Modular Algae Biorefinery for the Sustainable Future of the Chemical Industry
Objectives:
It is generally accepted that fossil carbon and hydrocarbon (FCH) raw materials at the present rate of increase of consumption will be exhausted in the near future (from 50-60 years for oil to 200 years for carbon). Even if new reserves are discovered, the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of their exploitation is highly disputed (see for example Nature, 517:187-90 (2015) but also 2014 IPCC report and related literature calculating that in order to meet the 2oC limit on global temperature change 50-80% of known fossil fuel reserves should remain in the ground).
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Our objective is to find a renewable alternative that provides not only energy, but also chemical feedstock for the chemical industry. Geothermal, ocean, wind and hydroelectric energy do not provide chemical feedstock, are highly localised (and in the case of geothermal energy very difficult to transport), require energy storage devices (a technology not satisfactorily developed) and the earth-wide fluxes are not sufficient to satisfy human needs. Our attention is therefore focused on solar energy which can be exploited directly (photovoltaic or concentrated thermal) or indirectly (through biomass).
We have discarded the direct exploitation for the lack of a mature technology for energy transmission from localised production sites and environmental concerns (use of rare earths, even albedo effect in case of large scale implementation). It should be noted, that direct solar energy may be used for the generation of chemical feedstock with photocatalysts although the efficiency would equal or lower to natural photosynthesis that gives rise to biomass. We have therefore focused on biomass exploitation and from the different biomass stocks we have chosen microalgae due to their higher photosynthetic efficiency and possible null influence to land repurposing. We have further seen that algae can be grown on waste, increasing the value of the final technology. Let us now examine what is the progress towards implementation of the IMBW and the limitations to progress.
Aim 1:
Demonstrate at laboratory scale that microalgae metabolism can be modulated in real time to consume different real industrial wastes in semi-automated 2-5 L laboratory operation, and to explore the possibility to guide EPS formation and H2 production (through algal electrochemical coupling) during dark or photo fermentation.
Aim 2:
Scale-up of Integrated Modular algae Biorefinery with Waste feed. Before proceeding to a demonstration scale facility of the IMBW, it is necessary to verify the results of WP2 at a pilot plant scale. Many phenomena are scale-dependent and cannot be predicted by modelling software.
Aim 3:
Genomics/transcriptomics of microalgae adaptation to growth conditions.
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​The identification of the key regulators and enzymes involved in the production/degradation processes microalgae are involved in will enable the further “à la carte” selection of the main traits that we want to enhance in our processes and, subsequently the production of a desired molecule.