AquaFUELs Roundtable – Conference Review

Feb 2011

The AquaFUELs project intends to give an overview of research, assess if improved sustainability can be delivered through current research (lifecycle analysis) and identify the needs for further research. Additionally, AquaFUELs will structure relations between researchers, companies and regulators via the creation of the European Algae Biomass Association (EABA).
The AquaFUELs Roundtable presentations comprehensively reviewed all aspects of algae biofuels. Several contributions presented research work carried out at
Universities and in companies, covering algae strain taxonomy, harvesting methods like membrane separation, and new reactor designs. Several testing facilities for algae cultivation systems already exist or are under construction in Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Czech Republic.
Business models proposed include the harvest of natural algal blooms, co-locating algae production with a cement factory, and the green desert project which allows low cost production of a range of biomass products at deserted lands in Africa.
All major reports and cost analyses outline that algae cultivation is currently too expensive for the production of only biodiesel, which is a low value product. Experts advise to use a multidisciplinary approach dealing with molecular, engineering, biology, upscaling, logistics, and sustainability issues. Some are in favour of microalgae biorefineries which should focus on the extraction of high-value components (cosmetics, food, chemistry, plastics) with energy as the co-product. The productivity of algae systems is limited physically to 24 g/m2/day or 80 t/ha or 30-40 t of oil /ha under optimal climatic conditions. Today in real systems productivities of 11 g/m2/d are reached.
The sustainability of algae biofuels production systems has not yet been proven, as no large-scale facilities exist. LCAs at this point of time are speculations only and should be based on pilot plant data from > 6 months of operation. The received data and LCA should be used for guiding research but not yet for policy advice. Within the EU27, algae production systems will need to prove 60 % of GHG reduction. In the 2012 update of RED default values, algae biofuel pathways will most likely not be included.
A discussion on GMO revealed that this approach holds both threats and opportunities: on the one hand, risks are high, as the genome comes out with the algae biomass; on the other hand, GMO may provide major breakthroughs that could not be achieved with selective breeding. All experts agreed that education and training in the field of algal biofuels is necessary. The attendees of the AquaFUELs Roundtable agreed that this event was a great success and that they were looking forward to the transparency and structure which the project will add to the sector.

By: AquaFUELS Project

 
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