Why is the world not producing much biofuel?

First of all biofuel is a fuel produced from green plants with high oil content such as soybeans, palms, algae etc that can produce an oil for the conversion to biofuel.

But why is the world is not producing much biofuels? There are so many reasons for this, which I grouped them in to three. These are economical reasons, land for food reasons and political reasons.

1. Economical Reasons: to set up a biofuel manufacturing unit requires a lot of financial out put. Most of the money goes on the cost involved with energy especially with centrifugation. For large scale setup the total cost could reach up to two hundred million USD. But this does not mean all the cost come from only centrifugation. There are also other huge costs that involves with the cultivation of oil crops such as soybeans to produce biofuel.
2. Land for food reasons: production of biofuel from vegetable oil crops require a very huge land, a land which is very valuable for food crop production. The world population have increased and so do the need of a land to produce enough food. Most of the third world countries do not have enough food to feed their people. But there is a bright side on this gloom. For simplicity let us divide the oil producing green plants in to two the first are oil crops and the second are microalgae. The oil content of the oil crops such as soybeans and palms is very low as compared to that of microalgae, and very huge hectares of land is required to produce biodiesel from oil crops than from microalgae. If biodiesel is produced from microalgae the area of the land needed will reduce by up to 80% as compared to the area of land needed to produce biodiesel from even the top producers of oil crops such as soybeans.
3. Political Reasons: biodiesel production from microalgae have very huge potential because microalgae have high oil content, they require lesser area of land, they can grow very easily and they are environmentally friendly. But their are forces behind that do not want the success of biodiesel production from microalgae and even from the oil crops. These forces have a huge financial and political ability to suppress the development of biodiesel production. These forces are the giant oil drilling companies. They persuade politicians, policy makers and financial groups not to grant research budgets to the biodiesel production sector. The oil giants suppress the biodiesel sector for fear of losing their profit.

Microalgae Producing Energy Through Emissions | Tomorrow Today

Ways of harvesting microalgae for biodiesel production

Microalgae can be harvested by four different methods these are,

1. Filtering
2. Flocculation
3. Sedimentation
4. Centrifugation

These different ways of harvesting have their own distinct advantage and disadvantage. Let me give you their highlights one by one.

1. Filtering or Filtration: Species of microalgae such as Spirulina and other microalgaes which have a size of more than 55 micro meters can be easily filtered out and harvested by using filtration techniques. The filters have a maximum pore size of up to 50 micro meters in diameters; the filtration is performed by applying intense pressure or in a vacuum.

   
   
2. Flocculation: flocculation in short means to create an aggregate. In microalgae harvesting flocculation is used to create a dense mass or aggregate of microalgae easier to remove. In the harvesting of microalgae flocculation can be done in two ways. The first one is called Bioflocculation, it is done by implementing non algal microbial cultures; bioflocculation can also be done by altering certain physical conditions such as temperature and culture media. The second method of flocculation is Chemical flocculation. In this method chemicals like ferric chloride, ferric sulfate, aluminum sulfate, polymeric flocculants and chitosan to cause the formation of aggregates or clumping together of the microalgae. The only disadvantage of chemical flocculation is the cost of the chemicals for large scale harvesting can be very expensive.

   
   
3. Sedimentation: Sedimentation is the simplest method that requires no additional techniques or costs. In sedimentation the suspended microalgae are deposited by the force of gravity at the bottom which is easier to harvest. But sedimentation could take days even weeks for the microalgae to be drugged down and settled at the bottom of the tank.
4. Centrifugation: This is the most common method used to harvest microalgae in large volume at a relatively short period of time. But compared to the above three methods, it costs very much and it has the highest energy consumption.

For better efficiency of the harvest of microalgae, some time flocculation and filtration can be combined for better results. Higher efficiency of filtration will be achieved, if flocculation is performed prior to filtration.

And for even better harvesting efficiency of microalgae, all the four methods can be combined in a step by step procedure as such,

• Step one: flocculation either chemical or bioflocculation
• Step two: sedimentation and harvesting the settled down microalgae after few hours 5 to 6 hrs
• Step three: Filtering the remaining unsettled microalgae and water mixture
• Step four (Optional step): Centrifugation. But this is an optional step.

