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Veridium Converting Exhaust Carbon Dioxide from Ethanol Production into Biomass for Ethanol and Biodiesel
23 February 2006
Veridium Corporation is applying its algae-based carbon-dioxide scrubber to convert exhaust carbon dioxide from the fermentation stage of ethanol production facilities into biomass for subsequent use in ethanol or biodiesel production.
Veridium, via its majority owner Greenshift, has a cynaobacteria (blue-green algae)-based bioreactor process for reducing greenhouse gases emissions from fossil-fueled combustion processes. (Earlier post.) The algae (a recently discovered iron-loving cyanobacterium, tentatively named Chroogloeocystis siderophila, discovered thriving in a hot stream at Yellowstone) grow in the bioreactor on membranes of woven fibers.
Capillary action wicks water to the algae, fiber optic cables channel sunlight into the glow plates, and ducts bring in the exhaust gas. In concept, this is very similar to GreenFuel Technologies’s “Emissions-to-Biofuels” reactor; the implementation is, however, quite different.
The new technology is simple and scalable, and was originally designed to stimulate additional revenues for power plant operators while decreasing plant emissions.
The algae use the available carbon dioxide and water to grow new algae, giving off pure oxygen and water vapor in the process. Once the algae grow to maturity, they fall to the bottom of the bioreactor where the algae can be harvested for other uses several times per day. One such use is conversion into clean fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.
Ethanol is made from starch-based feedstocks and biodiesel is made from animal fats and vegetable oils. Corn, the primary feedstock for ethanol production today, contains about 66% starch and 3-4% oil.
Veridium’s new BioStarch Recirculation System routes exhaust carbon dioxide from the fermentation stage of the ethanol production process through Veridium’s bioreactor where it is consumed by algae that are about 94% starch and about 6% oil.
The algae convert exhaust carbon dioxide and sunlight into biomass. This biomass is a very efficient feedstock for ethanol production and is itself a concentrated source of the primary ingredient of ethanol. It doubles in mass several times per day—a rate much faster than plants, and it does all of this on a footprint that is orders of magnitude less than the surface area required for crops.
That said, this technology is by no means a replacement for crops. Traditional ethanol feedstocks are still required to generate the quantities of carbon dioxide needed to make our bioreactor effective.
—David Winsness, CEO of Veridium’s industrial design division
Veridium also recently announced the receipt of its first order for its system that extracts high-grade corn oil from a corn ethanol by-product called distillers dried grain (DDG). The corn oil can then be used as a feedstock for biodiesel production. (Earlier post.)
February 23, 2006 in Biodiesel, Biomass, Climate Change, Emissions, Ethanol | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments
Can this system be used in Coal Power Plants?? That would be a good source of CO2 for those algae. (Assuming that other particles emmited would not poison algae).
Anyway, I am so happy that they started to use algae again.
Posted by: W2 | Feb 23, 2006 7:51:51 AM
I believe that there was an article on this very site that discussed just that. There's a pilot project where, I think, they claimed to be cutting CO2 emissions by 40% with this process.
Posted by: Tripp Bisop | Feb 23, 2006 8:50:36 AM
I believe you guys are thinking about GreenFuel Technologies which was indeed featured on this site a while back. They were also featured on Scientific American with Alan Alda. Scientific American has that video available online. You can watch it here:
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1506/video/watchonline.htm
Posted by: WordChanger | Feb 23, 2006 9:56:25 AM
WordChanger thanks for link. Is GreenFuel Technologies part of story about hydrogen??
Posted by: W2 | Feb 23, 2006 10:06:55 AM
Click on the (Earlier Post) in the above article and it gives a nice comparision of both GreenShift and GreenFuel technologies.
Posted by: Craig | Feb 23, 2006 11:03:42 AM
Of course, the need for a carbon source only matters if the product carries carbon away from the process. If you use the ethanol to generate hydrogen, the carbon can be recycled indefinitely.
This is no good for motor fuel, but it would make feasible a completely self-contained solar-powered nitrate production plant. You put in water and sunlight, process ethanol to hydrogen and recycle the CO2, use hydrogen to fix nitrogen.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | Feb 23, 2006 12:00:15 PM
A page that provides some more inputs on biodiesel from algae is Algae Biodiesel - Links, Resources
Vic, Castor Oil Online
Posted by: Vic Verghese | May 16, 2006 4:46:21 AM
Wouldn't the dead algae serve as valuable fertiliser?
Posted by: mark marren | Mar 5, 2007 10:39:35 AM
At Global Eco, we have been promoting the use of micro algae to change atmospheric carbon dioxide into foods, biofuels and world resources continuously cyclically and in great quantities.
With thirty five years of research we have a very considerable archive of information and understanding that we would like our world to know about.
Global Eco is self-funded and not-for-profit.
Harry Hart +44 (0)1359 271019
Posted by: Harry Hart | Sep 15, 2007 8:02:25 AM
