Presenter: Elmar Schmid, Ph.D.Associate Faculty, MiraCosta College, Oceanside, CA

VP & CSO, Sustainable Green Technologies Inc., Escondido, CA

Biofuels Production & Analysis

Unsaturated C16–18 Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME)

Why Biofuels?

Biodiesel

America’s dependency on increasingly costly imported petroleum oil contributes to U.S. budget and trade deficit. - U.S. domestic oil production is about 8.5 million barrels/day but the nation consumes about 20 million barrels (840 million gal) of oil per day

U.S. energy bill signed in 2007 mandates 36 billion gallons of fuels to come from biofuels by 2030.

National Security & Energy Portfolio Diversification

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Country

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Saudi Arabia

Russia

USA

Iran

China

Canada

Mexico

UAE

Kuwait

Venezuela

Iraq

California imports more than 45% of its petroleum oil from foreign sources

CA Domestic

Foreign

National

Annual (2009) Oil Production/Imports of California (Thousand barrels)

Annual Total: 605,089 Source: CA Energy Commission

State’s Petroleum Oil Production is Declining

In April 2006, former CA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order (S-06-06), directing Californian agencies to take steps in increasing the state’s biofuels production and biomass power generation. - 20 % of biofuels used in the state from state sources by 2010 - 40 % by 2020 and 75 % by 2050 - more electricity generation from renewable biomass.

Schwarzenegger also proposed a Hydrogen Highway plan. California has invested $6.5 million to support a network of more than 16 filling stations and a growing fleet of cars and buses that run on this clean fuel.

Political Reasons & Incentives

Global average temperatures are rising most likely due to rising anthropogenic green house gas emissions (CO2, CH4, NOx)

Need for “carbon neutral” fuel and energy solutions

Ecological Reasons

Deep water horizon oil drilling rig explosion (Gulf of Mexico)April 10, 2010

Annual carbon emissions from fossil fuel consumption

Fossil fuel extraction takes increasing costly toll on diverse environments (oil spills, oil shale fracturing, mountain top mining)

Accelerated fossil fuel combustion has costly negative impact on human wellbeing and health - Particulate matter (PM) Diesel engines - NOx and ozone Otto engines - Benzene Gasoline - Heavy metals Coal - SO2 Coal

Environmental Reasons

• Biofuels are liquid or gaseous fuels produced from renewable biomass, such as:1. Corn Starch Bioethanol2. Sugar cane Sucrose Bioethanol3. Sugar beet Sucrose Bioethanol4. Wood, Cellulose Bioethanol5. Manure Protein Biogas (CH4)6. Rapeseed Oil Biodiesel7. Palm seed Oil Biodiesel8. Diverse Sugars Biohydrogen

• Many biofuels are produced with the help of microorganisms, such as yeast, bacteria, or microbial enzymes

What are Biofuels?

Sugar Cane

Sun Flower

Biomass

Biofuels

Biodiesel

PalmMicroalgae

Bio- H2

Rapeseed Soybean

Biogas

LandfillsManure

Bioethanol

Wheat Corn

Sugar BeetPotatoes

Figure©E.Schmid-2011

Chlorella minutissimaPhoto©E.Schmid-2010

Why Biofuels from

Microalgae?

What are Microalgae? Microalgae are microscopically small aqueous life forms which perform a biological process called photosynthesis.

Sun

Microalgae

Light EnergyWater(H2O)

Oxygen(O2)

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)+

Sugars

StarchOils

Cellulose

Graphic©E.Schmid-2010

Biomass

Fast growth rate and biomass productivity. Double in less than 24 hours.

Higher sunlight conversion efficiency than terrestrial green plants. Solar conversion efficiency is with 4-5% a factor of 50 higher than in plants.

Large scale cultivation of microalgae removes significant amounts of the green house gas CO2 from the atmosphere.

Microalgae are metabolically very versatile. Many value products can can be produced, including antioxidants, poly-unsaturated fatty acids, (PUFAs), cattle feedstock and algae oils.

Algae oils have been shown to be suitable for biodiesel production.

