Large-scale Biodiesel Production from Algae

Algal Bio-diesel for Mass Markets

Theoretically, Biodiesel produced from algae appears to be the only feasible solution today for replacing petro-diesel completely. No other feedstock has the Oil Yield high enough for it to be in a position to produce such large volumes of oil.

To elaborate, it has been calculated that in order for a crop such as soybean or palm to yield enough oil capable of replacing petro-diesel completely, a very large percentage of the current land available needs to be utilized only for biodiesel crop production, which is quite infeasible. For some small countries, it implies that all available land be dedicated to biodiesel production.

However, if the feedstock were to be algae, owing to its very high yield of oil per Acre of cultivation, it has been found that about 10 million acres of land would need to be used for biodiesel cultivation in the US in order to produce biodiesel to replace all the petrodiesel used currently in that country. This is just 1% of the total land used today for farming and grazing together in the US (about 1 billion acres). Clearly, algae are a superior alternative as a feedstock for large-scale biodiesel production.

In practice however, biodiesel has not yet been produced on a wide scale from algae, though large scale algae cultivation and biodiesel production appear likely in the near future.

In order to produce biodiesel from algae on a large-scale, the following conditions need to be met, logically speaking:

• Ability to sustainably produce high-oil-yielding algae strains on a large-scale
• Ability to extract the oil from the algae on a large scale
• Capability for large-scale conversion of algal oil into biodiesel

The first two aspects are specific to algae, while the third is a generic engineering aspect for biodiesel production from all plant oils. Based on current research inputs, the real concern is the capability to sustainably produce high-oil-yielding algae strains on a large-scale. While the other two conditions need to be addressed as well, they are primarily engineering considerations over which operators have more control.