My graduation project presentation ( briefed )

1. From Algae To
Presented by : Anas Saied
Microbiology department , Faculty of Science, Suez University , Egypt.
Anas.saied27@gmail.com
+201065589083

2. Contents
 Introduction to Biofuels
 Energy Crisis
 Why Algae?
 Microalgae for biodiesel production
 Cultivation Systems
 Harvesting Methods
 Oil Extraction ( chemical and mechanical)
 Biodiesel production ( transesterification)
 Challenges for algal fuel commercialization
 Future perspective
 Summary

3. Biofuels – the green alternative
• Derived form biological materials through biomass conversion
• Renewable
• covers approximately 10% of the total world energy demand
• Can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Release CO2 when burning
• Biofuel production consumes it back
• Types:
• Ethanol
• Biodiesel
• Bio gasoline
• Bio butanol
• Methane
• Jet fuel

4. Evolution of Biofuel Production

5. Diesel Biodiesel
Non-renewable Renewable
Highly toxic Essentially non-toxic
Poor biodegradability Biodegrades readily
Extracted from Crude oil Extracted from plant oils –
animal fats
Non-environment-friendly Environment-friendly
Non-carbon-neutral carbon-neutral
Diesel vs Biodiesel

6. Combustion of biodiesel
and petroleum diesel

7.  Biofuel production
Production Trend Of The World

8.  Biodiesel production
Production Trend Of The World

9. Contents
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Energy Crisis
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10. It’s only a matter of time!
There are 3 different types of fossil fuels
 Oil
 Gas
 Coal
Clearly, our reserves of these are finite - it's a matter of
when they run out - not if.
So when will our fossil fuels run out?
Energy Crisis

11.  Oil will run out by 2052
 Gas will run out by 2060
 Coal will run out by 2088
Graph showing future energy reserves for coal,
gas and oil

12. Depletion of fossil fuels
Rising prices of fossil fuels
Environmental impacts
The problem

13. Contents
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Why Algae?
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14. Why Algae?
 Fast growing (have a harvesting cycle of 1–10 days)
 CO2 Consumption (1.8 to 2 tones of CO2 per tone of algal biomass)
 algae can be cultivated on land, fresh water, or seawater
 Can be grown on marginal lands useless for ordinary
crops
 High oil yield per acre ( 10:30 times higher per area of land
compared to terrestrial oil crops )
 Can convert a much higher fraction of biomass to
oil than conventional crops, e.g. 60% versus 2-3% for
soybean

15. Contents
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Microalgae for biodiesel production
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16. Microalgae
 The production of biodiesel is mainly achieved from "Microalgae"
 The preference for microalgae is due largely to their less complex
structure, fast growth rates, and high oil- content (for some species)
Main producing species

17.  Microalgal species used in
biofuel production

18. Contents
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Cultivation Systems
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19. Cultivation Systems
A wide variety of open and closed reactor systems have been
proposed for microalgal cultivation.
 Open systems  Closed systems

20.  Open systems
 Historically, the vast majority of commercial production has been
carried out in open ponds.
 Open systems include
1) Circular ponds 2) Raceway ponds

21.  Closed Systems
 They are more expensive to build and run than open
systems
 Photobioreactor (PBR)
• It is much easier to control contamination
• Biomass concentrations obtained are higher
than in open systems
• Growing a wider range of species

22. Parameter open systems Photobioreactor
Required space High Low
Water loss Very high may cause salt
precipitation
Low
Co2 loss High Low
Temperature Highly variable More stable (Cooling is
often required)
Cleaning No issue Required (dirt reduces
light intensity) , but
causes abrasion
Contamination risk High ( limiting the
number of species that
can be grown)
Low
Biomass concentration Low, between 0.1-0.5 g/l High 0.5-8 g/l
Control Limited possible
Start-up 6-8 weeks 2-4 weeks
Comparison between open and closed cultivation systems

23. Contents
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Harvesting And Drying Methods
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24. Harvesting Methods
Numerous physical methods for microalgae harvesting
processes have been used to retrieve the microalgae cells from
their liquid suspension. These can be divided into three
categories
Biofloccularion
Centrifugation
Filtration

