Fuel- Oilgae Takes Over

In 1908, when the very first Model T rolled out of the assembly line, its manufacturer, Henry Ford, had had the anachronistic vision to design it to run on ethanol or petrol. His foresight envisaged that ethanol produced from crops grown on American soil would provide the bulk of fuel for motor vehicles. Providence and prohibition politics derailed his efforts to produce ethanol or else the history of biofuels would have been vastly different.

A century later, those engaged industriously in endeavours to produce biofuels are still far from being able to produce them at commercially viable costs and quantities. The most optimistic date for the biofuels industry to take off is at least two years away. As far as aviation fuels are concerned, it would be futile to try and project target dates for availability of commercial jet fuel derived from biomass. This article prescribes a strategy to deal with biofuel research and development in India so that the nation and its aviation industry can benefit from renewable fuel sources.

What Are Biofuels?
Biofuels may be defined as solid, liquid or gaseous fuels obtained from recently dead biological material. In contrast, fossil fuels are derived from biological materials which have been dead for a long time. Various plants and plant-derived materials are also used to make biofuels. The conversion process could be biological, chemical or thermal. Based on the progress of research in the realm of biofuels, three generations could be defined. The first generation biofuels are produced from sugar, starch, vegetable oil or animal fats using conventional technology. The basic feedstock are often seeds or grains, such as wheat, which yield starch that is fermented into bioethanol, or sunflower seeds, which are pressed to yield vegetable oil that can be used in biodiesel.

The most common first generation biofuels are vegetable oils, biodiesel, bioalcohols (most commonly ethanol and less commonly, propanol and butanol), bioethers, biogas, syngas and solid biofuels. The feedstock could instead enter the animal or human food chain. As the global population has increased their use in producing biofuels, there has been criticism about diverting food from the human food chain, leading to food shortage and price rise.

Second generation biofuels use a variety of non-food crops, including waste biomass, stalks of wheat, corn, wood and special crops, like Miscanthus. Biomass-to-liquid technology, which includes cellulosic biofuels from non-food crops, is also a second generation biofuel. Second generation biofuels under development are bio-hydrogen, bio-methanol, DMF, Bio-DME, Fischer-Tropsch diesel, biohydrogen diesel, mixed alcohols and wood diesel. Scientists are also working on experimental DNA engineered organisms that could enhance biofuel potential.

Third generation biofuels are also called Algae Fuels, or Oilgae, and come from algae which are low-input, high-yield feedstock to produce biofuels. Algae fuels produce 30 times more energy per acre than fuel derived from land crops. However, the label of third generation is on account of the relatively higher degree of difficulty associated with the extraction of oil from algae as compared to the sources discussed earlier. It is common to see second and third generation biofuels also referred to as advanced biofuels which, as stipulated in a 2007 vintage Energy Independence and Security Act in the US, must achieve at least a 50 per cent greenhouse gas emissions reduction as contrasted to conventional biofuels which are required to achieve only a 20 per cent reduction.

The US is the leading nation in the field of biofuels research and development. Unfortunately, development in this area has been stunted with a large number of public and private ethanol and biodiesel companies filing for bankruptcy. In May 2009, to bolster the infant industry, President Obama agreed to an expensive $786.5 million (Rs 3,775 crore) program to speed up the development and commercialisation of biofuels. Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; one of its stated goals is to create biofuels like green gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels.

One of the components of the programme is to create an algal biofuels consortium to accelerate demonstration of algal biofuels through competitive solicitation at an expenditure of $50 million (Rs 240 crore). The Biofuels Interagency Working Group, which is comprised of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture, will develop a biofuel market development program, coordinate infrastructure policies, study biofuel lifecycle and help existing producers secure credit and refinancing. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Energy Secretary Steven Chu have been instructed by President Obama to work in conjunction to create an opportunity for the biofuels industry to be an integral part of the 21st Century Clean American Economy. Needless to say, the focus is on the advanced biofuels as environmental groups claim first-generation cornbased ethanol has negative environmental impacts that result in more greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional oil, including emissions produced by indirect land use changes as land is cleared to plant biofuel producing crops.