By following the above four steps the cost of harvesting can be reduced very much. The fourth step is optional, because when step three is completed almost 90% of the microalgae are harvested. And almost 85% of the cost of biodiesel production from microalgae came from costs involved with centrifugation and its huge demand for energy.

Ideal culture conditions to grow Algae

Algae are green plants, primarily they requires sunlight, carbon dioxide and mineral nutrients. On the other hand they also requires optimum environmental conditions such as the right pH and temperature. Algae grow and thrive mostly in water and moist environmental conditions. Depending on the algae species, algae can grow either in fresh water or sea water. The majority of microalgae thrive in fresh water, though many micro algae can grow also in sea waters too. Most of the macroalgae are the dominant types of green plants in the seas and oceans.

Sunlight requirements

Algae which lives in deep waters require very low intensity of sunlight, but algae species which lives on the surface of the water or in a very shallow waters require direct sunlight. In most modern photobioreactors light is provided artificially from fluorescent lamps. This kind of lamps are good option to control the intensity of light based on the particular species of algae.

Carbon dioxide and other gases

Algae consumes very huge amount of carbon dioxide, than terrestrial green plants. For algae cultured under photo bioreactors and open ponds, carbon dioxide is supplied artificially in the form of bubbles. The optimum concentration of carbon dioxide to grow algae for biodiesel purpose is up to 3%.
Oxygen is the byproduct of photosynthesis as a result very high concentration of oxygen in the water can be toxic to the algae for it reduces photosynthesis efficiency. To avoid oxygen toxicity the water should be constantly stirred and recycled to remove the excess oxygen.
Some photobioreactiors get their carbon dioxide from flue gas. This type of gas contain up to 15% of carbon dioxide. In addition to this it is also a mixture of many other gases such as nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, etc. Most algae can make use of this extra mixture of gases as a nutrient sources.

Mineral nutrients, Vitamins, and hormonal requirements

Because of the diverse nature of algae species in their nutrient requirements, it is very difficult to generalize the amount and rate of each nutrient required by algae. But most scientists agree that all algae needs a set of 14 elements, these are Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Potassium, Sulphur, Calcium, Molibdium, Zinc, Iron, Copper, Manganese, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Carbon. In addition, some elements are required by some or more algae, these are Cobalt, Iodine, Sodium, Boron, Chlorine, Silicon and Bromine. For example diatoms need an additional silicon for optimum growth. All algae uptake dissolved inorganic nutrients such as nitrates, nitrites, ammonium and phosphates.

Vitamins such as vitamin B12 and thiamine and growth regulators could give better yield of algae. The concentration of the vitamins and growth regulators and the method of applications will depend on the particular species of algae.

pH requirements

The ideal pH for most algae species is between 7 to 9 pH levels. The culture medium should be kept alkaline with an average pH of 8. Most algae are very sensitive to acidic culture medium and they perform very badly under acidic conditions.

Many species of algae have been identified and used as a food and food additives. Algae are a very nutritious food source, which have a long list of health benefits. Species of algae such as Spirulina, Chlorella, Aphanizomenon and Scenedesmus are some of the species of microalgae that have very high nutritional and health benefits.

Spirulina are the most nutritious of all the other species of algae. They are also the most widely grown algae by food industries. Spirulina are blue green microalgae. They can grow in both fresh waters and salt waters. Spirulina contain as high as 70% of proteins, all the spectrum of the vitamin B complexes including vitamin B-12, vitamin A, and vitamin C, antioxidants such as phenolic acids, alpha-carotene and beta-carotene. They also contain different mineral elements such as calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus and potassium. Eating spirulina regularly has a lot of health benefits such as prevention and healing of protein malnutrition, healing and immunity from anemia, alleviation of indigestion, glaucoma, cataract and night blindness. They benefit the health by increasing blood hemoglobin, by controlling and prevention of diabetes, pancreatitis, cirrhosis, hepatitis and cancerous cells. Because of their richness in vitamin E, use of cosmetic products made from Spirulina, will improve skin health and appearance. It also heals wounds when applied on cuts. It increases lactation in nursing mothers. It reduces blood sugar and cholesterol levels too.

