biodiesel from larger algae

I would like to know if there is any larger algae that would produce reasonable amount of oil/fatty acids. Though I searched a lot, I could find the names of only micro algae. It would be easier to harvest macro algae. Why don't we use the ocean itself for algae culture? A definite area, for example 10 square kilometer, may be encircled by sitable nets and the algae may be grown there. We need not give any nutrients, CO2, light etc. Let it grow in the natural surroundings. The doubling time may be more and the yield may be less, but still whatever we get is really profitable, since our input is negligible. We need not pay for the land or water, which are available in plenty. Even if we have to cultivate in 1000 square kilometer area to get one metric ton of oil it is better than depending upon petroleum oil. n.s.rajendran

Rajendran, the oarleaf seaweed is a very viable oil producing option. it may be harvested off the coast of novascotia... as to the ocean as a place for algaeculture the weather and tides would pose a monumental problem perhaps a structire like a drydock might work but would be extremely expensive... lakes are more feasable as the conditions are a bit more placid. on lake texcoco in mexico the first commercial spirulina algae company SOSA TEXCOCO set up its complex untill pollution ruined the environment of the lake it was a major company for many years indeed it was the first of its kind in the world.. we here on douglas lake set up a growing pen floating in the lake it worked very well untill a microburst blew it to pieces.. but we were growing algae in it for a few months.. www.ecogenicsresearchcenter.org Marc Orion Cardoso

This is a general question about macroalgae, Is macroalgae cultivated, or is it just harvested from the ocean? I know some species like duckweed and a few others are used for water purification, but as far as macroalgae that are used as food, or for its medicinal value, are these commercially cultivated outside of laboratory scale? Can they be grown in ponds or lakes inland? _______________________ [}:)]freedom of information

macro algae is generally harvested from the ocean, duckweed is under sonsideration for long term space flight as a food and water purification system. a lot of macroalgae is used in the skin care business and some chemical compounds are also derived from seaweed. it would be difficult to grow seaweed in lakes but conceivably it could be grown in closed ponds under controlled conditions with artificial ocean salts and proper temps and nutrition.. Marc Orion Cardoso

Mar

Marc,

Any idea whether duckweed has any oil in it? What about water hyacinth?

Rex

 from what i understand there is no oil in either of them but they make good feedstock for methane and gasification and duckweed is an excellent food for many fish and humans also also very usefull to bioremediate stagnant water and produce oxygen. water kang kong or waterhyacinths have been used as fodder for livestock with  moderate success and also can be composted.

www.ecogenicsresearchcenter.org

Three questions:

1. Has Oarleaf been cultivated at all?

2. Any work done to use it for biofuels?

3. Where could I find further info? Thanks.

Rajendran,

in these dimensions, difficulties grow with scale.

Unlike in a small environment, controll is much harder. storms, waves, currents, pests, ships, intrusions and what do I know are much harder to solve.

In your part of the world, I guess the ocean water has little nutrients, otherwise the water wouldn ´t be so clear. So fertilization is an issue.

But then leaching is a mayor problem. Closed environments are easier!

I always dream about desert land close to the ocean with seawater ponds and my favorite "freshwater/oil/gas/foodbreeding" greenhouses.

Interested ?

Rolf 

I googled oarleaf and I cant find anything. I am interested in learning more.

oarleaf grows in colder  waters along the coast of nova scotia it is exploited for  various purposes including as a food.look under oarleaf seaweed for more.

 Marc

happy new year

 

thankyou verry much

Google shows very little about "oarleaf seaweed." But someone in the UH Botany dept. writes:

 > I found that if you search www.algaebase.org for a common name that includes
> 'oar', you get:
>
> Oar weed..Laminaria digitata
>
> Oarweed..Laminaria longicruris
>
> Oarweed..Laminaria saccharina
>
> Oarweed..Laminaria digitata
>
> Oarweed..Laminaria
>
> Oarweed..Alaria
>
> Oarweed..Arthrothamnus

 Google shows a lot more about "oarweed".

Marc, do you think one of these is the one you're referring to? How did you learn of it? 

 

Hello. I am new to this site and found this discussion about macroalgae. Great! Because I have been growing macroalgae for five years at a research level and I am ready to embark on a larger commercial scale. Yes IT IS possible to extract biofuel from brown macroalge. The Japanese have been growing it and extracting it for the last two years. They are stating that they can grow 270,000 metric tonnes and get 5.3 Billion gallons of bioethanol per year! That's mind incredible!

But what I have seen from several discussions about the growing parameters is that it is grown in the natural environment. I propose, because I have been do such as what I am about to add is that THIS IS THE OLD FASHION WAY! I can grow 24 plus metric tonnes in 22 1200 gallon specialized tanks, using very little nutrient and produce very high quality plants. I am presently pursuing financial backing for this enterprise as I write this and seems that the people who has seen my operation are impressed and I am trying to get a 100 tank farm going.

Any comments or questions, please feel free to write a comment.

Thanks for reading this and have a good day!

