The world is highly dependent on petroleum-based fuels as the primary transportation fuel. In recent years, the heightened awareness of greenhouse gas emissions led to an increase in research and development of alternative fuel sources. Most sources of energy on earth can be said to originate from energy transmitted from the sun. Oil and petroleum fields around the world were originally large amounts of organic matter, such as algae, that under specific conditions were transformed into fossil deposits through slow chemical reactions. The most productive source of ‘fresh’ oil is green algae, microscopic water living organisms, which capture sunlight and store it as oil.
In this project we are using naturally sourced strain of algae isolated from Persian Gulf, the production plant does not undertake research on genetically modified strains of algae species biofuels production. There are several approaches for this process, including the conversion of lipids to FAME biodiesel via transesterfication ,or the conversion of lipids to n-alkanes through either thermocracking or catalytic hydrotreating. FAME Biodiesel generally consists of long chain alkyl esters while conventional diesel consists of a mixture of alkanes, naphthenes, and aromatics.
Most of the existing technologies to produce fuel from vegetable oils and lipids involve the production of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). This product has high cetane but has poor stability and high solvency, resulting in storage problems. In addition, for a constant volume basis, biodiesel has approximately 9% lower energy content than regular diesel, due to its high oxygen content.
The hydrotreating process, a conventional petroleum refining process employed in petroleum refineries, can convert the triglycerides derived from the algae into n-alkanes in a more efficient and economical way.These n-alkanes are suitable for direct blending into a diesel pool or for further upgrading/reforming into gasoline, jet fuel, or gasoline. Byproducts such as biomass (55% of algae product) could be used in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and energy generation. These products are more valuable than livestock feed and could potentially bring in even greater value. Carbon credits from potential cap-and-trade programs could be considered as an additional source of byproduct revenue.
- Green Crude Oil
- Bio Diesel
- Bio Jett