25. centrifugation
Bioflocculation
Filtration

26. Drying Of Microalgae
 Drying is required to
1) Achieve high biomass concentrations
 Solar Drying
2) Prevent microbial spoilage

27. Contents
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Oil Extraction ( chemical and mechanical)
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28. Oil Extraction
Mechanical extraction
Dried algal biomass
Chemical Extraction
 Oil expeller
 Microwave
 Solvent extraction
 Enzymatic extraction
Oil Extraction

29.  Mechanical extraction methods
 Oil Expeller
 well suited for feedstocks having more
than 30% oil content.
 The working principle of this machine is
introducing pressure for crushing and
breaking the cells, followed by squeezing
out the algal oil.
 Microwave
 The use of microwaves to disrupt cells and
increase the efficiencies of algal lipids.
 Microwaves are electromagnetic radiation
of frequencies that are used to assist in
the heating of algal biomass to facilitate
the breakdown of the material in a more
uniform manner

30.  Chemical Extraction Methods
 Solvent extraction
 It is well suited for lipid recovery
from materials with low oil content
 produces oil cake with low residual
oil content
 Enzymatic extraction
 Extract lipids from microalgae using
a 72 h cellulase hydrolysis pretreatment
 The lipids yield has increased only from
52 to 54% (g lipid/g dry weight).

31. Contents
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Biodiesel production ( transesterification)
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32. Synthesis Of Biodiesel From Microalgae
 The production of oil per unit area of land from selected
microalgae is around 30 times greater than that of
terrestrial plants.
Microalgae
Cultivation
Harvesting
Drying
Lipid/Oil Extraction
Triglycerides and Free Fatty
acids
Biodiesel
Transesterfication

33. Biodiesel Production
 Parent oil used in making biodiesel consists of triglycerides
in which three fatty acid molecules are esterified with a
molecule of glycerol
 In making biodiesel, triglycerides are reacted with methanol
in a reaction known as transesterification
 alkalis such as sodium and potassium hydroxide (NaOH &
KOH) are commonly used as commercial catalysts
Triglyceride
Ester ( biodiesel)

34. Transesterfication
Transestrification produces methyl esters of fatty acids, that are
biodiesel, and glycerol
Transesterification requires 3 mol of alcohol for each mole of
triglyceride to produce 1 mol of glycerol and 3 mol of methyl
esters

35.  Reaction takes about 90 mins to complete
 Transesterification is carried out at
approximately 60°C under atmospheric pressure.
 Other alcohols can be used, but methanol is the
least expensive
 Biodiesel is recovered by repeated washing with
water to remove glycerol and methanol.

36.  Processing Of Algal Residuals
 This includes the anaerobic digestion of algal residuals
to produce biogas
 Further processing could convert them into animal
fertilizer

37. Contents
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Challenges for algal fuel commercialization
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38.  Challenges for algal fuel commercialization
 Making algal growth & harvesting more efficient
 Improving oil extraction
 Land use
 Water use
 Competition with petroleum: getting the price right (US$300–2600 per
barrel based on current technology (twofold higher than
petroleum),price competitive with fossil fuels by 2020, survey finds)

39. Contents
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Future perspective
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40.  Future Perspective
 Genetically modified organism could definitely serve better for
further improvement of the strain
 Identify algal species that have desired traits (e.g. high lipid
content, growth rates and growth densities)

41.  Egypt's Initiatives for Biodiesel Production
 The First Egyptian Scientific Research Conference held on
March , 24-25 , 2018
 This could be achieved by the establishment of microalgae
cultivation units PBRs using salt water in the Suez Canal area.

44. Contents
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Summary

45. Summary
 With the increase of the price of crude oil in the late 00s, blending biodiesel with
petrodiesel appears a sustainable solution to reduce the dependency on oil producing
countries
 producing biodiesel from microalgae lipids seems to be a sustainable solution as
microalgae could be used to reduce the CO2 emissions
 Researchers are working to engineer super lipids producing microalgae strain in order
to increase the yield of biodiesel.

46. Success Story
o The UK's first train to run on biodiesel is going into service as part of an
attempt to make rail travel more environmentally friendly.
o The train uses a blended fuel which is 20% biodiesel (B20) - to reduce CO2
emissions without harming the engine ( From London-to-Llandudno)
o The Voyager fleet could run on 100% biodiesel in the future