Eastern Kentucky Looks at Cellulose Biodiesel
Eastern Kentucky University has teamed up with energy research and defense manufacturing firm General Atomics to look at the potential to develop cellulose-based biodiesel.
This story from the Business Lexington says the partnership will create the EKU Center for Renewable and Alternative Fuel Technologies (CRAFT):
EKU President Doug Whitlock said the project is important to Kentucky’s farmers looking for cash crops to replace tobacco as well as making Kentucky a leader in an emergent technology.
“Alternative fuels are going to be a real focus of the Obama administration and for Kentucky, this is a chance to be on the front, cutting edge of a technology that holds a good deal of promise as a source of alternative energy,” he said. “It’s also exciting for Kentucky farmers. Tobacco is still around but it’s not the king of agriculture that it once was so this is an opportunity for life after tobacco.”…
There are a number of different sources the research will look at, according to Dr. Bruce Pratt, chair of EKU’s Department of Agriculture. Those could include corn fodder, wheat stubble, switch grass, and wood products such as wood chips, saw dust and bark. “We’ll take a number different sources of biomass that are high in cellulose and digest that cellulose with an enzyme that will release the sugars in them. We’ll take those sugars and use them as a heat source for algae and grow it in vats,” said Pratt. “The algae will be fed the sugars and other nutrients they need to grow and multiply.”
Pratt added that these specialized strains of algae have a very high content of oil, some much as 60 percent of their body mass. The algae is harvested and the oil is extracted and can then be converted in biodiesel.
Officials hope the project could produce as much as 50 million gallons of biodiesel annually.
2 Comments »
Aureon Kwolek
Great article John -
And a VERY SIGNIFICANT emerging technology – feeding algae with biomass sugars. This is similar to the method being developed by Solazyme, growing algae in tanks in the dark, feeding them sugars instead of in sunlight.
A major factor is that the algae does Not need to be exposed to light. Just feed it sugars, waste nutrients and CO2. This does Not take up farmland. And it is highly concentrated production – 10,000 to 20,000 gallons of fuel per acre per year, with a potential for up to 100 tons of Algae biomass per acre per year or more.
Growing algae in the dark on sugar, you can stack algae tanks as high as you want. Or stack them underground, 100 feet deep. Put a parking lot over the top of that. Stack them also around corn ethanol refineries, and grow algae on the waste CO2, nutrient rich effluent, and waste heat. This is in the works.
Algae is not just about oil. After the oil is extracted, you have proteins that can be made into feed and food. And, you have starches that can be made into ethanol, an industry that is presently over 10 times bigger than biodiesel.
Algae protein byproducts create an excellent revenue stream as commercial fish feed, such as farm raised tilapia, salmon, and others.
Another aspect of growing algae commercially, is its value as a human fool supplement. Chlorella is currently valued at $18 a pound retail. Chlorella and spiralina for human nutritional food supplements are already a multi-billion dollar international industry.
Biodiesel, ethanol, animal feed and human supplements – these are all intertwined. To be produced at the same facility by the same company(s). No more biodisel vs ethanol dogma. No more food vs fuel dogma. We are going to get it all out of Algae.
Overall, my point is, we have to get over this obsession with algae oil. The byproducts are just as important, in terms of the full exploitation and profitability of algae.
If you’re interested in this viewpoint, see this excellent article:
“Algae’s Impact on the Food-Versus-Fuel Debate”
“The growing use of algae biomass for nutraceutical purposes is expected to provide an attractive revenue stream for those using algae oil for biodiesel.”
by Dean Tsoupeis
From the February 2009 Issue of BioDiesel Magazine
Tom McCall
Tough this is a year old I just saw it recently. I am a bit confused by the comment of Dean Tsoupels. Tsoupels states that the algae are fed sugars, nutrients and carbon dioxide. I see nothing in the press release or the video of the press conference that would indicate that carbon dioxide is consumed in the formation of algae as in a photo-biochemical reactor.
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