Objective
BIOFAT is a ‘microalgae to biofuel’ Demonstration project with a farming area of 10-ha for microalgae cultivation and a target annual productivity of 100 tons per ha. The project will integrate all the processes from single cell to biofuel production. The production stage will be based on photobioreactors for inocula production, and raceways for production of bulk biomass and induction of oil/starch accumulation, necessary to obtain the biofuel (biodiesel and bioethanol). Carbon dioxide derived from fermentation will be used.
Biomass harvesting will be done by pre-concentration and subsequent centrifugation. A low-energy input centrifuge will be used. Extraction will be done by mechanical cell disruption of wet (25-30% dry solids) paste. Oil will be transformed into biodiesel by transesterification, and carbohydrates to bioethanol through fermentation. Oil and carbohydrate accumulation will be obtained by nutrient stress using specific algal strains.
Only marine strains will be used to avoid any competition with food crops. BIOFAT will also develop the concept of algorefinery (i.e. high value co-products besides biofuels).
BIOFAT will demonstrate at 10-ha scale proven and tested technologies which have been developed by Consortium members at small scale. Innovation will be in the scaling-up of the process to the 10-ha Demo Plant.
Specific Engineering and Business Plans for setting up the 10-ha Demo Plant will be based on the results obtained from operation of 2 0,5 ha Pilot Plants (Italy and Portugal). The 2 prototypes existing in Israel and Italy will be used for the training of a development team. The overall sustainability of the algal biofuel and co-products production will be evaluated by LCA. The project will have a duration of 4 years. A funding of 7,733 K€ will be requested to the EC. A specific investment for the Demo Plant will be provided by investors according to the Business Plan developed by the Consortium and by mobilizing the necessary investment support from RSFF.
Fields of science
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivity
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculescarbohydrates
- engineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybiomaterialsbiofuels
- agricultural sciencesagricultural biotechnologybiomass
- engineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybioprocessing technologiesfermentation
Keywords
Call for proposal
FP7-ENERGY-2010-2
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
CP - Collaborative project (generic)Coordinator
1649 038 Lisboa
Portugal