“A new dimension to Algae fuel”: Far from light and closer to human

needs”

Sandeep Satapathy

BS-MS, IISER,Bhopal

INSPIRE Fellow(2010)

JNCASR Fellow(2012)

Rajiv Gandhi Fellow(2012)

Algae

Biofuel: A multi- dimensional facet

Why ALGAE??

• The term "algae" encompasses a variety of organisms found throughout the world in or near bodies of water. Though most algae are photosynthetic or autotrophic, some are heterotrophic, deriving energy from the uptake of organic carbon such as cellulosic material.

• Once considered to be a part of PLANT Kingdom are currently labeled under the kingdom “PROTISTA". The feedstock involved in the bio fuel production is primarily a plant derived product.

• Of most of the algae found, very few are heterotrophic. However,the existing obligate heterotrophs lack the product efficiency and thus motivated towards the METABOLIC MANIPULATION of the facultative autotrophs.

• Some companies are currently establishing infrastructure and developing on sciences involving heterotrophic growth of algae for bio fuel production and SOLAZYME is one of the leading companies currently involved in this.

PRIME FOCUS:

• Commodity cost is not the sole focus. Rather commodity cost and high value specialty products are unique features of desired product.

Behrens and Kyle 1966:

“Details of difference in cell organization and growth modes and ability to manipulate metabolism through simple manipulation of the chemical properties of the culture medium.”

Which algae???

Comparing different strains of algae using a specific process enables one to conclude the efficient algae. But what about INITIAL classification of algae??

• An algae with cellular machinery developed to accommodate a shift from photosynthetic pathway to heterotrophic pathway easily is the suitable one.

• The one with high crude lipid content (67%) and low crude protein content (13%).

• E.g- Chlorella Protothecoids and Botryococcus braunii.

C

Botryococcus Braunii

C .Protothecoids

Confocal Scanning Microscopy Microscopy(A,B)

Differential Interference

Microscopy(C,D)

(A)Autofluorescence of photoautotrophic C. protothecoides cells with chlorophyll. (B) Autofluorescence of chlorophyll disappearing cells of heterotrophic C. protothecoides. (C) Almost no lipid vesicles were observed in photoautotrophic C. protothecoides cells. (D) The cells of heterotrophic C. protothecoides were full of lipid vesicles.

Methods: The most common method, FAST PYROLYSIS involves using a volume specified container at a high temperature(500°C) and controlled pressure conditions. 1.Absence of oxygen 2.High heat and heat transfer rates 3.Short vapor residence time (2-3 sec) 4.Rapid cooling of vapor from pyrolysis (Bridgewater et.all 1999) 5.Addition of organic carbon sources and decrease in organic nitrogen source favors fast growth. 6.Feedstock:Glucose(most common),pine wood and cotton straw etc.

Need for control:

It affects the % yield of oil as at high temperature there may be a phase change of oil subtypes.(Miao et.all 2004).

Increasing a temperature from 400 to 450 °C( 41.2 to 57.9) increased the oil yield. However beyond 500°C it declined

( 57.9 to 54.6).

A cross inverse relation has been established from the char yield and oil yield, that is increase of one lead to decrease of other. Thus rooting itself to the differential levels of lipid and protein accumulation.

The main difference is due to the difference in chemical composition of the plant products used as feedstock.

Blessings:

Growing in algae in dark offers better control as the feedstock is flexible and results in high oil yield.

Anaerobic heterotrophic culture of algae leads to higher order secondary metabolites production and thus helps in making wide variety of oils.It includes from Soap to personal care products like fragnances an d utilities like surfactants, food oils, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals etc.

To reduce the cost effectiveness of final product waste feedstock can also be used as input.

Least space requirement and also used for yield of Omega-3 Biomass powder.

The cell concentration is higher in this method and thus centrifugation will take lesser energy to separate the biomass.

Against the claim of cost factor of bio fuel, the availability of lot of organic materials substantiates the cost feasibility of this oil to commercially available ones.

Algal oils are also being used as dielectric fields in the transformer market.

The cetane value of algal bio oil is 74 which is much more than the photosynthetic process.

There is a kind of fuel called FAME (fatty acid methyl ester based fuel) obtained from algae has better fuel properties than the commercially available ones.

It has low oxygen content, is of low density and low viscosity.

Co-Product inclusive model:

Quantity of sugar + Quantity of Algae

=

Main Product +Multiple by-products

It does not add upto the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and thus acts as a control on greenhouse effect.

Bliss: Photosynthetic oil yield is the conventional one .The

technology and methodology developed and installed at present is more adapted to the conventional phototrophic pathway.

Fermentation is found to be expensive. Sources of carbohydrate as feedstock can be varied and can be of different costs.

It requires that land/sea to grow sugar as algae feedstock, whereas it could be used more efficiently to grow algae using sunlight for energy.

It may also hamper the balance in food chain.

Food for thought:

What happens to the lignin of the lignocellulose material used as feed stock??Is it toxic to the cell??Does it decreases the yield??

Hint: A few research work at present focuses on uses of conc. hydrochloric Acid for decomposition of the lignin coat.

Route-Dependence Theory:

If a plant could process SUNLIGHT-SUGAR more efficiently than SUNLIGHT-OIL and if algae could process SUGAR very efficiently than SUGAR-OIL, this process can make a sense.

Sn2OA > Sn2Sgp + Sg2OA

Sn2OP > Sn2Sgp + Sg2OA

Where,

Sn2OA- cost of sunlight to oil using algae.

Sn2Sgp- cost of sunlight to sugars by plants.

Sn2OP- cost of sunlight to Oil by plants.

Sg2OA- cost of Sugar to Oil by Algae.

Catalytic Up gradation:

To upgrade bio fuels Nano-scale materials with high number of active sites and high surface area are used. Specially when the process involves trans esterification of nanometer sized oxide particles, inorganic oxides can be used as heterogeneous Nano sized catalyst.

Commercially available calcium oxide is known to improve the trans esterification process by 99%.

Solution to India’s energy crisis

It is indeed surprising that India has not seriously considered the algae biofuel as an alternative means of energy. More than 99 per cent of commercial algae biomass produced worldwide currently is mainly from seaweeds farmed near the seashore. India should not let go the opportunity to utilize the algae, that can be cultivated in large quantity in the Indian coastal regions.

• While large scale production for algae based biofuels is expected to start between now and 2020 in the developed countries, the work on development of technology and engineering practices for production of algae biofuel in India is still in a nascent stage.

•

The biggest challenge in algae biofuel production is cutting the cost which is estimated to run to more than $20 a gallon at present. Researchers are trying to figure out how to grow enough of the right strains of algae and how to extract the oil most efficiently.

The several advantageous salient features of algae in Indian conditions include the following: * The country’s enormous diversity * Vast coastline * Sufficient solar energy * Does not compete with food crops for land availability * Can grow in places away from forests, thus minimizing the damages caused to the eco-and-food chain systems.

THANK YOU