Development Of Refinery Co2 Capture By Microalgae

CATEGORY: CARBON CAPTURE
Goriva i maziva, 52, 4 : 296-304, 2013
Development Of Refinery Co2 Capture By Microalgae
Keresztényi István, Babos Katalin, Bohács György, Siklósi Tamás
MOL Hungarian Oil & Gas Plc., Downstream Development
Abstract
As a significant emitter of carbon-dioxide in the region MOL Hungarian Oil & Gas Plc. has launched an extensive research program associated with carbon capture and utilization. Research is focused on the utilization of carbon dioxide as a feedstock for biological processes such as greenhouse growing and microalgae cultivation for further industrial applications. For the development of microalgae related technologies MOL Downstream Development has established collaboration with several scientific institutions to screen for the most productive microalgal strains, to further increase their productivity by bioengineering, and to develop scalable technologies for the cultivation, separation and processing of microalgae. The potential of microalgae resides in their increased growth rates and superior lipid content compared to other plants such as rapeseed. An ideal application would therefore be the extraction of these lipids and their processing to next generation biofuels. Based on experiments performed in our outdoor photobioreactors the yearly production of 60-80 t/ha dry algal biomass and the recovery of approximately 20 t/ha algal oil are estimated. However, the aquatic nature of these microorganisms requires cost intensive pretreatment technologies to be applied prior to extraction which offset the improved yield. As opposed to extraction biogas production does not require expensive pretreatment to be applied (5 wt% dry matter content is sufficient), therefore it could be a better alternative for processing microalgae. Based on the current status of research the feasibility of extraction and biogas production has been thoroughly studied and assessed.
Conclusion
Among the various alternatives to carbon capture and utilization microalgae cultivation is currently one of the less mature and more expensive alternatives. In order to improve productivity, continuous strain selection and strain improvement is crucial, as well as the development of a cheap and reliable cultivation system.
Effective separation and processing technologies need to be developed as well in order to increase the value of this otherwise worthless feedstock. However, the potential of microalgae for CO2 utilization is enormous, and it is hard to confirm or deny if we can exploit this potential in the future or not. Our challenge for the years to come is to advance in all fields of this technology from strain improvement to biomass processing and significantly reduce production costs.
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