Algae The Biofuel of the Future

Incredible how fast this technology is unfolding......the peeps are getting desperate lol

Academics representing 12 organisations from six countries, including Cyprus, are researching the production of liquid biofuel from microalgae in the Mediterranean.
Renewed interest has been encouraged by the commercial value of algae as a fuel solution alternative to oil.
Research organisations, academic institutions, energy agencies, private organisations from Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Lebanon and Egypt are working together on the new technology through the MED ALGAE project.
The Agricultural Research Institute and Cyprus Energy Agency recently also held a seminar to present the project’s first results.
Their work is based on new technology which aims to contribute to the goals of the EU’s long-term strategy on climate change and energy. According to Dr Polycarpos Polycarpou, a senior Agricultural Research Institute official, some kinds of microalgae can produce up to 60% of their weight in a form of oil that can be made into biodiesel.
Presenting the advantages of microalgae at the recent seminar, Polycarpou also noted that algae could develop 20 to 30 times faster than anything cultivated on land.
Algae can also produce up to 300 times more fuel per 1,000 square metres than other conventional types of oil cultivations including rapeseed, palm, Soya or jatropha.
Because algae have a harvesting cycle of between one to ten days, they, in addition, facilitate many harvests within a short time period. Also, because their cells can be developed in a liquid suspension where they have more affective access to water, carbon dioxide (Co2) and dissolved nutrients, microalgae can be produced as large quantities of biomass and oil either in open ponds or in photobioreactors.
Microalgae can also be cultivated on stretches of land that are not suitable for other types of crops, for example on sterile land or soil with excess salt etc.
Significant interest in the development and prospects of microalgae cultivations in Cyprus has come from industries which emit Co2 into the atmosphere such as power stations, cement makers, kilns using biomass, and buildings requiring a large amount of heat such as green houses and hotels as well as those processing liquid waste.
The efforts to produce liquid biofuels from micoalgae in the Mediterranean (sea water) is co funded by the EU within its European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) - Mediterranean Sea Basin Joint Operational Programme.
At the seminar, Agricultural Research Institute official, Michalis Omirou, spoke about the isolation of part of the micro algae for the production of biofuels.
He said renewable energy sources were crucial at a time when using fossil fuels was not a sustainable option.
Omirou added that the fuel price crisis had put great pressure on a global economy that was already in recession.
According to Omirou, the financial crisis has made it imperative for new job places to be created as well as for a reduction in the cost of production.
He also noted that climate change made a significant reduction in green house gases crucial.
Commenting on future opportunities, Omirou referred to the pledges industries including the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) had made on reducing their production of greenhouse gases.
Studies in the areas of Larnaca Marina and Liopetri River, where there has been algae cultivation, has shown that Cyprus waters are rich in algae diversity with 33 different kinds of growth found.
“Of these, 35% we found to incorporate over 30% of the oil and so a satisfactory amount to produce the biomass.”
It was also determined that weather conditions play as significant part in algae cultivation, where lower temperatures have a negative effect on production. Growth slows down significantly from 16 °C downwards.
Statistically, there is also a significant relation between the season and availability of nutrients, he said.
Anthi Charalambous, director of the Cypriot Energy Agency said the first pilot facilities had already been created in Cyprus, Lebanon and Egypt with more currently being set up in Malta and Italy.
The aim of the work is to strengthen the production and use of alternative fuels from microalgae through the creation of specialised laboratories as well as pilot facilities including a Mediterranean Regional Centre for bio-production in Alexandria, Egypt to test the produced bio diesel and also act as a training centre, as well as a venue for demonstrations and conferences in the region.
By the end of the year, she said, significant results from the production of biodiesels would be ready.
Currently, the most suitable spots for the collection and processing of microalgae for the potential production of bio diesels are also being documented.

 

I always apperciate you sharing your valued research with us THANKS KELTIC.
You dont know it, but you diagnosed a problem i had with a female i have from some thousands of miles away.
You posted info on a type of infection females get, i forgot the name and cant prenounce it and not to savy with medical termonolgy.But i had took her to numerous vets to pay big $ with antibiotics as the only suggestion.I used your artical and relayed it to the vet who properly diagnosed and treated her.I used to never post and also lack computer skills or i would have thanked you before,THANKS AGAIN...ELIAS...

 

That's most probably the Myopetra infection I posted a text on. I try to post informative articles that are relevant to the dogs and dog breeding. Just learning things as I go along myself as well.

 

Yes sir I THANK YOU AGAIN,you and SADIE BLUE EYES relay some pretty valuable info that often gets over looked.
I knew the benifits of seaweed, but not algae.What do you think about BEE POLLIN?

 

PYOMETRA......sorry,

 

Yes my friend my vet never heard or dealt with it,thanks for the share.

 

Algae Biofuel Process by Algenol Yields 8000 Gallons per Acre at $1.27 per Gallon

The future of domestic renewable fuel production could be a bright one, if the work of Algenol is scaled up to commercial levels, because the company can already produce continuous yields of 8000 gallons of algae biofuels per acre per year, without using any arable land that would be better suited to food production.
Biofuels are a controversial topic for some environmentalists, because for certain feedstock crops, such as corn, the benefits of producing ethanol biofuel on arable land may not outweigh the negative impacts, such as water use, for the yields they get (for corn, it*s in the neighborhood of 420 gallons of fuel per acre per year).
But with algae biofuel, the yields of fuel per acre are much higher, and don*t require taking land out of food production or consuming vast amounts of water for each gallon of biofuel produced. In fact, Algenol*s process, which begins with salt water, actually produces 1.4 gallons of clean water for each gallon of fuel, so this algae-based fuel could end up being a much greener and cheaper fuel than any other type of biofuel.
The Algenol process is a modular, scalable system which uses their proprietary flexible plastic film photobioreactors (PBR) to grow the blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) with salt water and carbon dioxide, which the algae convert via photosynthesis into “sugars” (pyruvate) using sunlight. The company*s Direct to Ethanol process yields a biofuel with an 80% lower carbon footprint than gasoline, and has the added benefit of using a byproduct of other industrial processes, carbon dioxide, to produce a clean fuel (one metric tonne of carbon dioxide fed into the Algenol process produces around 144 gallons of fuels).
Intro to Algenol - YouTube
“On one wet acre of algal cultivation Algenol can produce around 8,000 gallons of liquid fuels with a majority gallons of ethanol, 500 gallons of jet ultra-low sulfur diesel, 380 gallons of gasoline and 315 gallons of jet fuel. This is a net production around 8,000 gallons of fuel products on a single acre of land, which makes Algenol*s technology the most sophisticated, advanced and environmentally friendly process for fuel production in the world. This compares favorably to corn at 420 gallons per acre per year.” * Algenol
How Does Algenol Do It - YouTube
Although most cars on the road already run on an ethanol blend fuel (10% ethanol, or E10), there are an increasing number of Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) that can run on highethanol blends (up to 85% ethanol, or E85), but one big issue that keeps this renewable biofuel from being more widely used is the lack of availability of cheaper ethanol. And that*s where Algenol comes in, because with their process, and their goal of producing as much as 20 billion gallons per year of low cost ethanol by 2033, we could see more and more drivers choosing to fuel up with algae-based ethanol.