Chlorella are also microalgae. They are considered the second most nutritious species of algae. Chlorella are green algae, they are almost comparable in their nutritious content with Spirulina, but with slightly less protein content than Spirulina. Chlorella have very high nucleic acid and chlorophyll content. Nucleic acid will help to reduce aging, facilitates cell renewal and growth. Chlorophyll has health benefits by causing cell renewal and growth, wound healing, prevention of infections, removal of bad breath and body odor, anti-inflammation and increases the availability of vitamins A, E, and K. Chlorella are rich with antioxidants, which act as antiaging and wound healer. They are very effective to reduce cholesterol and body fat.

Aphanizomenon are also blue green microalgae like Spirulina, having both nutritional and health benefits. Even though Aphanizomenon are very nutritious and have a lot of health benefits they should be grown or cultured with upmost care by supplying all the optimal growth conditions such as light, water and mineral nutrients, because if they grew under stress conditions they can be extremely lethal poison.   

Scenedesmus are green microalgae. They have up to 60% of protein content, more than that of soybeans. They also contain the whole set of vitamin B complex including vitamin B 12 and vitamin C, more than that of an egg. Due to their high nutritional content they are used to restore to health malnourished children. But daily intake of Scenedesmus should be below 20 to 35 g of dry weight since they have the ability to raise uric acid level enormously.

Microalgae the potential source for biodiesel production

Based on their size algae are divided in to two broad groups, these are Macroalgae and Microalgae. Macroalgae, which commonly called sea weeds are multi cellular algae; some of its species could grow up to 50 meters in diameters. On the other hand Microalgae are microscopic algae. Depending on the particular species both macroalgae and microalgae can grow in fresh water, sea water and seawages. Difference in size is not the only difference between these two groups, they also differ in the form of the compound they store in their cells. Macroalgae mainly store carbohydrates in their cells for energy source, but microalgae store mainly Triacylglycerol in their cells for energy source. Triacylglycerol is the major feedstock in biodiesel production. Therefore for their higher Triacylglycerol content in their cells, microalgae are considered the potential source for biodiesel production.

Microalgae also have other qualities, to be named the number one choice for biodiesel production:

1. They have very fast rate of growth and reproduction than macroalgae and other oil crops. They can be ready to be harvested with in just a few days.
2. They are microscopic and lives in aggregates so they allow different designs of photobioreacors and ponds.
3.  They can grow easily on seawages and utilizes their nutrients from the seawage water.
4. Two types of products can be produced from microalgae these are ethanol and biodiesel.
5. Carbon dioxide from coal power plants and flue gases can be utilised. Flue gases contain in addition to carbon dioxide,  hydrogen nitride, sulphides, sulphur dioxide and other gases. Microalgae utilises the CO2 for photosynthesis, and the other gases as nutrients.
6. Microalgae purifies waste water which comes out from factories and farms such as fertilizers, iron, manganese, zinc, chromium, nickel, cadmium and cobalt. One famous microalgae used for such purpose is Chlorella vulgaris which purifies wastewater from metals.
7. And most of all microalgae have very high Triacylglycerol content which could reach up to 54% in dry weight basis.

Microalgae are classified in to four groups these are Diatoms, Green algae, Golden brown algae and Blue green algae. In total there are more than 200,000 species of microalgae. Although the number of spices of microalgae is so vast, only a few are used for biodiesel purpose. Those microalgae produced for biodiesel production are highly oleogenic producing more than 40% of oil per dry weight basis. Some of the species of microalgae which are growen for biodiesel purpose are Nannochloropsis spp (54%), Botryococcus spp (54%), Nitzschia spp (47%), Botryococcus braunii, Dunaliella salina, Spirulina spp, Dunaliella spp, Scenedesmus spp and Chlorella spp.

For optimum production of biodiesel from microalgae, artificial creation of stress such as nitrogen starvation and environmental stresses such as very high temperature and light intensity will tremendously increase the quantity and quality of the oil produced. And it is the number one strategy to increase the oil yield.

