Green Energy and Technology

Ayhan Demirbas M. Fatih Demirbas

Algae Energy
Algae as a New Source of Biodiesel
1 3
Ayhan Demirbas
Professor of Energy Technology
Sirnak University
Sirnak
Turkey
M. Fatih Demirbas
Sila Science and Energy Unlimited Company
University Mah.
24 Akif Saruhan Cad., Mekan Sok.
61080 Trabzon
Turkey
ISSN 1865-3529
ISBN 978-1-84996-049-6 e-ISBN 978-1-84996-050-2
DOI 10.1007/978-1-84996-050-2
Springer London Dordrecht Heidelberg New York
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Preface
This book examines the production of algae culture and usage of algal biomass
conversion products. In this book, the modern biomass-based transportation fuels
biodiesel, bio-oil, biomethane, biohydrogen, and high-value-added products from
algae are briey reviewed. The most signicant distinguishing characteristic of algal
oil is its yield and, hence, its biodiesel yield. According to some estimates, the yield
(per acre) of oil from algae is over 200 times the yield from the best-performing
plant/vegetable oils. The lipid and fatty acid contents of microalgae vary in accor-
dance with culture conditions. The availability of algae and the advantages of algal
oil for biodiesel production have been investigated.
Billions of years ago the Earths atmosphere was lled with CO
2
. Thus there was
no life on Earth. Life on Earth started with Cyanobacteria and algae. These hum-
ble photosynthetic organisms sucked out the atmospheric CO
2
and started releasing
oxygen. As a result, the levels of CO
2
started decreasing to such an extent that life
evolved on Earth. Once again these smallest of organisms are poised to save us from
the threat of global warming.
In the context of climatic changes and soaring prices for a barrel of petroleum,
biofuels are now being presented as a renewable energy alternative. Presently, re-
search is being done on microscopic algae, or microalgae, which are particularly
rich in oils and whose yield per hectare is considerably higher than that of sun-
ower or rapeseed. Algae will become the most important biofuel source in the near
future. Microalgae appear to be the only source of renewable biodiesel that is capa-
ble of meeting the global demand for transport fuels. Microalgae are theoretically
a very promising source of biodiesel.
Algae are the fastest-growing plants in the world. Industrial reactors for algal
culture are open ponds, photobioreactors, and closed systems. Algae are very im-
portant as a biomass source and will some day be competitive as a source for bio-
fuel. Different species of algae may be better suited for different types of fuel. Algae
can be grown almost anywhere, even on sewage or salt water, and does not require
fertile land or food crops, and processing requires less energy than the algae pro-
vides. Algae can be a replacement for oil-based fuels, one that is more effective
v
vi Preface
and has no disadvantages. Algae are among the fastest-growing plants in the world,
and about 50% of their weight is oil. This lipid oil can be used to make biodiesel
for cars, trucks, and airplanes. Microalgae have much faster growth rates than ter-
restrial crops. the per unit area yield of oil from algae is estimated to be between
20,000 and 80,000 L per acre per year; this is 7 to 31 times greater than the next
best crop, palm oil. Most current research on oil extraction is focused on microalgae
to produce biodiesel from algal oil. Algal oil is processed into biodiesel as easily
as oil derived from land-based crops. Algae biomass can play an important role in
solving the problem of food or biofuels in the near future.
Microalgae contain oils, or lipids, that can be converted into biodiesel. The idea
of using microalgae to produce fuel is not new, but it has received renewed attention
recently in the search for sustainable energy. Biodiesel is typically produced from
plant oils, but there are widely voiced concerns about the sustainability of this prac-
tice. Biodiesel produced from microalgae is being investigated as an alternative to
using conventional crops such as rapeseed; microalgae typically produce more oil,
consume less space, and could be grown on land unsuitable for agriculture.
Using microalgae as a source of biofuels could mean that enormous cultures of
algae are grown for commercial production, which would require large quantities of
fertilizers. While microalgae are estimated to be capable of producing 10 to 20 times
more biodiesel than rapeseed, they need 55 to 111 times more nitrogen fertilizer
8 to 16 tons/ha/year.
