CAFOs Could Commercialize Algae Biofuels
Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) could be the key for algae-to-biofuel operations becoming commercial-scale… that according to Thomas Byrne, president and CEO of Byrne & Company LLP, a renewable energy project developer.
This article from Biorefining Magazine says the potential is greatest in northern climates, where anaerobic digesters that use microbes to break down the organic forms of nitrogen and phosphorous into inorganic forms… usable by algae:
“The methane produced by the anaerobic microbes is burned in a generator to produce an export of electricity and also waste heat that can be utilized to raise algae year-round,” Byrne says. “Bioreactors to grow algal species are well suited to take both the inorganic forms of nitrogen and phosphorous from the digester, as well as the waste heat and carbon dioxide (CO2) from the generator, to produce ideal inputs for algal growth.”
While the idea of co-locating an algal biomass growing facility with an established CAFO is a very real possibility, Byrne notes that the amount of algae grown for commercialization on a CAFO is limited by the availability of the CO2, nitrogen and phosphorus. “The limitations are both from what the CAFO produces, and what is needed from other operations of the CAFO.” Some bioreactor technology, like that of Algaedyne’s, which uses a process that controls photosynthesis by injecting only Photosynthetic Active Radiation into the depth of algae vessels, would make the process more feasible.
Byrne will be talking about the feasibility of a CAFO and algal biomass operation at the 2011 Pacific West Biomass Conference & Trade Show, Jan. 10-12 in Seattle.
3 Comments »
Ronny Collins
i agree with you, to offset the price of producing fuel from algae, by using the byproductsin the process. I have something I wrote that may help.
My thoughts on the cost of producing algae as a renewable fuel source
Everyone seems to only discuss the price, and the energy it would take to produce fuel from algae. I may be incorrect but, “they” seem to mention only one product in their discussions I.E. bio-diesel production.
I have a problem with this because there are several other very useful byproducts, I never hear mentioned in single discussions. I think these other products would offset the price of producing bio fuel. Once the oil is extracted from the algae there are still starches, which could be used to create ethanol, glycerin (a by product of the bio-diesel, called transesertification). Cellulose, and possibly methanol. As you know the ethanol could be used for the purpose of gasoline. Glycerin has about 1700 uses. Cellulose can be used to make plastics, or could be burned to create methanol (destructive distillation of cellulose), it would produce carbon dioxide to feed the algae, and the heat produced could be used to dry out the algae for it’s processing, also the ashes can be used to produce lye, use in the bio-diesel process. Not to mention the positive impact on the environment, removal of green house gasses, removal of water contamination, less land use, and being carbon dioxide neutral Excreta…
One of the websites I have read “vertigro” says they can produce 100,000 gallons of bio-diesel per archer/year using a closed loop system. This makes sense to me, because of the problems associated with open ponds, and the matter of surface area (in a pond light only travels a few inches under the surface of the water). If this is true, and that much fuel could be produced, I would think you could use some of the fuel, or some of the byproducts produced to run some form of generators to power plant operations.
In my mind, it seems this would be all self sustaining not requiring an outside power source once it got into production. With all this; I can not see why the cost would be so high to produce bio fuel from algae, I have heard prices where anywhere from $4.00 to $33.00 per gallon. In my opinion these are just excuses nothing more. I don‘t see where these prices come from, I haven‘t seen, any facts supporting these statements (no data), or anything to justify these costs. In my opinion other than making up the cost to build the facility all at once.
One of the stories from Exxon, I have read says that it costs $36,000,000.00 on average to drill an oil well, but pump costs for gasoline stay around $3.00 a gallon, I think that kind of money wouldn’t be required to build and operate a bio fuel facility, not even close.
I just can‘t get my head wrapped around it. This is an example, I have read that on average a 20kw generator at full load uses about 1.6 gallons of fuel per hour this is about 14,016 gallons of fuel per year, that is running 24 hours a day. I believe a generator of that size is more than sufficient to run a small plant.
This interests me and I have done quit a bit of research on the subject. I would like to build a bio-fuel plant myself but unfortunately I don’t have the means, mainly financially, but I would like to see this happen.
Carl Medders
Ronny,
The University of California did a detailed report on algae that you might want to take a look at. The title was A Realistic Technology and Engineering Assessment of Algae Biofuel Production. It is available as a pdf that you can find on the web. If you are looking for more information, it is the best source that I have seen. They concluded that the likely yield of oil for biodiesel is probably more like 5,000 gpy per acre, and open ponds are the most economical approach. For a CAFO, the most appealing portion of the algae may actually be the protein and starch, rather than the oil. They could process this as an animal feed, and reduce the farm’s operating costs.
Ronny Collins
The point to all of my ramblings in my first comment is, the articals I have read only seems to focus on one form of product from the algae at a time, usually their next statement nearly always seem to say that it isn’t cost effective to produce say bio-diesel from algae, because of the energy required to produce the fuel. My question would be, where do they get their power to run the operation from?
In my mind anyway, if they could produce their own power from the by-products, and by selling the other by-products wouldn’t their costs go down? I mean does this make logical sense?
If you are a CAFO wouldn’t you benifit, your costs go down, if you had no outside engery requirments?
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