Commercial Uses of Algae
Algae has long been seen as a potential feedstock for biofuels due to its fast growth rate and ability to be grown without utilizing arable land. Several companies are researching ways to commercially produce biodiesel, ethanol, and other fuels using algae. One promising approach is to grow algae in open ponds or closed photobioreactors and then extract the oil from algal cells through various processing methods. This oil can then be refined into biodiesel or renewable diesel that is chemically identical to petrodiesel. Advantages of algae-derived fuels include their potential to provide a renewable alternative to fossil fuels without disrupting food supply or affecting food prices.
Cyanotech Corporation has been producing natural astaxanthin and other nutraceuticals from microalgae for over 30 years. Astaxanthin is a high-value carotenoid antioxidant sold as a dietary supplement. Cyanotech grows its microalgae in open ponds in Hawaii and uses a proprietary process to extract and purify natural astaxanthin. This successful commercial operation demonstrates the viability of cultivating microalgae at large scale and extracting valuable products. Their experience and infrastructure could be applied to producing other Algae -based products.
Algae Farming Approaches
There are two main approaches for farming algae - open ponds and closed photobioreactors. Open ponds are sunlit outdoor pools that are easy to operate but expose algae to changing environmental conditions. This variability affects growth rates and product yields. Photobioreactors confine algae in transparent tubes, bags or other enclosed vessels, allowing for careful control of growing conditions like temperature, pH, light exposure and CO2 levels. While photobioreactors can achieve more consistent and productive growth, they typically have higher capital and operating costs than open ponds.
Several companies are testing hybrid systems that provide some environmental control benefits while keeping costs lower than fully enclosed photobioreactors. For example, some designs use partially shaded ponds with CO2 injection to boost productivity without full photobioreactor enclosure. The optimal algae farming system depends on factors like the intended product, climate, land or water resources available, and whether maximizing yields or minimizing costs is the priority. Real-world testing across various geographic regions will help determine which approaches can produce algae-derived fuels and products at commercial scale.
Algae’s Environmental Benefits
Beyond their potential as a biofuel feedstock or source of nutraceuticals, algae farms can provide environmental benefits compared to other types of agriculture. Algae can remediate wastewater by absorbing nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, helping purify polluted waterways. This tends to be more cost-effective than conventional wastewater treatment. By removing excess nutrients that would otherwise promote harmful algal blooms, algae recycling of wastewater both cleans water and produces a biomass feedstock.
Algae grown on non-arable lands avoids displacing food crop production or requiring extensive deforestation. It can thrive in brackish or saline waters unsuitable for irrigation. Some algae species even boast their ability to extract carbon dioxide from industrial flue gases or directly from the air. This credits algae with uptaking atmospheric carbon, earning it recognition as a carbon-negative feedstock. Its fast photoautotrophic growth also means algae farms require much less land area compared to traditional energy crops like palm or canola. Where appropriate resources exist, algae production stands to provide both environmental remediation services and a renewable resource for the bioeconomy.
Challenges for Commercialization
For all its promise, large-scale commercial algae farming faces significant economic challenges that have slowed its widespread adoption. High production costs remain a hurdle for fuel and commodity products competing with cheaper fossil alternatives. Factors like the need for expensive photobioreactor technologies, challenges in harvesting and dewatering microscopic algae cells, and costs of downstream processing all factor in. Limited genetic engineering capability also means naturally occurring algae strains must be used, constraining optimization of yields.
Consistency and reliability of production systems outdoors additionally impact the ability to deliver a standardized commodity. Uncontrolled algae blooms or changes in composition also threaten consistent product quality. Achieving an economically viable harvest density over hundreds or thousands of acres is difficult with open ponds and heterogeneous cultures. Finding buyers or end markets for the diverse range of possible algal products also presents difficulties, as does financing the high capital costs for building novel algae-to-fuels infrastructure. Overcoming these roadblocks will require continued research, engineering improvements, and likely some government support to enable commercialization at scale.
Potential for Algae
While technical and economic challenges confront widespread commercial algae farming, its potential benefits could drive ongoing progress and innovation. Global demand for renewable resources continues trending upward, creating opportunity. Ongoing technological advances in fields like synthetic and computational biology may unlock new tools to optimize algae strains or production processes. Partnerships between private industry, national laboratories and universities help pursue multiple research avenues simultaneously. Developing algae-based coproducts in addition to fuels can help finance commercialization efforts through revenue diversification. Where affordable sustainable feedstocks are possible, algae may yet realize significant commercial uses in fields from fuels and nutraceuticals to renewable materials and environmental remediation. With dedicated effort across these domains, algae's future prospects remain promising.
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