# Algae to Biofuels



## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

The plant went on-line as scheduled April 1, however, I have not heard of any results. If this works it will not be long before backyard processors' start producing algae fuel.



> PetroSun to launch algae to biofuels operation
> 
> Filed from Houston
> 3/25/2008 3:57:51 PM GMT
> ...


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

that sounds great, but i just had a thought. what if lots of folks tried it in their back yards and got flooded out somehow? can you imagine the oil slick?


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

The Emerald Dairy, in Emerald Wisconsin, makes algae based biodiesel using warm waste water from their methane digester, which uses cow manure to make gas that is put in the natural gas pipeline. Not sure how long they have been doing it, but they aren't making a big splash in the media about it. When looking for info about them on the internet I was surprised at how many dairy farms are using methane digesters. http://bioenergyforum.blogspot.com/2008/01/emerald-dairy-tour-st-croix-county.html


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## solidwoods (Dec 23, 2005)

I've been watching it.
It looks very good.

http://www.valcent.net/i/misc/Vertigro/index.html

jim


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## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

> I was surprised at how many dairy farms are using methane digesters


I didn't know they were common, used, in this country. When I was in India about 15 years ago, I got to visit a small farm that had a manure digester producing methane that was used as cooking gas. I was told they were fairly common there on small farms.

I would think similar results could be obtained by using the hydrogen from decaying algae.


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

Algae produced oil is one of the most promising 'alternative' energy sources out there... and in fact, may become one of our PRIMARY fuel sources in the not-too-distant future. Its a great idea, simple yet very effective.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

greg273 said:


> Algae produced oil is one of the most promising 'alternative' energy sources out there... and in fact, may become one of our PRIMARY fuel sources in the not-too-distant future. Its a great idea, simple yet very effective.


Yes,it SOUNDs very promising and some Major corporations are involved in trying to get it up and working.

Would be super if it pans out.


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## Guest (Jul 21, 2008)

Explorer said:


> The plant went on-line as scheduled April 1, however, I have not heard of any results. If this works it will not be long before backyard processors' start producing algae fuel.


Interesting!!


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

One big question keeps popping up in my mind and that is how do you control the algae community? Phytoplankton (algae) blooms are made up of many many species of algae and that ratio changes by the hour in outdoor ponds.

I've got commercial fish ponds and I can say with 100% certainty that it is virtually impossible to control the phytoplankton community. Every pond is different and every pond is different than it was the day before. A steady input of nutrients (fish food or fertilizer) can maintain a plankton bloom but it won't maintain a certain species of plankton. Even a heavy rain causes the bloom to change in just hours and it doesn't always change back to the original community.

Maybe I'm getting too focused on the details as usual. Ideally it won't be necessary to tightly control the bloom beyond keeping it active. That could be done in conjunction with fish production.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Has anyone seen a list of freshwater algal species that produce oil and their oil content? 

I have 7 acres of commercial fish ponds that are pea soup green right now. There is tons of algae in each pond and with regular harvesting the final production would probably be a hundred ton or more over the summer.

I was thinking that one way to eliminate "contamination" from unwanted algal species would be to grow saltwater species in artificial saltwater ponds a long way from the oceans like in MN.


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## rickd203 (Sep 11, 2005)

I have been following a company called Valcent Products Inc. Their approach is to use rows of vertical bioreactor tubes to grow algae. It is a closed system so it greatly reduces the amount undesirable algae spores that can get into the system. It also greatly reduces the amount of water loss due to evaporation. The company is estimating that a full production system could produce about 100,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre. If Petrosun eventually replaces it's ponds with bioreactors, they could be producing about 110,000,000 gallons of biodiesel per year.

The vertigro system looks like it could be scaled down for a backyard or small business operation. I had an idea that someone with a backyard bioreactor could make arrangements with a biodiesel processing plant to send out a tank truck periodically to pick up the raw algae. In return the homeowner would get credit toward the purchase of biodiesel.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

The vertigrow system looks pretty energy expensive. Lifting large amounts of water burns up a lot of kw. It would be more energy efficient to use tanks and circulate the algae with air lift pumps. Compressed CO2 could be substituted for the air to boost algae production.

Evaporation from ponds could be controlled with clear plastic covers inflated with a blower.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Friend from the Philippines worked on a pig farm.They made their electricity from pig manure derived gas.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I ran across a site that had about 15 algae start ups. One of them said they were looking at algae for methane production as opposed to oil.

There's a dairy farm in Elk River MN that produces methane and sells electricity from cow manure. Our county land fill sells methane straight to a factory. It looks like it would be possible to run the methane through a fuel cell instead of a generator.

I also ran across a site selling do-it-yourself oil production.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I spoke with a guy about algae. He said that his test showed a yield of 5.5% oil from algae he gathered in his lake.

What was really surprising to me was that he said that algae had a high percentage of starch so it might be possible to convert algae to ethanol. Standing crops of algae can reach 3,000 lbs. per acre-ft and with continuous harvest and fertilization (feeding the fish) I'll be the yield would be several times more than 3,000 lbs. per acre-ft over the course of our MN summer. Corn would have a hard time competing with that if everything else was equal.


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