19 June 2012
Bioscience Seminar - Saline Algae Cultures for Biofuel Production
Tuesday 26 June 2012 – Presented by Dr Navid Moheimani (Murdoch University)
|
Title: |
Saline Algae Cultures for Biofuel Production |
|---|---|
|
Speaker: |
Dr Navid Moheimani |
|
Date: |
2012-06-26 |
|
Time: |
2.00 pm |
|
Location: |
223.01. Resources Room (Bundoora West campus) |
Abstract
Increase in atmospheric CO2 is the reason for the importance of investigations of methods for minimising and removing anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Furthermore, there has been an increase in the price of fossil fuels. These resulted in increase in the production of liquid biofuels (i.e. biodiesel, bioethanol). The lack of enough oil seeds and also the argument of food versus fuel are not in the favour of biofuel industry. This resulted in searching for alternative raw material. Algae are able to convert CO2 to organic carbon and can be more productive than any other photosynthetic organism in respect to annual average of oil production. Technology to grow algae in the large scale has existed for decades. However, due to some unresolved technical and economical issues, to date, there are no large scale facilities for producing algae for biofuel production. One of the key challenges in successfully growing algae for biofuel is the optimisation of algae cultures. An important aspect of commercially successful algal culture is to be able to grow the algae in continuous or semicontinuous mode for long periods. This maximises the use of capital intensive culture systems and also reduces labour costs. There are some biological, chemical and physical limitations on the growth and productivity of outdoor algae cultivation. These include, but are not limited to, the quantity and quality of light, availability of CO2 and other nutrients (N and P), harvest regime and frequency, and also the source of water (i.e. fresh or recycled medium). The most common difficulties facing biomass production in any outdoor type of production system are low productivity and contamination. Here, will consider some of the strategies for increasing biomass and lipid productivity by optimising saline algae operation. Overall, the biomass productivity is strongly correlated with irradiance. For instance, our results indicate that pond depth affects productivity of Pleurochrysis carterae and this effect varies with season. During autumn, productivities were highest at depths of 13 to 16 cm, and decreased when the depth was increased. During summer productivity was much lower at 13 cm pond depth and increased when the depth was increased to 16, 18 and 21 cm. Heating the ponds in the morning by approximately 3 to 5oC improves productivity of this alga by 11%–21%, presumably because this allows the algae to photosynthesise faster in the conditions of low [O2] which occur in the early morning.
Biography
Navid has over 12 years of experience as an applied microalgae biotechnologist and being involved in biofuel production from microalgae. Navid is currently a Senior Lecturer and programme leader at the Murdoch University Algae R&D Centre. He is mainly involved in developing “large-scale microalgae culture for biofuel production”. He has experience in algae harvesting, dewatering, oil extraction and both conventional and unconventional biodiesel production and ethanol fermentation, and in developing life cycle analysis for algae to biofuel production.
Seminar coordinator: leeanne.bickford@rmit.edu.au Tel. +61 3 9925 7106