1. THE BIO REFINERY
APPROACH WITH
ALGAE
ABSTRACT
Thisreportis to prove whetherornotthe biorefinery
approach isfeasible.The reportwill teachthe different
waysit can be hovers,the advantagesandalsosafety.
Fredrico Watson
EnergySystemsEngineering&Technology
2. Table of Contents
Bio Refinery..............................................3
Site…………………………………………………………3
Producing Algae…………………………………………4
Carbon Footprint………………………………………..4
Water Footprint………………………………………4
Industrial for Biomass Production……….5
Microalgae…………………………………………..8
Bio Methane………………………………………..9
Bio Ethanol……………………………………………..10
Bio Hydrogen…………………………………………….11
Power Generation…………………………………….11
Financial Analysis………………………………………12
Safety…………………………………………………………12
References……………………………………………………13
3. What is a Bio Refinery?
A bio refinery is a facility that adds biomass conversion processes and equipment to
produce fuels, power, heat, and chemicals from biomass. The bio refinery idea is current used
today as petroleum refinery which makes a lot of fuels and items from petroleum. The bio
refinery.
4. Site
The site has to be reasonably far from the human life and should be able to supply its
own material. Should be really close to the sea to use the water for the purpose to produce
electricity using steam. I decided to place my bio refinery Lower Montague Road because it is
near the water and not many people live there.
Producing Algae
Algae can be produced with wastewater and CO2. The idea is to make a waste water
pond which is an estimate cost of 8 to 10million dollars. Information I found stated that 18,000
metric ton of algae was producing which equated to $2,500,000 of electricity which was at $0.08
a kWh. Which would light up over 400 homes in Prince Edward Island.
Carbon Footprint
Carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gasses that comes from the use or
transportation of carbon and methane gases. The increase of our carbon footprint or how much
people have been hurting the environment is becoming more apparent such as melting of the
ice caps. The surface of these problems is changing mankind idea of relying on fossil fuels and
is leaning more and more towards biofuel.
Water Footprint
One of the disadvantages of bio fuel is that it has a huge water footprint. The best way to
estimate how beneficial it is to use bio fuel is to see how much it damages the environment.
Water is an undeniable very limited in some country and abundant in others. The production of
biomass is estimated to be three times more than it is needed from fossil fuels. The use of so
5. much water may lead to water shortages if placed in Prince Edward Island. The bio finery
approach is the idea to overcome this disadvantage by using each of the other ways to limit the
water footprint of bio fuels.
Industrial for Biomass Production
Microalgae are single cell photosynthetic organism’s uses nutrients from the sun to grow
and also contains atmospheric C02 for its need for energy. Most of the energy needed for micro
alga biomass generation is carbon dioxide. The use of industrial waste such as waste water and
flue gases will make micro algal feasible. This plan lowers the effect of the water foot print and
also the cost to make the biomass. The idea to use the industrial waste water and also flue
gases for micro algal biomass generation gives environmental benefits, better management of
resources and makes it economically competitive on the price of water.
Microalgae can absorb nutrients in wastewater and C02 from flue gases a convert it into
carbohydrates and lipids. Then in the end it is then changed into multiple end products such as
biodiesel, bio methane and animal feed. The wastewater liquid waste after primary and
secondary treatment has many organic and inorganic elements. The release of liquid waste into
the environment can cause problems for the sewers such as pollution and eutrophication.
Eutrophication is when there is too many nutrients being sent into the water that it causes algae
to grow on top and not allow the sunlight to reach the bottom of the sea. Then the plants on the
bottom of the sea dies and also algae
6. Which causes a bacteria which takes oxygen out of the water and cause anoxic which is
when there is no oxygen in the sea. If there is no oxygen in the sea any other organism which
isn't a bacteria dies. Wastewater nutrient medium Wastewater effluent after primary and
secondary treatment has various organic and inorganic constituents. Release of such waste into
environment can cause severe problems like eutrophication and pollution. Inorganic
constituents of wastewater effluent primarily consists of nitrogen and phosphorous. Discharge
of industrial and domestic wastewater are adding organic and inorganic nutrients, pathogens,
heavy metals, suspended solids, and oxygen demanding material to the existing water
resources. Biological treatment of such tertiary waste is the possible solution for this problem.
Availability of fresh water is facing severe risks due to the fast pace industrialization
development.
