Anyone use algae as SVO instead of Bio Diesel? I use WVO now and do not like making Bio Diesel. So can algae be used as just oil, after filtered like WVO on a heated system???

Algae is a photosynthetic organism. I think it's a single cellled plant, but some varieties are almost like animals in that their shells are very high in protein rather than cellulose.

Algae would need to be farmed or harvested in nature in sufficiently dense population & quantity to filter the algae cells out from the water they live in, then either chemically or mechanically break the cell walls open to make the oil available.

Farming or harvesting algae in dense enough polulations & sufficient quantities to make seperation & extraction commercially viable are what's currently stopping algae from taking off in any real way. Research is just research until someone comes out and says that they've perfected a process for farming the stuff densely enough to allow for a net energy surplus, rather than spending more energy pumping seawater around and filtering stuff than what's made by combusting the extacted oil. Even if some corporation claims they've done it, until the SEC & mainstrean investers like Warren Buffet believe their story, then neither will I.

I hope someone does it though. It sounds good, just difficult, that's all.

I love biodiesel and the idea of growing algae for its oil content, but unfortunately this is seeming like more and more of a distant dream...

Think roses. They also contain oil, but to try to commercially grow and harvest them exclusively for the oil would be impossible.

Algae as animal feed and fertilizer IS viable, however. And as for the oil, feeding the algae to brine shrimp or some other organism that can metabolize the algae into oils that are more easily claimed seems to be the solution for getting oil from algae. Check out (google) A2BE who are looking into just this very idea.

For SVO conversions, algae/brine shrimp/tilapia fish oil should be suitable since they would be lighter oils similar to sunflower oil etc. with shorter carbon chains and lower gel points etc.

welder,

The brine-shrimp thing I learned from the Algal-Based Carbon Capture Webinar by Jim Sears of A2BE. (The link still works as of today even though it was supposed to be available free only through 4-4) The reason for feeding the algae to brine shrimp was more about the ease of removing the shrimp from the water for harvesting, versus removing the algae from water and drying it.

I recorded the audio for the webinar and am working on a transcription which I will be posting to this site.

quote:

The reason for feeding the algae to brine shrimp was more about the ease of removing the shrimp from the water for harvesting, versus removing the algae from water and drying it.

I wonder how much of the algae oil gets metabolised into kinetic energy (wasted) by the shrimp swimming all over the pond eating the algae?

I guess I better just read the link...

The algae (as shrimp food) doesn't have oil in it. Alga make oil when stressed, converting carbohydrates (mostly sugar) into oil to store energy as a hedge for better growing conditions. Obviously, shrimp must not stress algae.
Cheers
JohnO

Originally posted by clean and green:
From this Wikipedia article:
"Fish oils are rich in DHA. Most of the DHA in fish and more complex organisms originates in... microalgae, and becomes increasingly concentrated in organisms as it moves up the food chain.

...Most animals make very little DHA through metabolism..."

The major American producer of DHA from microalgae, Martek Biosciences, extracts the naturally occuring oil from the algal species Crypthecodinium cohnii. The naturally occurring oil amounts to about 10% of the weight of the algae, and I don't believe they do much to stress the organisms to produce more oil for fear of collapsing the colonies and interrupting production.

Hope this helps!

Google Lindsay Williams. Someone on this board doesn't like that name since the correct spelling, with an 'sey' versus 'say' brings up an 'admin approval' page. Within a day or two the incorrect spelling of Lindsay will probably also be flagged so expect these posts to 'disappear'. Try it yourself. Yes I am posting this to a bunch of pages since I smell a big fat rat!!! Google Lindsay Williams!!!

I am interested in Algae as SVO for *personal* use, not for commercial use.

My goal is to be as close to complete energy self-sufficiency as possible. I need to find the most efficient and inexpensive way to produce SVO for use in my own WVO/SVO converted vehicles as possible. I am not interested in making biodiesel as biodiesel requires the use of petrochemically derived methanol and lab grade lye/caustic agent. I cannot produce either of those myself. I don't want to rely on WVO sources for oil, I'd like to be able to produce all of the feedstock for oil on my own land, press it and dewater/centrifuge it myself and use it directly in my SVO converted vehicles, generators and tractor. I estimate I only need around 1000-1500 gallons per year total of SVO to fuel all of my engines.

I have 10 acres of cultivatable land in central Texas to grow oilcrops on, but I do not wish to grow an oilcrop that must be manually harvested such as jatropha nor can I afford a fantastically expensive combine to harvest crops like sunflowers, canola, or peanuts (especially when I only have 10 acres to work with). My only farm machinery is a 34HP tractor so any planting/harvesting implements have to be able to operate from the PTO of a tractor that size. I can afford a Chinese screw/expeller press that runs off PTO power from the SVO converted tractor. I already have a centrifuge filtration rig for filtering WVO.

I am considering algae as a feedstock for SVO, and I have the land available to create a decent size bioprocessor, but I am unable to get any straight answers as to what is actually required to grow algae and extract oil from them on a SMALL home/hobbyist/subsistence scale. I'm not interested in any kind of commercial production whatsoever. Wheres the best place to look for information given my needs?