's Algae Cluster Project, funded through the Seventh Framework Programme, is made up of three algae biofuel projects, each looking to design and build a different algae biofuel facility covering 10ha of land. The projects are BIOFAT, All-Gas and InteSusAl.
Since various fuels and chemicals can be produced from algae, it has been suggested to investigate the feasibility of various production processes(conventional extraction/separation, hydrothermal liquefaction, gasification and pyrolysis) for application in an integrated algal biorefinery.
Read more about this topic: Algae Fuel
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