A new EU-backed algal biofuel demonstration project, ‘All-Gas’, has officially kicked-off at a waste water treatment plant in Chiclana, Southern Spain, with the construction of the first algal culture ponds. The €12 million, 5 year project, co-financed by the EU FP7 program, is being co-ordinated by leading global water management company aqualia. Together with 6 EU partners, aqualia will demonstrate a new revolutionary way forward, in using residual nutrients in waste water as a resource for cultivating sustainable, low-cost and fast-growing algae.
The All-Gas demonstration project is set to revolutionise the field of algal biofuels. To date, much of the work to develop biofuels from algae have been at small-scale, laboratory level. Further, none have proved cost effective enough, against the market price for fuels. The All-Gas project represents the first time in Europe, and possibly globally, where an algal biofuel project has the funding, and go-ahead, to scale up the technology and demonstrate it at a commercial 10-hectare level (roughly 10 football fields) by testing it at a waste water treatment plant in Chiclana, Southern Spain.
Bionenergy output
The project’s bioenergy outputs will be significant. A total of 400 fleet vehicles are projected to be fuelled from the combined biodiesel and biomethane outputs. This is assuming the project’s target productivity of 3,000 kg of dry algae per day is reached, with expected oil content of about 20%. In addition, the innovative technology, which includes new patents, avoids the controversial issues of 1st generation biofuels. On the contrary, the technology also helps clean up the environment with simultaneous waste water treatment.
The All-Gas project will demonstrate the full sequence of processes, from growing the algae, to testing the fleet vehicles on the biofuel that is produced. The project will show how biofuels can be developed cost effectively for the first time. This will be done by cultivating fast-growing micro-algae, using the nutrient residuals in waste water, then harvesting the algae, and processing the biomass for oil and other chemical extractions through enhancing efficiencies.
EU funding and support
The project has attracted €7 million funding through the European Commission’s 7th Framework Program (FP7). FP7 supports energy-related projects in line with the aims of EU Directive 2009/28/EC. The EU Directive requires that 20% of energy needs to be produced from renewable fuels by 2020, as part of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, with a further requirement that 10% of biofuels need to be met through transport-related activities. Skyrocketing oil prices, depleting fossil fuels, and energy-security issues are further igniting an interest in alternative energy sources.
As European Commission Project Officer, Dr. Kyriakis Maniatis highlights, “to help meet the EU’s ambitious renewable energy targets, we are supporting innovative technology approaches, and algae biofuels are one of the most exciting prospects around – the All-Gas project was one of only 3 projects selected among 20 proposals we received for that topic.”
Bioenergy potential
If the project’s productivity target, of 3,000 kg of dry algae, with an oil content of 20% is reached, then enough biodiesel to run about 200 cars could be generated. The bio-methane production from the anaerobic digestion of raw waste water and biomass residues is expected to yield an equivalent amount of bio-methane for another 200 cars.
The technology opportunity is significant, as Frank Rogalla, of aqualia, the project leader, states: “We are turning an expensive environmental problem of cleaning polluted waste water, into a sustainable bioenergy source. The opportunity is such that 60 million people, roughly the UK population, would be able to power 1 million vehicles from just flushing their toilet!”
Technology benefits and advantages over 1st generation biofuel crops The technology also delivers a number of other benefits. First, the process removes waste water pollutants (nitrogen and phosphorous) from the water to feed the algae, removing the need for polluting petrochemical based fertilizers, cleaning the water and reducing the waste generation costs involved with sewage sludge management. Second, the energy harvested from the waste water, and its residues, avoids the need for electrical energy, which is necessary for the standard waste water treatment process, and reduces the related CO2 emissions.
Algae have many advantages over 1st generation biofuel crops, such as oil palm, sugar cane and canola, which have been mired in controversy. Algae allow higher yields, faster growth, lower requirements for land, as well as, reducing the competition with food production for land and water resources. Additional by-products such as fertilizer, biochemicals (colorants, proteins, enzymes etc.) and feedstock’s without depleting other food sources, also result from the process.
Project expansion
The project will be implemented in 2 stages. The first 2 years is the initial prototype phase. The second phase is the construction and commercial operation of an algae cultivation facility of 10 hectares. The final report will be published in 2016. aqualia, as project coordinator, sees the technology as being relatively easily transferred to other sunny regions.
As Miguel Jurado, aqualia´s Vice President highlights, “As part of a €12 billion global infrastructure and environmental services company, aqualia are at the forefront of supporting this cutting-edge technology, with the potential to roll-out the technology to our other 17 countries, such as Mexico, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia, which we operate in. Through innovation, our vision is to spread the benefits of the technology and to play our part in contributing to the green economy, and importantly a sustainable planet”.
In the UK, the University of Southampton is very much at the forefront of pushing the boundaries on the scientific understanding of algal fuel production, as Prof Charles Bank, Head of Environmental Biotechnology at the University of Southampton highlights: “To increase the levels of transport biofuels from around 2.4% in 2009, to 10% by 2020, in line with the EU Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC), there is more urgency for the UK to find sustainable biofuels for the future. The UK green economy has a significant part to play in these projects. Our specific knowledge on bioprocesses, that turn waste biomass into biofuel, for instance, has shown that algae ponds and farm digestion can create an integrated system to foster bioenergy production”.
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