Japanese scientists create diesel-producing algae

[Apogee]

here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133633.ece

From The Times
June 14, 2008
Japanese scientists create diesel-producing algae
Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent

Under the gleam of blinding lamps, engulfed by banks of angrily frothing flasks, Makoto Watanabe is plotting a slimy, lurid-green revolution. He has spent his life in search of a species of algae that efficiently "sweats" crude oil, and has finally found it.

Now, exploiting the previously unrecognised power of pondlife, Professor Watanabe dreams of transforming Japan from a voracious energy importer into an oil-exporting nation to rival any member of Opec.

The professor has given himself a decade to effect this seemingly implausible conversion: Japan's export-led economics have always been shaped by their near 100 per cent dependence on foreign energy. In the present world economic climate, those economics are looking especially fragile.

"I believe I can change Japan within five years," the Professor told The Times from his laboratory in Tsukuba University. "A couple of years after that, we start changing the world."

The algae, he believes, will spearhead enormous changes to the way that energy is produced and to the explosive geopolitics that have developed around the global thirst for fossil fuels. They could also overturn the current debate on corn and sugar-based biofuels. It is madness, he says, for humanity to pursue sources of energy that compete with its own stomachs when there is a far purer source that does not sitting in a test tube in his laboratory.

Professor Watanabe's vision arises from the extraordinary properties of the Botryococcus braunii algae: give the microscopic green strands enough light – and plenty of carbon dioxide – and they excrete oil. The tiny globules of oil that form on the surface of the algae can be easily harvested and then refined using the same "cracking" technologies with which the oil industry now converts crude into everything from jet fuel to plastics.

The Japanese Government has supplied him with hefty grants to work on ways of industrialising the algae cultures. The professor admits that there is much work to be done to bring the financial and environmental costs of creating algae oilfields down to reasonable levels: to meet Japan's current oil needs would require an algae-filled paddyfield the size of Yorkshire.

But – in laboratory conditions at least – the powers of Botryococcus braunii are astonishing. A field of corn, when converted into biofuel ethanol, may produce about 0.2 tonnes of oil equivalent per hectare. Rapeseed may generate around 1.2 tonnes. Micro algae can theoretically produce between 50 and 140 tonnes using the same plot of land.

The discovery of Botryococcus braunii and its precious excretions has taken years. The oil-producing properties of Botryococcus algae have been known for decades, but the volume and quality varies between species.

There remain, however, substantial obstacles before cars and aircraft are all running on algae. Although field tests have proved that there is little technical difficulty in breeding or harvesting the algae, the sums do not add up. A prospective algae-breeding oil concern would either have to invest billions of dollars in expensive breeder tanks – at a cost of around three times what the oil would sell for on the international market over the lifetime of the tanks – or find an enormous expanse of well-irrigated land in a country where labour can be bought very cheaply. It is for this reason that Professor Watanabe believes the world's first algae farms will be constructed in countries such as Indonesia or Vietnam.

[Apogee]

more:

http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/030077.html

As a project funded under NEDO's "Grant for Industrial Technology Research Program", NEDO and the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) in Japan announced on March 17, 2010, that Hideki Kanda, Chief Scientist of CRIEPI, successfully developed a method to extract a high yield of "green crude oil" from blue-green algae at room temperature using liquefied dimethyl ether (DME).

Green crude oil is a general term for oily substances in the cells of microalgae, and there has been some ongoing trial utilization of the substance as an alternative to petroleum for fuel. Traditional methods to extract green crude oil pose some problems because of their complex steps, such as drying, breaking cell walls, and using and removing toxic solvents, which require considerable energy.

The method was developed to overcome these problems by taking advantage of liquefied DME's unique ability to mix with water and oil. Because it can dewater blue-green algae and extract oils from it concurrently at room temperature, the amount of energy required for dewatering and drying can be reduced drastically when compared to conventional methods. In addition, with no organic solvents required for extraction, the process has the potential to be a low-cost and environment-friendly method of extraction. CRIEPI successfully extracted over 60 times more green crude oil (based on the dry blue-green algae weight) in its experiments than traditional methods.

The practical application of this liquefied DME extraction process needs further basic experiments using various algae and development of the technology that can concentrate green crude oil in DME. CRIEPI plans to conduct further experiments and improve this new method.

Successful Extraction of "Green Crude Oil" from Blue-Green Algae
http://criepi.denken.or.jp/en/activities/pressrelease/
2010/03_17.html
http://criepi.denken.or.jp/en/activities/pressrelease/
2010/03_17.pdf

[Apogee]

Finally, found this site while searching and thought it contained interesting info on oil from algae.

Looks to be a good resource.  I posted it here because there's not a clear place for energy from algae under alternative fuels.  Figured it fit into this discussion.

Steve

http://www.oilgae.com/

[AdeV]

I hope you don't mind, I've split this off into a separate topic, because I believe it's extremely interesting in its own right; and is quite possibly the future for "dinosaur" oil - i.e. algae oil may yet be the saviour of the oil industry.

[injin man]

A very similar project that's already underway:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/a-brave-new-world-of-fossil-fuels-on-demand/article1871149/

[LowGear]

It's my understanding that the vast majority of Gosh Bless Dino oil was originally generated via algae.  It would seem like were just short cutting a few tons of pressure over say a couple of million years.  "No problem bra, we be home by morning."

Casey