Biodiesel production by microalgae

Informations

Funding country

France

Acronym

DIESALG

URL

-

Start date

3/1/2012

End date

3/1/2015

Budget

1,025,870 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

The objective of DIESALG is to study the production of lipids by microalgae for utilisation as biodiesel. Microalgae are considered as promising candidates as a source for industrial production of biodiesel due to their high productivity and the capacity of certain species to accumulate large quantities of reserve lipids. However, numerous biological and technological bottlenecks remain and interdisciplinary research is required at several levels before envisaging economically viable large-scale production. This includes selection and optimisation of strains with a view to improving the productivity and quality of lipids, and optimisation in terms of cost and energetic / environmental budget of the processes of culture, harvesting, extraction and transformation of lipids into biofuel. The proposed project focuses on key aspects of this thematic area. A first objective will consist of searching for suitable microalgal strains via exploration of biodiversity and genetic improvement. A second aim will be to set up production protocols in photobioreactors with a view to determining how the choice of strain and culture conditions influence the quantity and quality of lipids produced and how this impacts on downstream refining-transformation processes for production of a biofuel meeting actual biodiesel specifications. The set-up of dedicated processes able to treat wet biomass will be the third aim of the project. This will concern cell destruction combined with adequate separation processes for intracellular TAG recovery, and the hydrothermal liquefaction of wet biomass. All data will be integrated in a simulator in order to link operational choices (e.g. marine or freshwater strains, protocols and processes of production, process of transformation into biodiesel) to criteria for industrial exploitation (cost, general scheme of production-refinery, resources required, etc.). The overall approach (upstream research on key issues, integration and consequences for final installation) will serve as a solid base for definition of subsequent R&D steps which should ultimately lead to industrial exploitation: identification of dedicated strains and operational choices, identification of bottlenecks to scaling-up of production. The project federates research teams in the Engineering (GEPEA Nantes-St Nazaire, LTB CEA Grenoble) and Life Sciences (CEA Cadarache). They will be associated with an industrial partner, Alpha Biotech, a microalgae producer. One of the main aim of the program will be to confront results to industrial conditions of Alpha Biotech. Because of its integrated approach, DIESALG project will capitalize on several results from previous research programs in which partners were involved (ANR-SHAMASH, ANR-BIOSOLIS, ANR-ALGORAFFINERIE, ANR-ALGOMICS, CNRS-LIPALG).