In bio refinery concept cultivation of microalgae using wastewater serves dual purpose
of biomass generation as well as polishing of the effluent by removing inorganic nutrients
(Rawat et al. 2011; Singh et al. 2014). Microalgae cultivation using wastewater for valuable
biomass generation, which can be utilized for several purposes fulfilling energy and feed
requirements, is a sustainable approach. Water requirement for microalgae cultivation in open
pond is as high as 11–13 million Liter. Wastewater utilization for microalgae cultivation can
reduce fresh water footprint as well as can provide treated water for other use. Wastewater has
very high concentrations of nutrients especial with heavy metal. Costly chemical treatment
methods are required to remove these nutrients. The potential shown by microalgae to grow
with minimal fresh water and accumulate nutrients and metals can be exploited to treat such
domestic and industrial wastewater. Cultivation of microalgae needs water and supply of
inorganic nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous. Nitrogen and phosphorous plays a very
important role in micro algal physiology, and this needs to be supplied through growth medium.
The nutrient supplementation contributes a major portion in the overall cost of microalgae
7. cultivation. Utilization of industrial or domestic wastewater as growth medium can supply
required nutrients for microalgae. Nutrients cost can be reduced if wastewater effluent is used
as the nutrient medium.
A lot of micro algal have been studied for their growth in wastewater nutrient medium.
Most studied sample for wastewater utilization is Chlorella, due to its random and application in
biodiesel production. The different micro algal sample grown on various industrial wastewater
and their biomass. Wastewater medium has lower N and P content as compared to commercial
media used for microalgae cultivation. Limitation of nutrients for stress induced lipid
accumulation is a well-accepted method in microalgae biofuel process. The use of wastewater
growth medium for micro algal biomass generation give several benefits like cheap nutrient
source, reducing risk of eutrophication, reduce fresh WF, and treated wastewater for other uses.
Overall this approach provides sustainability, commercial compatibility, and environmental
benefits for micro algal biofuel production process.
Utilization of flue gases CO2 is a major contributor of greenhouse gases which causes
global warming. Global warming poses serious threat causing climate changes, glacial melting,
rise in ocean level, reduced food production, extinction of species, and many other
environmental problems. Globally, it has seen as a serious issue. Several strategies are
practiced for capture and using the CO2 have been implemented. Most widely used method is
carbon capture and storage. CO2 is captured from emission sources like power plants and
cement industries. CO2 can be captured by several methods such as absorption, separation
membranes, and cryogenic distillation. Captured CO2 is transported to storage locations, and
stored in geological or ocean storage.
However, with this approach of capture and storage several technological, economical,
and environmental issues are related. Biological CO2 capture is a sustainable approach and
8. provides better ways to capture CO2. Microalgae have the ability to fix atmospheric CO2
through photosynthesis, with great efficiency. Microalgae cultivated by supplying CO2 from flue
gases produce biomass which can be utilized for biofuels and animal feed. Microalgae can be
cultivated in open or closed system for biomass generation. For microalgae cultivation either
CO2 is separated from flue gases and used or directly flue gases are applied. Direct use of flue
gases is beneficial in terms of energy and cost saving. The samples with high growth rate at a
temperature of 35 °C and 15% CO2 concentration.
CO2 can directly spread through the micro algal plasma membrane. CO2 has a low
mass transfer coefficient, and this mass transfer from gaseous phase to liquid phase could be a
limiting step in the use of this technology. High flow rate in closed system or proper mixing in
open cultivation could be the possible solutions to overcome the limitation of transfer of the
amount of algae. Flue gases contain many compounds like SOX, NOX, CO, CxHy and halogen
acids. The flue gases can cause problems for microalgae cultivation as some of these
compounds could have toxic effect on microalgae. Effective utilization of flue gases for
microalgae cultivation can reduce environmental concerns as well as earn carbon credits. The
future of scientific technologies for the use of flue gases by microalgae, can help in improving
economics of biomass production.
9. Microalgae
Microalgae is a very special group of organisms that are very important to the
ecosystems. Microalgae makes a variable of compounds as a backup metabolites in different
parts of the life cycle. Micro algal is the biomass cultivation believed to be a possible way to
lower are use of fossils fuels. Micro algal biomass can be used for combination of numbers of
different bio fuels such as biodiesel, bioethanol and bio hydrogen. The downfall for biofuels
production from microalgae has been the high cost to produce it but the bio refinery idea can
make micro algal feasible. The profits from algal biomass for biofuels is high dependent on
people as well as the other products produce. The study of microalgae commercially was then
focused on aquaculture, human consumption, coloring agents, animal feed and etc.
Carbohydrate, protein, and lipids are other area in which microalgae can be exploited for.
Biodiesel
Biodiesel is biomass that is conceived from oil from crops, waste cooking oil and
animal fats. Those are unable to meet the demand for fuel in today society. It is predicted that
microalgae has a lot of potential to either fulfill the demand or lower the amount of use usage of
10. fossil fuels. Lipids and oils contains proteins, carbohydrates and other nutrients. Microalgae also
has the same nutrients and proteins. After extraction of the oil from microalgae, the residue
biomass can still be used for other uses such as food for animals. The residue biomass can be
used for the making of methane by anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion is the process
which organisms breaks down biomass in the lack of oxygen. The cost of an anaerobic
digestion plant is roughly 15 million dollars. The energy made from the methane can be used to
lower the cost of making biodiesel.