Algae to Fuel the Future
Moving away from biofuel options based on crops, algae represent an attractive option with the promise of continuous harvest and the possibility of yielding aviation fuel—after more research, of course. Many initiatives are underway worldwide to harness algal biofuel potential and render algal oil commercially viable. Algae can take many forms, such as seaweed (macro-algae) and kelp. But for oil, the micro-algae found in outdoor ponds can be utilised. Since algae in open ponds is prone to contamination (bird droppings, for one), new initiatives look at protected environments for algae culturing. Micro-algae are actually a highly efficient biological factory capable of consuming carbon dioxide (CO2), and converting it into a high-density natural oil through photosynthesis.

Much of the world’s petroleum is actually made up of algae that decomposed over hundreds of millions of years. But by drilling for, extracting and burning that oil now, we are releasing the carbon dioxide that was absorbed long ago. This carbon positive effect is what is causing global warming. Algae cultivated today absorb CO2 from the atmosphere or other CO2 emitted sources. Burning freshly produced algae oil releases only what it absorbed in the first place, resulting in a balanced carbon neutral effect. This makes algae oil environment friendly. Algae reproduce by cellular division. They divide and divide until they fill up the space available to them and have consumed all the nutrients in it. In the right environment, fresh algae cells grow and divide exponentially, doubling every few hours, while absorbing all available nutrients, CO2 and light energy.

Breakthrough Technology from Originoil
OriginOil has announced a breakthrough technology called Quantum Fracturing to extract oil from algae using a more efficient and less expensive process than standard industry methods. In OriginOil’s Helix Bio-reactor, Quantum Fracturing combines with electromagnetism and pH modification to break down cell walls, thereby releasing the oil within these cells. Algae oil rises to the top for skimming and refining, while the remaining biomass settles to the bottom for further processing. In a natural pond, the sun only illuminates one layer of algae growth, down to about half an inch below the surface. In contrast, the Helix BioReactor features a rotating vertical shaft with very low energy lights arranged in a helix or spiral pattern, which results in a theoretically unlimited number of growth layers.

Additionally, each lighting element is engineered to produce specific light waves and frequencies for optimal algae growth. The helix structure also serves as the bioreactor’s nutrient delivery system, through which the Quantum Fractured nutrients, including CO2, is evenly delivered to the entire algae culture, monitored and tuned for optimum growth. This algae growth environment allows the algae culture to replicate exponentially—doubling the entire colony in as little as a few hours—making for very efficient, low-cost, low-footprint industrial algae production. Harvesting algae is a challenge. Algae grow suspended in large volumes of water.

Once ready for harvest, the algae culture must be concentrated and the oil extracted from each cell. Then, the oil, water and biomass must all be separated for processing. The new OriginOil process achieves all these steps in one pass. In less than an hour, the oil, water and biomass separate by gravity alone.

Unlike conventional systems, no chemicals or heavy machinery are used in this single-step process and no initial dewatering is required. This rapid expansion is called the log phase, or logarithmic phase, of growth where cells divide exponentially. Typically, growers incubate an algae population in a smaller vessel and then release it into a larger tank for production, one batch at a time. OriginOil’s Helix BioReactor growth vessel adds the timesaving efficiency of combining the incubation vessel and larger tanks into one system. Once the algae matures in the Helix Bio-Reactor, 90 per cent of the culture is transferred out for extraction, and the remaining 10 per cent green water is purified and returned to the growth tank. That remaining 10 per cent is then allowed to re-expand into the Helix BioReactor, creating a new batch, and the process is repeated.

With this system there is no need to re-incubate each batch; the remaining algae culture is already mature and is ready to re-enter the log phase after each harvest and replenishment of growth environment. OriginOil’s patent pending system design facilitates large scale algae production through the horizontal and vertical stacking of many Helix BioReactors into an integrated network of fully automated, portable, and remotely monitored growth units. Further, by the use of such modular design, a large number of Helix BioReactors can be connected to a small number of extraction units to achieve both economies of scale and full industrialisation of algae production.