Seaweedman,

Welcome to the forum. When you are talking about brown algae, I assume you mean sea weed - like kelp type plants.

Can you give us the name of the algae you intend using?

Where are you based? Love to know more about your project.

Thanks for the welcome Slippery!...(Right off, I just have to know how you came up with a name like that?...sounds pretty wild)

.... I'm living in the Puget Sound area in the state of Washington, on the west coast of the U.S.

To answer your question, yes I am talking about kelp, in particular, Laminaria spp. but I've grown many other spp also. I've grown Sugar Kelp or Laminaria saccharina, Bull Kelp or Nereocystis luetkeana, Bladderwrack or Fucus vesiculosis, Irish Moss or Chondrus crispus and the most productive one (productive because it has kept the research going while paying the bills), is Turkish Towel or Chondracanthus exasperatus. (I even grew some porphyra with great success, no money, just to know that I could do it).

Without giving too much detail of my setup I will say that the way the tanks are designed and the fact that I am getting free nutrients via effluent of organic wastes thus, cleaning / biofiltrating the water and oxygenating it as it flows back into the ecosytem. I'm hoping I will get some funding or interested parties because it is a "green" venture. Using plants to clean nutrient laden, CO2 laden and low O2 water and turning it into clean brackish water that has low CO2 levels and high O2 levels back into the environment. 

Chondracanthus exasperatus especially, becomes totally altered from the environment it is growing in and does NOT look anything phenotypically speaking from the wild and it still produces tremendous amounts of carrageenan which, is what allows me to make some money as I try to keep going. (I am a one man operation, wishing I had more help and the ability to be able to pay for more help).

As for the L. saccharina, N. luetkeana and C. crispus they grow exponentially in the tanks due again to the environment (the tank system) they live in. F. vesiculosis grows well in the tanks that had to be furthered modified to mimic Fucus natural environment.

As for the kelp to grow for biofuel, I was thinking about L. saccharina??/ but I do not know of the amount of the oil content possiblity of it, although I can get alginate from it and sell it as a raw material to several distributors, I would prefer biofuel. Do you or anyone have a suggestion? I can grow just about anything in these tanks.

Thanks for the interest Slippery.

Hope your day had been a good one,

Seaweedman

Hi Seeweedman,

Auusies have a habit of bestowing nicknames on their mates. My first name is Neville and there was a slippery character (read wanted by the law) called Nefty Nev - nev = Slippery.

 Coincidental that I have "slipped" into biodiesel.

Know what you mean about being a one man band. Frustrating as hell as you can't not work to earn the money to proceed with the experiments.

Seems like I have not done as much experimental work as you but I am currently in the middle of constructing a PBR. I shall be starting my experiment with Dunaliella Tertiolecta as it has a higher oil content as well as still having high levels of betacarotene and omega oils which may help with the cash flow.

Seeweed is something I had not really looked into. I will do some research on it and maybe we can chat later.

seaweedman:

The Japanese have been growing it and extracting it for the last two years. They are stating that they can grow 270,000 metric tonnes and get 5.3 Billion gallons of bioethanol per year! That's mind incredible!

270,000 x ~ 15mBTU/metric ton dry weight of biomass = 405bBTU

@ 100% conversion (not likely)

405bBTU/86000BTU gal of ethanol =47m gal of ethanol.

Lets say we get a 33% net conversion of BTU's from feedstock to sales of product.

47m gal potential x 33% = 15.5m gal of bioethanol is a more reasonable #.

If someone is stating different...I think we would need some sort of paper or research article.

froggy:

 

 270,000 x ~ 15mBTU/metric ton dry weight of biomass = 405bBTU   

 Oh yea...im sorry I missed a major calculation.

Getting algae (or any plant for that matter, much less a wet algae) of anysort to a dry weight. There will be a Major loss of BTU's to move from % solids found in wet algae (well under 5%) to a form that is workable to even a butanol facility.

Froggy,

Thanks for the conversions...I was wondering what they were and what the viability would be. I agree, I don't think they could get the conversions they claim to get. A few years ago, I was throwing out feelers about what I could do with the carrageenan rich high quality plants I was growing and still am and spoke with a expert at Degussa out of France and sent him a sample of what I was growing. He was very impressed about it which made me feel good because I knew I was doing something right because I didn't know it at that time. So he said that to extract carrageenan out of the red macroalgae it needs to be at or below 32 %RH. Would anyone know if this applies to brown macroalgae for Biodiesel??? I do not know? As for growing macroalgae in the tank system I have control over the environment they live in as opposed to the ocean where there is very little control of anything. As for the info I got this from, it was from a funny website name called pinktentacle.com. Dr. Notoya presented a paper at the recent International Seaweed Syposium in Kobe, Japan of this year. Type in seaweed for biofuel at the site and everyone will be able to see the article. Nothing against the Japanese but what they propose is a wild business proposition on a gargantun scale!

As for growing macroalgae I am in the process of working with certain agriculture business for free nutrient loads and sunlight availability because of the area which, in this part of Puget Sound, is the best place to grow for what I propose.

Have a good day everyone,

Seaweedman