Bio Methane
The palm seed shell can be used to make bioethanol and the oil from palm seeds can be
used to produce biodiesel. Grass is planned to be added to the green bio refinery approach as a
biomass. The advantages of grass are that its highly digestible, high sugar and low lignin. The
idea is to extract the lignocellulosic portion of the grass and once the liquid is removed from the
grass, the transport the fiber will be easier. The sugar rice juice is the idea to ferment on a farm
to produce methane by anaerobic digestion or the use of chemicals such as lactic acid. The
fiber left over can be changed into fermentable sugar by using the right enzymes or be used as
feed for animals because of its protein.
Bio Ethanol
11. Both bioethanol and dimethyl has been produced at the same time but using a
pulp mill based biomass as the bio refinery approach. The cost of C02 capture and storage will
be reasonably low. Seaweed that has hexose sugars could be used to produce bioethanol. The
efficiency to change the raw material to ethanol of fuel grade is between 30-50% and is
estimated by taking the lowest heating value. The reason for the low efficiency is because of the
heat loss and the reaction losses. Microalgae was thought of to produce ethanol with the bio
refinery approach. The excess heat from the ethanol bio refinery could be used to keep the algal
at a steady temperature especially in the cold winter climates. The C02 released from an
ethanol bio refinery using the microalgae can minimize the cost up 20%. The carbohydrate in
macro algae or better known as seaweed could be used in bio refinery. Macro algae has low
amount of lignin and can be used to produce many products. Macro algae has a low protein
content of 7-15% dry and lipid content of between 1-5%. The micro algae is superior of a high
protein off 40-60% and lipid content of 10-20%. For the production of bio ethanol using macro
algae first carbohydrates must be in the seaweed because hexose sugars is what is used to
produce bioethanol.
The rapeseed plant can be used to produce bio fuels such as bio diesel and bio ethanol
as a bio refinery concept. By examining a straw as biomass, researchers learned that there was
approximately .15g of bio ethanol. They obtained the ethanol by pretreating the straw with
alkaline peroxide and steam. The coproducts and by products made from rapeseeds was
glycerol, hydrolysate, cake and a stillage were used for production of methane and mixture of
hydrogen and methane. The efficiency of the energy recovery process was only 20% but with
the bio refinery approach which produced bio ethanol, bio hydrogen and methane an also bio
diesel increased production of bio diesel to 60%.
Citrus waste can be used in the bio refinery process to create limonene, ethanol and bio
gas. The cost to produce ethanol was .91 USD/L with the production capacity of 100,000
12. tons/year with the price of transporting and also handling fees. The production of limestone and
methane gas also to increase the store of the plant can almost half the price of ethanol to.46
USD/L which makes it more affordable and able to maintainable.
The lignin in the biomass cellular structure is not easily degraded or remove, it requires
an expensive pretreatment. Using lignocellulosic materials such as bark or wood can lower the
cost of biofuel substantially. Research discovered rearranging of lignin can be a new
development of biofuel.
Bio Hydrogen
Bio hydrogen can be produced from the leftover biomass of micro algae after
fermentation. The biomass left over from micro alga is called Nannochloropsis. Biodiesel is
essentially produced from the oil of nannochloropsis and bio hydrogen was produced as the
coproduct. Bio finery approach is to remove the oil and pigment from the microalgae and why
the oil was used for production of biodiesel, the left over biomass was used to make high value
compounds such as carotenoids and bio hydrogen. The use of supercritical C02 and a
temperature of 40°C the dried biomass of microalgae high lipid content went up from 33% to 45%
with 70% recovery of pigments when it was 20% ethanol doped with the C02. Bio Hydrogen was
produced by dark fermentation.
Power Generation
Power generation system for algae is quite similar to a coal system. The algae is feed
into a gasifier which is set to approximately 700-1000 C. Then after the gas is sent to the power
generation system. The system also has a separator and high temperature filter for removing
fine and rough particles from the cooled down of algae.
13. Financial Analysis
If 18,000 metric ton of algae was producing which equated to $2,500,000 of electricity
which was at $0.08 a kWh. Which is about 400 homes in PEI. I did not factor in construction
cost of pipes to receive waste water because it varied. If used it would take 5years alone for it to
pay back.
Safety
The problem with algae is called cyanotoxins. It is a blue green algae and is an
organism that can live in freshwater, salt water or in pond water also known as pond scum.
They do no usually produce chemicals that are harmful to humans or animals but a natural
substance. They can break down and eliminate itself naturally. If infected it can harm your liver,
skin and nervous system but only if a lot of it is ingested. Contact or breathing droplets can
cause irritation.
