Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
It looks like Mother Nature was wasting her time with a multimillion-year process to produce crude oil.
3 views
Skip to first unread message
BeamMeUpScotty
Nov 12, 2012, 9:07:47 AM11/12/12
to
Biofuel breakthrough: Quick cook method turns algae into oil
[cid:image0...@01CDBB50.C28D4B70]
Mon, 11/05/2012 - 9:55am
[cid:image0...@01CDBB50.C28D4B70]
It looks like Mother Nature was wasting her time with a
multimillion-year process to produce crude oil. Michigan Engineering
researchers can "pressure-cook" algae for as little as a minute and
transform an unprecedented 65% of the green slime into biocrude.
"We're trying to mimic the process in nature that forms crude oil with
marine organisms," said Phil Savage, an Arthur F. Thurnau professor and
a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan.
The findings were presented Nov. 1 at the 2012 American Institute of
Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh.
Savage's ocean-going organism of choice is the green marine micro-alga
of the genus Nannochloropsis.
To make their one-minute biocrude, Savage and Julia Faeth, a doctoral
student in Savage's lab, filled a steel pipe connector with 1.5 mL of
wet algae, capped it and plunged it into 1,100-F sand. The small volume
ensured that the algae was heated through, but with only a minute to
warm up, the algae's temperature should have just grazed the 550-degree
mark before the team pulled the reactor back out.
Previously, Savage and his team heated the algae for times ranging from
10 to 90 minutes. They saw their best results, with about half of the
algae converted to biocrude, after treating it for 10 to 40 minutes at
570 degrees.
Why are the one-minute results so much better? Savage and Faeth won't be
sure until they have done more experiments, but they have some ideas.
"My guess is that the reactions that produce biocrude are actually must
faster than previously thought," Savage said.
Faeth suggests that the fast heating might boost the biocrude by keeping
unwanted reactions at bay.
"For example, the biocrude might decompose into substances that dissolve
in water, and the fast heating rates might discourage that reaction,"
Faeth said.
The team points out that shorter reaction times mean that the reactors
don't have to be as large.
"By reducing the reactor volume, the cost of building a biocrude
production plant also decreases," Faeth said, though both she and Savage
cautioned that they couldn't say for sure whether the new method is
faster and cheaper until the process is further developed.
Current commercial makers of algae-based fuel first dry the algae and
then extract the natural oil. But at over $20 per gallon, this fuel is a
long way from the gas pump.
"Companies know that that approach is not economical, so they are
looking at approaches for using wet algae, as are we," Savage said.
One of the advantages of the wet method is that it doesn't just extract
the existing fat from the algae-it also breaks down proteins and
carbohydrates. The minute method did this so successfully that the oil
contained about 90% of the energy in the original algae.
"That result is near the upper bound of what is possible," Savage said.
Before biocrude can be fed into the existing refinery system for
petroleum, it needs pre-refining to get rid of the extra oxygen and
nitrogen atoms that abound in living things. The Savage lab also is
developing better methods for this leg of biofuel production, breaking
the record with a biocrude that was 97% carbon and hydrogen earlier this
year. A paper on this work is currently under review.
Once producing biofuel from algae is economical, researchers estimate
that an area the size of New Mexico could provide enough oil to match
current U.S. petroleum consumption. And, unlike corn produced for
ethanol-which already accounts for half that area-the algae won't need
to occupy good farmland, thriving in brackish ponds instead.
The research, "The Effects of Heating Rate and Reaction Time on
Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Microalgae," was funded by the Emerging
Frontiers in Research and Innovation program of the National Science
Foundation. The university is pursuing patent protection for the
intellectual property, and is seeking commercialization partners to help
bring the technology to market.
