Projects Well Underway to Produce Biofuel from Algae in Japan
Large-scale algae-culturing projects are well underway in various places to produce biofuel from algae. Academic-industrial collaborations are expediting the projects through research to find means to culture algae effortlessly and to obtain biofuel efficiently. Stable production and cost-efficiency are essential to make this project feasible.
At an algae culture facility in Ishikawa-cho, Tokushima, a dark green circular water tank, 5 meters in diameter, slowly rotates to grow a microalga called Scenedesmus, about 20 micrometers (micro means one millionth) in size. Given sunlight and water, microalgae take in carbon dioxide (CO2) and photosynthesizes an oily raw material for biofuel. Subject to climatic conditions, this water tank can produce up to 0.2 liters on biofuel per day.
Prof. S. Nishio of Shikoku University has been at this research for a decade now and says up to 50% of the dry weight (i.e. off water) of microalgae is this oil raw material which mathematically multiplies overnight. It's highly tolerant to temperature fluctuations anywhere between 40 degrees down to freezing point.
Industries are taking part in algae culture from the point view of enlarging operations and cost efficiency.
IHI (Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd,) built this spring a huge 1,500-square meter (16,000-square feet) facility for algae culture on commission from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). They are culturing Botryococcus, several micrometers in size, with the cooperation of Prof. T. Enomoto of Kobe University.
Vice-chief T. Narikiyo of IHI's New Projects Promotion Department boasts the company has formulated basic know how for culturing algae outdoors "less-exactly".
According to IHI, certain overseas data have it that a hectare of a farm can yield up to 13.7 thousand liters of oil per year. IHI points out, however, Botryococcus can yield two to ten times as much oil, given the same acreage.