There are two major sources of CO2 these are, compressed CO2 and CO2 from power plants. Compressed CO2 is very expensive to use for large scale biodiesel production. And Injection of CO2 directly from power plants to photobioreactors and ponds have two problems, first it has very high temperature which many species of microalgae can't resist except those of Chlorella spp, and second the gas mixture in addition to CO2 contains other gases such as NO2 and SO2 in very high concentrations which is toxic for the algae. To avoid the high temprature problem the gases need to cool down and reduced to 2% concentration level before injection.

Oleaginous algae for Triacylglycerol feed stock for conversion to biofuel

Oleaginous algae are economically important algae, that have a potential to produce more than 20% of oils (mainly Triacylglycerol) per dry cell weight. Many oleaginous strains of algae for bio diesel production are now known by scientists. These strains can produce large quantities of oils. Algae has a potential to produce the highest yield of biofuel than all the other major feed stocks. Yearly yield potential of algae range from 5,000 gallons per acre to 20,000 gallons per acre, which is the greatest yield potential than even the best yielding vegetable oil producer plants, such as soy beans and palm oils. All algae species produce eleven types of oils, from this oils the one which is used as a feed stock for biofuel is Triacylglycerol. This type of oil is produced by algae mainly as a response to stress situations, for its use as storage of starch or energy. In alga farms stress situations are created by nutrients starvation, high temperature and high light intensity as the algae are aging normally. Naturally most oleaginous strains produce more Triacylglycerol while aging.

Nutrient starvation: is done by depleting the nitrogen, silicon and phosphate supply of the algae. This will cause the algae to produce more Triacylglycerol.

Temperature increase: As the temperature increase the production of Triacylglycerol also increases.

Light intensity increase: Higher light intensity increases Triacylglycerol. Light intensity is increased by exposing the algae to direct scorching sunlight.

Algae species that produces more amount of Triacylglycerol in response to stress situations are:

• All of: Green algae species
• Many of: Diatom Species
• Some of: Haptophytes, Eustigmatophytes, Chrysophytes and Xanthophytes species
• None of: Cyanobacteria or Blue Green algae species

Naturally under no stress environmental conditions Green algae, Diatoms, Haptophytes, Eustigmatophytes and Chrysophytes have an average of 26% of oil, but under stress conditions their average oil content increases significantly to 45% per dry cell weight.

The yield from oleaginous algae is much more in hundreds of fold as compaired to the yield produced from the best oil producer crops. The reason for this is due to the ability of each and every algae cells to perform a range of various physiological functions starting from CO2 fixation to Triacylglycerol production and accumulations by it self. But in crops such as soy beans this physiological functions took place in separate and specific parts of the plant such as in seeds.

These days production of biofuel is gaining increasing popularity because of different reasons.

1. Algae are easy to grow. Algae needs little attention to grow, it can grow easily in sewages, farm outlets, barren and unproductive lands, salt water and in hot dry desert climate.
2. Algae reproduce very rapidly, this will make algae production for biofuel a lot sustainable, continual and unseasonal.
3. Algae produces 7 to 30 times more yield of oils than all of the oil crops combined. In other words it has high potential of yield per hectare.
4. Ease of the use of coal power plants as CO2 source for alga culture.
5. Its use to purify seawages and drainage canals from toxic chemicals and excess fertilizers.
6. Its huge ability to reduce green house gases such as carbon dioxide.
7. For its other economically important byproduct such as pigments, cosmetic products, animal feed, food products such as proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and omega-3.
8. Increasing new discoveries and techniques to grow algae in open ponds and phobiotoreactors. 

But there are also some serious impediments for the applicability of producing biofuel from algae. The estimated production cost is very high and most of this cost involves in setting up the centrifugal system to extract the oils and in running the system, the estimated cost could reach hundreds of millions of USD. Other minor problems include unavailability of reliable carbondioxide source, high evaporation losses,  contamination and enough water source.

