Progress for Biodiesel from Algae

Eco Investor April 2009

Research by CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship shows that under ideal conditions it is possible to produce algal biodiesel at a lower cost and with less greenhouse gas emissions than fossil diesel,” said researcher Dr Tom Beer.

“However, when scaled up to large commercial production levels, the costs may exceed those for fossil diesel. The economic viability is highly dependent upon algae with high oil yields capable of high production year-round, which has yet to be demonstrated on a commercial scale,” say the researchers in their paper, Greenhouse Gas Sequestration by Algae – Energy and Greenhouse Gas Life Cycle Studies, authored by CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric researchers Peter K Campbell, Dr Beer and David Batten.

Dr Beer said the research has made significant progress in a short time, and has found that the establishment of a 500 hectare algal biodiesel plant in a rural area might create up to 45 jobs and provide opportunities to diversify in the agricultural sector.”

CSIRO is working with a number of national and international partners to develop a strong algal biofuel research program, but further research is required to create a viable industry with widespread uptake and impact. “Although the findings of our study are very promising, challenges still exist in relation to cost, infrastructure needs and the scale of production required to make algal plants feasible,” Dr Beer said.

The paper examines the social, economic and environmental aspects of one possible method of producing biodiesel on a life-cycle basis.

As greenhouse gases sequestered by the algae are released into the atmosphere, greenhouse gas benefits arise only as offsets when the algal use displaces fossil fuel in a vehicle or in the production of electricity. Dr Beer says algae can provide net greenhouse gas reductions and this would be as a result of avoiding the use of a fossil resource for fuel production, capturing methane produced by the processed algae to generate energy, and taking into account the potential greenhouse gas offsets from industry.

The paper says there is a view that using flue gases from power stations to grow algae for biofuels would qualify as a carbon capture mechanism. “This view is partly correct, since the permissible carbon credits do not arise from the flue gas that is captured because the algae-derived fuel will eventually be burnt and the captured carbon returned to the atmosphere. The carbon credits arise as a result of the displacement of the fossil fuel that would have been used if the biofuel had not become available.”

The paper says certain species of microalgae offer the possibility of sustainable, low greenhouse gas emissions as microalgae can “grow rapidly, yield significantly more biofuel per hectare than oil plants, can sequester excess carbon dioxide as hydrocarbons, produce a fuel that contains no sulphur with low toxicity that is highly biodegradable, does not compete significantly with food, fibre or other uses and does not involve destruction of natural habitats”.

More than a dozen algal species have been mentioned as possible candidates for producing biodiesel. However, “Though microalgae are aquacultured widely to produce various high-value foods, nutraceuticals and chemicals, the methods adopted have not yet been shown to be economically and ecologically viable for the production of biodiesel in quantities large enough to replace fossil fuels.”

Dr Beer and his team say they discovered the organisms’ green credentials during their analysis of the lifecycle analysis of algal biodiesel.