A New Win-Win? CO2-eating Microalgae as a Biofuel Feedstock

While researchers remain skeptical about turning any form of microalgae into profitable biomass, an Australian company thinks it can do just that.

Bruce Dorminey, Correspondent 
October 03, 2013 

S Successful microalgae-to-biodiesel conversion has been the goal of some renewable energy rrresearchers for more than two decades. But after years of research on how to best grow these Carbon Dioxide (CO2)-loving plants in open ponds, a commercially viable solution has remained elusive.

Now, Algae.Tec Ltd., a six year-old Australian-based "advanced renewable oil from algae" start up, claims to have a potentially revolutionary solution. That is, growing and harvesting the microalgae in enclosed used sea-land shipping containers - which often seem almost as plentiful as microalgae itself.

The 2640-MW Bayswater Power Station will feed waste CO2 into an enclosed algae growth system. Credit Algae.Tec. 

These enclosed microalgae farms would in part feed off the serendipitous production of carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and eventually waste CO2 from other manufacturing facilities.

To that end, Algae.Tec has signed a deal with Macquarie Generation, Australia's largest electricity generator, to put an "algae carbon capture and biofuels" production facility next to a coal-fired power station in Australia's Hunter Valley. Macquarie Generation, which operates the Sydney-area 2640 MW Bayswater Power Station, will feed waste CO2 into an enclosed algae growth system.

Algae converts CO2 into triacylglycerol (tags) oils that can then be chemically converted into biodiesel.