Optimizing Lipid Production by Planktonic

Algae:

LIPIDO

Kristian Spilling

Finnish Environment Institute, SYKE

Project leader: Timo Tamminen

● Aquatic, free-floating, unicellular or filamentous

(phytoplankton)

● Some are very fast-growing

● Cells contain minimal amounts of structural

component, but mainly of proteins, lipids (oil

compounds) and carbohydrates

Micro-algae

10 µm

● Harvest cycle

○ Forest biomass: years to decades

○ Field biomass: months

○ Microalgae: days, even hours

● Biomass composition

○ Plankton: oil compounds (lipids) can be very high (even

40-60%) – no structural compounds

● Production per area

○ Higher to very much higher (2-10 times), compared

with the best terrestrial crops

Why planktonic algae? – biology and

biochemistry

● Algae can be grown in a way that do not compete for fertile land

● Has potentially very positive energy / carbon balance

● Salt or wastewater can be used as the base for culturing

● Can be coupled with CO2 producing industry

● High potential for growth

● Potentially high lipid yield

Potential benefits of algae

Algal lipids as feedstock for biodiesel

www.freephoto.com www.waterencyclopedia.com

● Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) ○ Timo Tamminen

○ Kristian Spilling

○ Jukka Seppälä

● Algal growth experiments, environmental parameters

● VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland ○ Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey

○ Heiko Rischer

○ Dagmar Enss

● Lipidomics, overall biorefinery concept, downstream and sidestream processing

Partners - Finland

● Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), ○ Olav Vadstein

○ Yngvar Olsen

○ Matilde Skogen Chauton (Post Doc)

● Algal stoichiometry, growth yield and reactor technology

● University of Oslo ○ Tom Andersen

○ Per Færøvig (Post Doc)

● Algal growth response and optimization

Partners - Norway

● Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU)

○ Herwig Stibor

○ Maria Stockenreiter (PhD student)

○ Florian Haupt (PhD student)

● Algal stoichiometry and fatty acid composition

Partners - Germany

● Blue Lagoon

○ Ása Brynjólfsdóttir

○ Halldór G. Svavarsson (Reykjavik Univ.)

● Geothermal energy / CO2, algal cultivation

Partners - Iceland

Project focus

Growth Lipids Harvest

Lipid extraction

Water recycling

Biofuel production

Remaining biomass

Downstream processing:

Optimizing Lipid Production by Planktonic Algae

Norway

Marine algae

Finland

Brackish water algae

Germany

Freshwater algae

Project focus, division of labor

Iceland Thermophilic

algae

CO2

● To screen for the most promising algal species for temperate

environments

● To optimize their growth and lipid yield as functions of growth

conditions

● To test the practical applicability of coupling algal culturing to

CO2 emission mitigation

● To screen commercially interesting by-products from biomass

of selected species

12

Project goals

Algae Inorganic nutrients

e.g. N & P

Vegitative growth

Algae

Algae

Storage Lipids

Carbohydrates

Algal physiology

Activities – Equipment development

Oslo Trondheim

Activities: screening

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

C1

4:0

FA

ME

C1

5:0

FA

ME

C1

6:0

FA

ME

C1

6:1

FA

ME

C1

6:2

FA

ME

C1

6:3

FA

ME

C1

8:0

FA

ME

C1

8:1

n9F

AM

E

C1

8:1

n7F

AM

E

C1

8:2

FA

ME

C1

8:3

n6F

AM

E

C1

8:3

n3F

AM

E

C1

8:4

?F

AM

E

C1

4:0

FF

A

C2

0:3

n6F

AM

E

C2

0:4

n6F

AM

E

C2

0:3

n3F

AM

E

C2

0:5

FA

ME

C1

6:0

FF

A

C1

6:1

FF

A

C1

6:2

FF

A

C2

2:5

FA

ME

C2

2:6

FA

ME

(1

6:3

FF

A?

)

C1

8:0

FF

A

C1

8:1

n9F

FA

C1

8:1

n7F

FA

C1

8:2

FF

A

C1

8:3

n6F

FA

C1

8:3

n3F

FA

C1

8:4

?F

FA

FA

. %

of

tota

l F

A

Gymnodinium

Dinophyta

Haptophyta

Melosira

Chaetoceros

Diatoms

Chlamydomonas

Monoraphidium

Chlorella

Isochrysis

Pavlova

Thalassiosira

baltica

Thalassiosira

pseudonana

Activities: growth optimization

Pseudochattonella sp.

Chaetoceros wighamii

temperature

5 10 15 20

Irra

dia

nce

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

0,0

0,1

0,2

0,3

0,4

0,5

0,6

0,7

0,8

Thalassiosira baltica

temperature

5 10 15 20

Growth rates [d-1]

Activities: lipid accumulation

Chaetoceros

temperature

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Irra

dia

nce

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

0,8

1,0

1,2

1,4

1,6

1,8

2,0

2,2

2,4

2,6

Total FA as % of DW

Activities: lipid accumulation

Chaetoceros wighamii Thalassiosira baltica

19

Alternative CO2 sources / CO

2 mitigation

20

Alternative CO2 sources / CO

2 mitigation

21

Effect of different CO2 concentrations

CO2 repleted

CO2 depleted

22

By-products, antimicrobial effect of algae

● Rischer, H (2009) Photosynthetic microorganisms as a future source of energy. In: K. Larjava (ed.),

Energy Visions 2050, WS Bookwell Oy, Porvoo, 246-247.

● Packer A, Li Y, Andersen T, Hu Q, Kuang Y, Sommerfeld M (2011) Growth and neutral lipid synthesis in

green microalgae: a mathematical model Biores.Technol. 102: 111-117.

● Spilling K, Seppälä J, Tamminen T (2011) Inducing auto-flocculation in the diatom Phaeodactylum

tricornutum through CO2 adjustment. J Appl Phycol. DOI 10.1007/s10811-010-9616-5

● Stockenreiter M., Graber A.-K., Haupt F. and Stibor H. (2011). The effect of species diversity on lipid

production by micro-algal communities. J Appl Phycol. DOI: 10.1007/s10811-010-9644-1.

● Enss D, Seppälä J, Spilling K, Tamminen T, Oksman-Caldentey K-M, Rischer H. Growth phase changes in

lipid profiles of twenty phytoplankton species adapted to different temperatures. Submitted research

article.

● Spilling K., Seppälä J. Photobiology and lipid metabolism of algae. Submitted book chapter.

● Additioal 4-5 papers related to the work in LIPIDO in preparation

23

Outcome: articles (Sept 2011)

● Researcher training

○ 3 PhD students

○ 2 MSc thesis

○ 3 student projects

● Researcher mobility

○ 2 common experiments

● New research projects building on the results of LIPIDO

Outcome (Sept 2011)

● Key focus: growth and lipid optimization

○ New tools and methods being developed

○ Screening for lipids

○ Growth and lipid optimization

○ What stress factors increase the lipid yield?

● Other topics

○ Harvesting

○ Potential for using CO2 from power plant

○ Interesting bi-products

Conclusion

Thank you for your attention

Web page: http://www.ymparisto.fi/default.asp?contentid=312724&lan=en&clan=en