Is anyone growing there own biodiesel in a PBR system? I searched and I couldn't find a thread about it.
I have looked into this alot and there are flexible PBR systems that look like clear pool rafts $600 and up), or some rigid tube strutures that the algae/water travel through using pumps absorbing sunlight and can be continously harvested for pressing and then further oil extration with chemicals.
I can't find difinitive info on how the extracted oil is made into biodiesel but from the reading it seems you just go right into the same process like veggie oil with the water removal, lye, meth..
Love to throw info back and forth with someone who has looked at this or is currently doing this. Cheap fuel is nice, even for my big gen during hurricane season when fuel may be hard to obtain.
I would think that in a multi you would just have to get the oil out and filtered. I had heard that the feul from this is not very stable. I am interested in what people are doing.
I would think that in a multi you would just have to get the oil out and filtered. I had heard that the feul from this is not very stable. I am interested in what people are doing.
That could be true for the multi.
I hadn't come across it not being stable. Do you mean unstable like ethanol-laced gasoline phase seperating and absorbing water when stored for long periods.
I'm really interested to know what strain of algae to use (cynobacteria?), where to get it, how to collect it from the PBR. After you press out the oil can you reinsert the remaining algae back into the system to produce more hydrocarbons?
Most of the information I have come across goes through the overall process but is short on details.
I'm not expert but have been reading about algae-based bio-D on and off for a few years. I think that the strain...or more accurately the BEST strain, is the million dollar question. At one point about 5 or 6 years ago I stumbled into a lengthy Department of Energy study that outlined several proposed processes and discusssed strains. The report was a wrap-up of maybe 10 years of experiments.
Now that there is more interest in it, I can't find it anymore. Its burried underneath all the grant du-jure studies and snake oil.
I think I found a summary...though what I'm thinking of was a few thousand pages IIRC. Its refered to as the "close out report", linked from the powerpoint and other places on the internet. The link is now dead
"Petroleum at <$20/bbl in 1996 and "DOE expects petroleum costs to remain relatively flat over the next 20 years."
LOL.
Anyway, those aren't bad places to start I guess. If you figure it out, and avoid getting killed by "the powers that be"....keep us in mind in your new status as world's richest person.
There is a lot of biofuels/biotechnology research going on in North Carolina; I don't know anyone using this type of system but it would seem that the actual chemical structure of the vegetable oil pressed from the algae would affect the type of fuel being made from it. Canola is a big favorite for field growth; I just googled up PBR systems before getting on herre since I'd never heard of them before: really interesting but wonder at what scale you would have to produce to make it feasible.
There is a lot of biofuels/biotechnology research going on in North Carolina; I don't know anyone using this type of system but it would seem that the actual chemical structure of the vegetable oil pressed from the algae would affect the type of fuel being made from it. Canola is a big favorite for field growth; I just googled up PBR systems before getting on herre since I'd never heard of them before: really interesting but wonder at what scale you would have to produce to make it feasible.
I don't think it matters if its converted to diesel vs. run as straight oil. The average length of the hydro-carbon chains in the feed stock would affect the energy density and yield I suppose but it SHOULD all work.
The research is all ag. based because big ag has all the lobyists. IIRC, that report laid out that per acre an algae pond could produce more than any bean.
There's a lot of interesting ideas out there. I recently read one about "artificial leafs" that would use sunlight to break hydrogen off of water which could, in theory, then be combined with CO2 from the atmosphere to make synthetic liquid fuels that are drop-in replacements for RUG or diesel. It seems to be all about the scalability. Unless some of these exotic processes can be done at ambient temperature it will be really costly to go large scale.
OTOH, when fuel is $8/gal in a few years it may not look too bad.
Algae oil grown in continous photobioreactor.