The Effects of Heating Rate and Reaction Time On Hydrothermal
Liquefaction of
Microalgae<https://aiche.confex.com/aiche/2012/webprogram/Paper280193.html>
Savage Lab<http://savageresearchlab.wordpress.com>
Source: University of
Michigan<http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/20947-biofuel-breakthrough-quick-cook-method-turns-algae-into-oil>
--
-Kum bay ya-
[cid:image0...@01CDBB50.C28D4B70]
Mon, 11/05/2012 - 9:55am
[cid:image0...@01CDBB50.C28D4B70]
It looks like Mother Nature was wasting her time with a
multimillion-year process to produce crude oil. Michigan Engineering
researchers can "pressure-cook" algae for as little as a minute and
transform an unprecedented 65% of the green slime into biocrude.
"We're trying to mimic the process in nature that forms crude oil with
marine organisms," said Phil Savage, an Arthur F. Thurnau professor and
a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan.
The findings were presented Nov. 1 at the 2012 American Institute of
Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh.
Savage's ocean-going organism of choice is the green marine micro-alga
of the genus Nannochloropsis.
To make their one-minute biocrude, Savage and Julia Faeth, a doctoral
student in Savage's lab, filled a steel pipe connector with 1.5 mL of
wet algae, capped it and plunged it into 1,100-F sand. The small volume
ensured that the algae was heated through, but with only a minute to
warm up, the algae's temperature should have just grazed the 550-degree
mark before the team pulled the reactor back out.
Previously, Savage and his team heated the algae for times ranging from
10 to 90 minutes. They saw their best results, with about half of the
algae converted to biocrude, after treating it for 10 to 40 minutes at
570 degrees.
Why are the one-minute results so much better? Savage and Faeth won't be
sure until they have done more experiments, but they have some ideas.
"My guess is that the reactions that produce biocrude are actually must
faster than previously thought," Savage said.
Faeth suggests that the fast heating might boost the biocrude by keeping
unwanted reactions at bay.
"For example, the biocrude might decompose into substances that dissolve
in water, and the fast heating rates might discourage that reaction,"
Faeth said.
The team points out that shorter reaction times mean that the reactors
don't have to be as large.
"By reducing the reactor volume, the cost of building a biocrude
production plant also decreases," Faeth said, though both she and Savage
cautioned that they couldn't say for sure whether the new method is
faster and cheaper until the process is further developed.
Current commercial makers of algae-based fuel first dry the algae and
then extract the natural oil. But at over $20 per gallon, this fuel is a
long way from the gas pump.
"Companies know that that approach is not economical, so they are
looking at approaches for using wet algae, as are we," Savage said.
One of the advantages of the wet method is that it doesn't just extract
the existing fat from the algae-it also breaks down proteins and
carbohydrates. The minute method did this so successfully that the oil
contained about 90% of the energy in the original algae.
"That result is near the upper bound of what is possible," Savage said.
Before biocrude can be fed into the existing refinery system for
petroleum, it needs pre-refining to get rid of the extra oxygen and
nitrogen atoms that abound in living things. The Savage lab also is
developing better methods for this leg of biofuel production, breaking
the record with a biocrude that was 97% carbon and hydrogen earlier this
year. A paper on this work is currently under review.
Once producing biofuel from algae is economical, researchers estimate
that an area the size of New Mexico could provide enough oil to match
current U.S. petroleum consumption. And, unlike corn produced for
ethanol-which already accounts for half that area-the algae won't need
to occupy good farmland, thriving in brackish ponds instead.
The research, "The Effects of Heating Rate and Reaction Time on
Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Microalgae," was funded by the Emerging
Frontiers in Research and Innovation program of the National Science
Foundation. The university is pursuing patent protection for the
intellectual property, and is seeking commercialization partners to help
bring the technology to market.
The Effects of Heating Rate and Reaction Time On Hydrothermal
Liquefaction of
Microalgae<https://aiche.confex.com/aiche/2012/webprogram/Paper280193.html>
Savage Lab<http://savageresearchlab.wordpress.com>
Source: University of
Michigan<http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/20947-biofuel-breakthrough-quick-cook-method-turns-algae-into-oil>
--
-Kum bay ya-
0 new messages