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Aquatic Biomass at TU DelftPeter Mooij

Ocean Energy kick-off 28-04-2015

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Why Aquatic Biomass

If our energy would be derived from recent photosynthesis there would be no net increase in CO2

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Why Aquatic Biomass

What source to use for fuels?

Depends on:• (Agricultural) land needed• Freshwater demand• Productivity

Microalgae -> lipids -> biodiesel

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Current status

• Microalgal cultivation takes place at small to medium scale.

• Only economically interesting for high-value products

• Topic of research worldwide

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Key Research Questions

• Increase lipid productivity • Light input• Carbon allocation in microalgae

• Enhance solid liquid separation after cultivation • 2 g / L starting concentration

• Come up with large scale processes• Size of Portugal needed for

transport fuel Europe• Marine environment

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Future Prospects

• More philosophical than technical -> need renewable liquid fuels -> algae are the best candidate

• Must be cheaper than drilling a hole in the ground

• More than scientific breakthroughs are needed

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Role of TUD

• If society wants renewable fuels, TUD can help supplying the solutions to do so

• The core of the process is biotechnology

• But we need maritime engineering, process engineering, chemical engineering …

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Key players

• Sapphire Energy (USA), Synthetic Genomics (USA), Algenol (USA), DARPA (USA)

• Beta-carotene production (Australia)

• Wageningen University (NL), University of San Diego, California (USA)