Sustainable energy business people are now searching for the best bioreactors with the right stuff. What is the right stuff you ask? Well it must be a algae farm that meets numerous challenges: be affordable, scalable, able to manage changing climates at various customer locations.
Inexpensive to Implement
The 1st area of concern is definitely the associated fee. As with all systems of a industrial scale, cost is very important. The technological innovation at this point has many types to include row crops, big open pond systems, race way systems and algae PBR’s. The product you choose should have nutrients to nourish the algae, fresh water and sunshine. Your carbon dioxide inputs can be active or ambient air flow. Cross contamination of the algae is really a concern, but the intended use of the algae shall be your guide.
Constant Harvesting
Harvesting the algal mass will be a concern depending on the system. It will require more effort to harvest algae from an open pond system than it would from a continuous harvesting PBR. Continuous harvesters do just that, always harvest algal cake, you now will only need staff to move the algal biomass to the next stations for drying out and oil extraction.
Oil Extraction
* There are 3 well-known methods to remove the oil from oilseeds, and these techniques apply equally well for algal biomass too:
1. Expeller/Press
2. Hexane chemical oil extraction
3. Supercritical Fluid extraction
* Expeller/Press
* Expression/Expeller press-When algal mass is dried out it keeps its oil content, which then can be “forced” out with an oil press. Many commercial manufacturers of vegetable oil use a combination of mechanical pressing and chemical solvents in extracting oil.
* While better processes are emerging, an easy process is to use a press to remove a large percentage (70-75%) of the oils from algae.
* Hexane Solvent Method
* Algae oil can be removed utilizing chemical substances. Benzene and ether have been used, but a popular chemical for solvent extraction is hexane, which can be relatively inexpensive.