AlgaFuture: Sustainable Biofuel, Food and Environment |
|
Task I. Pilot-scale algal cultivation
Aim I will be to generate algal biomass at demonstration scale by establishing year-round cultivation of algae using the conditioned AD effluent as the nutrient source. The core algal cultivation system will be comprised of a low-cost airlift bioreactor, which has proven to be effective at growing algae at commercially relevant scales. The rise of bubbles injected at the bottom of the 6 ft column provides sufficient gas exchange and mixing to generate relatively dense cultures. Such PBRs routinely produce up to 5 g biomass L-1 compared to the 0.5-1.5 g L-1 in raceway ponds. The resulting biomass can be used for biofuels (oil fractions for biodiesel, residues for biogas) with protein residuals as a fish feed alternative. |
Task II. Pilot-scale continuous anaerobic digester
using algae as feedstock The goal of this subtask is to convert algal biomass or delipidated residues into a valuable source of energy – biogas through incorporation of an integrated AD-algal cultivation module. Several technical obstacles need to be overcome:
|