What are all the possible ways to dry microalgae? All right, I am not looking for an exhaustive list, but let's say the list of the most likely methods?

in Algae Fuels

PARC 's Spiral Technology - A liter of algae-infused water can be bright green, but it might only contain one to three grams of usable algae. To separate algae now, companies employ drying (which can gobble up 2 percent to 10 percent of the cost of producing fuel) centrifuges (4 percent to 14 percent) or filtration membranes (which get fouled).

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/parcs-solution-for-algae-fuel-going-down-the-drain/

in Algae Fuels

Compact Membrane Systems has engaged in research into a variety of applications for our highly fluorinated polymer gas separation membranes and gas-liquid membrane contactors. - http://www.compactmembrane.com/Research.html

in Algae Fuels

NASA's OMEGA project is trialing forward osmosis as a low cost method of de-watering algae: "the salt gradient can be used for forward osmosis, which not only cleans the wastewater released into the sea, it also concentrates the algae for harvesting."

http://www.algaeindustrymagazine.com/nasas-omega-scientist-dr-jonathan-trent/

in Algae Fuels

Estimates we did at Oilgae suggest that the drying cost using conventional methods will be between $200-$500 per ton of dry biomass, which is humungous, especially so when the cost of biomass production has to be less than $300 per dry ton to be economically competitive with fossil fuels.


This cost can be eliminated by extracting oil directly from the wet biomass bypassing the drying step. Direct-extraction or wet-extraction is basically a water-tolerant downstream process which involves separating oil from the wet algae paste and then subjecting it to transesterfication to produce biodiesel.


Some research institutes that have been working on wet extraction:

University of Michigan

Research studies from the University of Michigan reveal that the direct extraction method will be a feasible option to produce oil directly from wet algal biomass. They have worked on the marine water algae Chlorella vulgaris.


Basically, their process involves two steps:


•The wet algal biomass is reacted with subcritical water to hydrolyze intracellular lipids, conglomerate cells into an easily filterable solid that retained the lipids and produced a sterile, nutrient-rich aqueous phase.


•The wet, fatty acid-rich solids are then subjected to supercritical transesterification with ethanol to produce fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs).


Ames Labs / Catalin


•Ames Labs and Catalin – a nano- technology based company which specialize on biofuels have devised a technology that uses sponge-like nanoparticles to extract oil from the algae.


•The process doesn't harm the algae like other methods being developed, which helps reduce both production costs and the production cycle.


•Once the algal oil is extracted, a separate and proven solid catalyst from Catilin will be used to produce ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) and EN certified biodiesel.

in Algae Fuels

Algae Fuel Companies that have been working on wet extraction: - Origin Oil

Origin Oil developed a wet extraction process termed Quantum Fracturing™ which combines with electromagnetism and pH modification to break down cell walls that combines ultrasound and electromagnetic pulse induction to break the algae cell walls. Carbon-dioxide is added to the algae solution, which lowers the pH and separates the biomass from water.

Origin Oil claims that their process can reduce energy use by about 90% for total energy cost as little as $200 per metric ton of algae oil at full scale production.

AlgaeLink uses the same wet-extraction technology and claim that the total power consumption used in a 45m³ per hour oil extraction process is just 26 kW to turn 50% of the algae paste into oil

Aurora Algae also seems to be using the wet extraction technique for fuel production.

in Algae Fuels

Once more. As I remember, I tried to propose how to eliminate the bottleneck in the algae's separation and water. I've checked data from the article, to which I referred. It's working. On NSE machine I received around 1kWh/cbm of expenses. However for continuation is necessary to obtain additional information of algae's density in water's mixture and waters base's conductivity. Is it possible? These data allow to make the next step - electrochemical drying of biomass. The question has appeared in this connection: the level of humidity, which must be reached and time of drying.

in Algae Fuels