DIRECT TO ETHANOL®- Algenol’s New Photobioreactor
Algenol, headquartered in Florida, U.S., is one of the hottest companies in the biofuel sector. They utilize engineered strains of cyanobacteria to obtain improved ethanol production. The company has developed plastic film photobioreactor (PBR), DIRECT TO ETHANOL®, which makes production and collection easier. The PBR is constructed with plastic, enhanced with resins. Various performance metrics are featured in the PBR. Each individual PBR consists of ports for ethanol and biomass collection and the introduction of CO2 and nutrients. The ethanol, collected under the influence of gravitation, is purified by the Vapor Compression Steam Stripping Technology (VCSS). VCSS uses novel energy limiting membrane technologies to produce fuel grade ethanol. When these technologies are combined with solar power, the PBR yields gasoline with less than 80% carbon footprint.
The algal biomass left behind is fed into a hydrothermal liquefaction unit to obtain green crude oil. The green crude oil on hydotreatment produces an upgraded liquid hydrocarbon mixture devoid of oxygen, nitrogen or sulfur. Further distillation of the mixture separates diesel, jet and gasoline fractions.
It is estimated that 8000 gallons of liquid fuels can be produced by Direct to Ethanol technology in an acre of algae cultivated in a year. About 500 gallons of jet diesel, 380 gallons of gasoline and 315 gallons of jet fuel are part of the total production volume.
Source:http://www.algenol.com/direct-to-ethanol/direct-to-ethanol