Microalgae Advantages

Taken from the website of Bioprodukte-Prof. Steinberg GmbH, Germany

Large scale cultivation of microalgae under controlled, contamination-free conditions can be achieved in closed loop photobioreactors.

Commercial tubular closed loop algae photobioreactor

Crop Oil Yield(kg oil / ha x year)

Oil Yield(gal oil / ha x year)

Corn 146 45

Soybeans 375 120

Peanuts 921 282

Rapeseed/Canola

1,000 306

Olives 1,051 322

Avocado 2,298 705

Palm oil 5,000 1,575/1,890

Algae Farming268,950 (Valcent)

60,000 (Shell)21,842 (Molina et al.)

33,000 (other)

82,50018,4056,700

10,123

Some microalgae accumulate up to 50% of their dry weight as oil.

Microalgae farming has the potential to yield more than 70,000 gallons of oil per hectare per year (70,000 gal oil/ha/y).

Microalgae have higher oil productivity than agricultural plants

Microalgae-derived fuels offer many advantages over currently used fossil fuels:

1. Fuels can be produced in a sustainable, renewable way. - algae are harvested and quickly regrown within days or weeks within designed photobioreactor environments

2. Fuels, e.g. biodiesel, burns carbon-neutral when combusted in internal combustion engines or other energy conversion devises. - CO2 emitted through combustion of algae-derived biodiesel does not add new carbon into the atmosphere

3. Microalgae oils and fuels are non-toxic and highly bio-degradable.

4. Algae can grow in low grade water, waste water and even marine water. - Production of 1 t of algae biomass requires about 38,500 liters of water

Microalgae Fuel Advantage

Photo©E.Schmid-2010

Why a Biofuels Production & Analysis

Curriculum?

Important California Biofuels Companies with rapidly

developing “green tech” workforce demand in the future.

1. Sapphire, San Diego- “green crude” from algae

2. Verenium (former Diversa), San Diego

3. Synthetic Genomics, San Diego- fully synthetic microbes for biofuels production

4. Pearson Fuels, San Diego- built first ethanol (E-85) station in CA

5. Amyris, San Francisco - genetically modified yeast for hydrocarbon production

6. AE Biofuels, Cupertino- cellulosics ethanol production

7. Cobalt Biofuels, Mountain View

8. Imperial Valley Biodiesel, El Centro

Economical Reasons- Work force development -

“In San Diego County, the algae biofuels industry alreadyprovides 410 direct jobs and$56 million in direct economicactivity.”

Biofuels Production & Analysis Curriculum

A laboratory manual and textbook written the presenter will be available as part of NBC2’s Global Biomanufacturing Curriculum at www.biomanufacturing.org/gbc

1. Lecturea. History of fossil fuels & Introductionb. Energyc. Fuelsd. Carbon chemistry & Biomasse. Enzymesf. Gasesg. Photosynthesis & Algaeh. Biofuels

2. Laboratorya. Media preparation & Cell counting techniques labb. Cellulase enzyme labc. Biohydrogen production labd. Algae photobioreactor labe. Algae oil extraction & analysis lab In Progress

Educational biohydrogen reactor – fuel cell work station

Photo©E.Schmid-2010

Educational bubble column photobioreactor work station

Photo©E.Schmid-2010

Algae oil extraction & analysis curriculum

AlgaeHarvest

Dry AlgaeBiomass

AcceleratedSolvent Extraction

(ASE)

Algae OilExtraction

Algae Oil/FAMEAnalysis

Transesterification

FAME(“Biodiesel”)

ELSD-HPLC

Analysis

Curricular Development in Progress

Purchase of ASE Unit $

$ Purchase of Evaporative Light

Scattering Detector

Figure©E.Schmid-2011

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to following individuals, organizations & corporations:

1. Mike Fino MEng – Bioprocess Technology Program, MiraCosta College,

Oceanside, CA

2. Kathleen Alfano, PhD - Director/PI, NSF ATE CREATE Renewable

Energy Center, College of the Canyons,

Santa Clarita, CA

3. Sonja Wallman, PhD - Executive Director, Northeast Biomanufacturing

Center and Collaborative (NBC2),

Portsmouth, NH

4. National Science Foundation (NSF)

5. Dionex Corporation