This book on algae energy attempts to address the needs of energy researchers,
chemical engineers, chemical engineering students, energy resource specialists, en-
gineers, agriculturists, crop cultivators, and others interested in practical tools for
pursuing their interests in relation to bioenergy. Each chapter in the book starts with
basic explanations suitable for general readers and ends with in-depth scientic de-
tails suitable for expert readers. General readers include people interested in learn-
ing about solutions to current fuel and environmental crises. Expert readers include
chemists, chemical engineers, fuel engineers, agricultural engineers, farming spe-
cialists, biologists, fuel processors, policymakers, environmentalists, environmental
engineers, automobile engineers, college students, research faculty, etc. The book
may even be adopted as a textbook for college courses that deal with renewable
energy or sustainability.
Trabzon, TURKEY (September 2009) Ayhan Demirbas
Muhammet Demirbas
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Energy Demand and Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.1 Fossil Energy Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2.2 Renewable Energy Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3 Present Energy Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3.1 Energy Production and Future Energy Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3.2 Future Energy Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2 Green Energy Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2 Biomass Feedstocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.3 Green Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.4 Importance of Biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.5 Production of Fuels and Chemicals from Biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3 Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.2 Importance of Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.3 Bioethanol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.4 Biodiesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.5 Bio-oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.6 Biogas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.7 FischerTropsh Liquids from Biorenewable Feedstocks. . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.8 Biohydrogen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.9 Other Liquid Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.9.1 Glycerol-based Fuel Oxygenates for Biodiesel
and Diesel Fuel Blends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.9.2 P-series Fuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
vii
viii Contents
3.9.3 Dimethyl Ether . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.9.4 Other Bio-oxygenated Liquid Fuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4 Algae Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.1.1 Denition of Algal Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.2 Production Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.2.1 Harvesting Microalgae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.2.2 Photobioreactors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.2.3 Open-pond Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.2.4 Closed and Hybrid Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.3 Production Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5 Energy from Algae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.1.1 Historical Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5.2 Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5.2.1 Biodiesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.2.2 Bioalcohol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.2.3 Costs, Prices, and Economic Impacts of Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.2.4 Environmental Impacts of Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
5.2.5 Combustion Efciencies of Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.2.6 Bio-oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.2.7 Biomethane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.2.8 Production of Bio-oil and Hydrogen by Pyrolysis . . . . . . . . . 120
5.2.9 Anaerobic Biohydrogen Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.3 Liquefaction of Algal Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.3.1 Liquefaction of Algal Cells by Hexane Extraction . . . . . . . . . 129
5.4 High-value-added Products from Algae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.4.1 Small Molecules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.4.2 Polymers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.4.3 High-value Oils. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6 Biodiesel from Algae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.2 Biodiesel from Algal Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
6.2.1 Production of Biodiesel from Algal Oils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
6.3 Potential of Microalgal Biodiesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
6.4 Acceptability of Microalgal Biodiesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
6.5 Economics of Biodiesel Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.6 Improving Economics of Microalgal Biodiesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
6.7 Advantages and Disadvantages of Biodiesel from Algal Oil . . . . . . . 153
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Contents ix
7 Bioreneries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
7.2 Denitions of Biorenery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
7.2.1 Main Technical and Nontechnical Gaps
and Barriers to Bioreneries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
7.3 Historical Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
7.4 Petroleum Renery and Biorenery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
7.5 Rening of Upgraded Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7.6 Opportunities for Rening Pyrolysis Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
8 Future Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
8.1.1 World Theoretical Limit of Biomass Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
8.1.2 High-yield Energy Crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
8.1.3 Food Versus Fuel Delineation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
8.1.4 Thermodynamic Efciency (Exergy Analysis) . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
8.1.5 Biofuel Upgradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
8.1.6 Carbon Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
8.2 Social and Political Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
8.2.1 The Promise of Algae: Energy Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
8.3 Environmental Impacts of Biomass Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195