Gasification of the biomass of algae

[mowy]

Hi all,

We are a company that have small plants of demostration of gasification of biomass, we normally use typical biomass of wood chips and others. We are searching collaboration for study the posibility of use of microalgae or macroalgae for use as raw material of our gasifier. We gasifier the biomass and produce a shyntetic gas for use in a gas genset.
Anyone know if it is possible to gasify the biomass of the algae and the composition of the gas produced for the algae?

Thanks You.
Mowy

[guayacan]

Before I start, this has to be done with an eye towards the economics of the process. The process must produce a result where energy can be extracted as economically as fossil fuel. For this we must remove the expensive processes, such as tranesterification and drying. The gasifier should be a wet-fed version, normally around 50% water (wild figure), and must produce either of the following, (1), a gas similar to methane or natural gas, and a CO2 which can be fed directly back to algae, or (2) A green diesel, and a base for a gasoline product. Both have been done, but getting the people to release the info is not going to be easy. Good luck. I believe your next step is to study wet-fed gasifiers, and then catalysts for the in-stream conversions.

[cacofonix]

It's going to be difficult - if not impossible - to produce microalgae at prices that are competitive to biomass...I think microalgae will be viable only as a feedstock for biodiesel (or ethanol) not as a direct competitor to other waste biomass...

Narasimhan Santhanam - EAI - India Renewable Energy