Biogasification of Marine Algae: Nannochloropsis oculata and Botryococcus braunii (BRIEFING SLIDES)

摘要

Algae has the potential to be a useful source of biomass derived energy due to the high lipid content and rapid growth rate of the organism. Currently, there are many methods available to harvest the energy from algae, such as transesterification of lipids to biodiesel or thermal gasification of the cells to produce synthesis gases. A new approach was identified to use algae in a biological gasification process in which the algal cells were digested into methane. By using biogasification, traditional thermal processes requiring large amounts of thermal energy input can be replaced by methods that require minimal additional input of energy, thus raising the overall energy efficiency of the system. Initial experiments obtained 248 L methane/kg Volatile Solids algae and still increasing. Using algae has the potential to more than double the available methane production over traditional terrestrially derived biomass under optimized growth conditions given these results.