Taking all the high production costs in to consideration now days, it is much more advisable to grow algae for food companies than for biofuel purpose, but biofuel production from algae have a very huge potential for the future and a lot of research are underway to slash the paralyzing cost of production. As for me the future looks greener.  

Growing Algae for Biofuel

Algae can be grown for biofuel, in both photobioreactors and open ponds. Photobioreactors are completely controlled system, where all the growth factors such as light, CO2, temperature, Nutrients etc. are all artificially supplemented.

Algae are a very reliable renewable energy source. Naturally algae can grow in diverse but humid environmental conditions such as in open ponds with out any artificial care or treatment. But the bulk of algae biomass which is needed for biofuel production is very huge and growing of algae in open ponds can’t produce enough algae biofuel. Growing of algae in open ponds is more cost effective for food than for biofuel. The most preferable method of algae culture for biofuel is by using photobioreactors.

What are the requirements in photobioreactors for greater harvest? The requirements are-

• Water: could be either sea water or fresh water depending on the specific species of algae. For example micro algae requires fresh water and
• Carbon dioxide: Algae are consumes huge amount of CO2 so artificial injection of CO2 is must for higher yield of biofuel. Source of CO2 includes coal power plants or compressed CO2
• Optimum Temperature: also differ from species to species and the temperature range is 15 to 35 degree Celsius
• Nutrients: is applies in the form of fertilizers more or less similar with fertilizer applies to terrestrial crops. Nutrients including Nitrate, Phosphate, Iron etc
• Recycling of water: is useful to remove toxic or undesirable wastes which are produced by the algae
• Optimum level of stress: Under stress conditions algae produce higher amount of oils. Stress conditions can be created by reducing nutrient level, and moisture at the algaes' peak threshold.
•  Light: light is artificially provided for optimum and fast rate of growth. In the photobioreactors the light sources could be florescent lamps. But some times in some photobioreactors natural sun light can be utilized, but most algae species are very sensitive to strong direct sunlight therefore the intensity of the sunlight should be reduced by using either tinted glasses or netting systems.
• pH: Algae loves alkaline waters so by all means the pH of the water should be kept at 8; the water in the pond or in the photobioreactors should be recycled regularly to keep the water at pH 8.

Growing algae for food

Many species of algae such as Spirulina algae are very rich sources of food. They contain almost all the Proteins, Carbohydrates, Vitamins and Minerals. Some of the nutrition such as Omega-3 fatty acids presents only in algae other than fishes. Once produced they can be sold to food companies in bulk. But the quality (weather the algae is free from contaminants or not) will determine the price and marketability of the produced algae.

It is very easy and profitable to grow algae for food, if the growing conditions suitable for algae are mate. These conditions include nutrient filled water, sunlight (dim sunlight), additional source of carbon dioxide, suitable temperature, and suitable pH.

There are two major ways of growing algae, these are growing algae in photobioreactors and growing algae in open ponds. Growing algae in photobioreactors involve the growing of algae in enclosed transparent containers, which are called photobioreactors. And growing of algae in open ponds involves growing of algae with out any cover container in an open environment where the algae get direct sunlight. The two techniques of growing algae have their own advantages.

Advantages of Photobioreactors

• They give control on the system such as the amount of biomass produced, the amount of light, the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases, easy to regulate the temperature, easy control of the amount of nutrients in the water and easy control of the pH
• Relatively they have less contamination which comes from other weed or unwanted species of algae. For this reason alga grown for food in photobioreactors is considered high in quality.
• Algae grow and and mature at a faster rate
• There are no evaporation losses of moisture
• Produce expensive algae
• Algae can be produced at any environmental conditions since all the growth factors such as nutrients, temperature, sunlight, pH and amount of gases are artificially controlled.
• It has an advantage over open pond, for its quality, purity and higher price, but photobioreactors are very expensive to setup and to run.
• Photobioreactors require a small area for production, but they require a lot of building facility, which is very costly.

Advantages of Open pond

• Growing of algae in open ponds is very cheap
• It can be done in any open pond
• It can be done at home for extra income
• It doesn’t require any control Other than supplementing nutrients and artificial injection of CO2 and controlling the amount of direct sunlight by providing some shading mechanism.
• Cost effective to produce algae in such open ponds
• They require no building facility, but they need more area than photobioreactors.
• They are easy to set up, but they are very difficult to manage due to contamination and environmental fluctuations. Also evaporation losses of moisture is very high

Benefits of algae

Algae culture is becoming increasingly popular this days, the reason for this is the tremendous potentials of algae as source of bio fuels, drugs, food additive and environmental benefits. Algae are the most dominant living organisms in the ocean and seas, they are also called by ancient Greeks a Sea weed. Algae belong to green plants and they can exist either as unicellular or multicultural organisms. They have a tremendous ability for photosynthesis, in other words they have a tremendous ability to produce oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis. In fact more than 53% of all the oxygen that we breath came from algae. Here are some of the lists of algae’s benefits.

Algae is very useful to reduce the worlds CO2 level and reduce global warming and it is also useful to reduce the CO2 emission level from power plants. All species of algae are capable of reducing CO2 level, starting from the unicellular Chlamydomonas species to the Macrocystis and to the Cyanobacteria, they all have huge potential. The CO2 is pumped into the water body that algae present, and the algae feed upon the CO2. This technique of carbon reduction is the number one list on the agenda of reducing global warming. Because it is easy and cost effective.

Algae used to reduce and remove toxic chemicals and fertilizers from sewages and farm drainage outlets respectively. They also play a great role in Oxygenation of sewages. Some species of algae that grows in seawages include Chlorella, Chlamydomonas, Microactinum, Euglena, Volvocales etc. Algae even helps to remove radioactive wastes.

Algae is a very effective means to purify and filter aquariums and fish ponds from undesirable nutrients and chemicals. In addition to this they have an aesthetic value in ponds and aquariums. Species such as Gracillaria spp, green algae, red algae etc. are both beautiful and good purifiers.

In agriculture they can be used as fertilizers, soil conditioners and livestock feed.

Algae is increasingly becoming as a good source of biofuels.

Algae are a good source many pharmaceutical drugs and antibiotics.

They are a very nutritious source of food and can be used as food additives in many industries. They are also food for aquatic animals.

They are a source a good natural Pigments.

They are a very reliable source of income.

Algae is increasingly applicable in various industries such as cosmetic industry, leather and textile industries.

Algae is the only source of Agar-agar: the culture medium that is used in laboratories. Some of the most common species of algae used as a source of agar are Pterocladia, Gracilaria, Camplaephora, Eucheuma, etc. Agar also used in soups and sauces, ice creams, cakes and pastries. Agar uses are not only these it is also used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, leather and textile industries. Agar is a natural laxative, because of its ability to absorb water.

Blue green algae used to fix nitrogen.

Brown algae such as Sargassum and Laminaria species are a very good source of Iodine.

Amount of vitamin C present in some species of algae such as in Sargassum myriocystium is more than that of orange fruits.

One species of algae called Diatoms when decomposed, its earth can be used to make super light bricks.

Green way to produce energy for small gardens

Small gardens have a lot of advantages. They are easy to manage, need low initial cost and operating cost, less labour costs, family participation, easy to manage, very easy to grow very expensive and difficult to grow plants, relatively low risk and have great potential to apply green technologies with out any obstacles or shortages. I want to focus more on the applicability of solar energy provided by easily and cheaply buld solar panels, to run all the energy requirements of the small garden. Energy requirements in the form of electricity to run water pumps, green house purposes, storage needs such as refrigration of perisable products before marketing and household purposes. There are a lot of advantages of such solar energy first and for most they are very cheap and easy to construct, can be used to supply all the energy requirements of home gardens. In addition to this it slashes the electricity bill for house hold consumption by more than 80%. 

The cost of basic solar panel instalation from the retailors, which is $20,000 and it could take you 30 years to pay it back. But you have got an option to build two solar panels with just $100, from earth4energy. You will learn it faster it is all step by step guide and you will end up building a 120 Watt solar pannel for your home.

Home made energy will slash your electricity bill by 80% and it will run all your home garden energy needs    

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