HydroDrive - Algae Green Fuel Technology

Algae can be found almost everywhere — oceans, ponds, swimming pools, and common goldfish bowls. While algae are not truly plants, these single-celled organisms have the same photosynthetic ability to convert sunlight into chemical energy. The various species are Blue Green Algae, Filamentous Algae, Pond Algae, Horsehair Algae, Toxic Algae, Algae Diatoms, Green Algae, Brown Algae, Pond Moss, Pond Scum. For some species of algae, this chemical energy is in the form of oils very similar to common vegetable oil.

Over the last 20 years microalgae production volumes have increased strongly. The cultivation of microalgaeis is proven to be the most profitable business in the biotechnology industry. It is a wasteless, ecologically pure, energy- and resource-saving process. Microalgae are a diverse group of microscopic plants with a wide range of physiological and biochemical characteristics and contain, among other things, high quantities of natural proteins, enzymes, amino acids, pigments, 30% lipids, over 40% glycerol, up to 8-10% carotene and a fairly high concentration of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, E, K, D etc, compared with other plants or animals. Moreover, microalgae are important raw materials for amino acids, and other medically important products.

Microalgae, like higher plants, produce and store lipids in the form of triacyglycerols (TAGs). TAGs could be used to produce a wide variety of chemicals, i.e.fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), which can be used as a substitute for fossil fuel-derived diesel. This fuel, known as biodiesel, can be synthesised from TAGs via a simple transesterification reaction in the presence of acid or base and methanol. Algae have emerged as one of the most promising sources especially for biodiesel production for the main reasons:

• The yields of oil from algae are orders of magnitude higher than those for normal oilseeds.
• Algae can be grown away from farms and forests, thus minimising the damage caused to the eco and food chain systems. They are also harvested very quickly, dramatically speeding up production process.

The oils from algae is processed and used to produce HIGH CETANE SYNTHETIC GREEN DIESEL with the patented HYDRODRIVE`S SYNTHESIZER in the EUROPE and the QUALITY OF FUEL stands tested to be far superior than the petrodiesel.

Algae’s single-celled structure is extremely efficient in using sun light and absorption of nutrients. Algae’s growth and productivity is 30 to 100 times higher than crops like soybeans, rapeseed or jetropha.

Algae production does not compete with agriculture. Algae production facilities are in closed enclosures and do not require soil for growth. Algae use 99% less water than conventional agriculture. Algae can be located on non-agricultural land far from water. Whole organism in algae converts sunlight into oil. Algae can produce more oil in an area the size of a two-car garage than an entire football field of soybeans/corn/rapeseed or jetropha.

Algae can be grown in sewage and next to power-plant/cement plant smokestacks where they digest the pollutants to produce oil.

To produce the required amount of biodiesel by growing soybeans would require almost 3bn acres of soybeans fields, or over 1bn acres of canola fields at nominal yields of 48 and 127 gallons of oil per acre, respectively. Conversely to produce 15,000 gallons of oil per acre from algae would require only approximately 9.5m acres.

• Microalgae grow much faster than the land grown plants, often 100 times faster;

With all this in mind, the use of algae as a feed additive could become the best solution, since microalgae contain natural organic acids that reduce colonization of pathogens. Thanks to this feature, of a specific species of algae towards feed conservation and reduction of microbiological pollution of wastewaters.

Some specific species of algae possesses other biologically attractive priorities, such as:

• A high concentration of chlorophyll (5-10 times) Chlorophyll is an effective means for the treatment of anaemia, pancreatitis, skin ulcers and diabetes.
• A unique cell wall which consists of three layers; a middle part consists of cellulose, and the outer layer is formed of polymeric carotene which is capable of adsorbing toxic elements and removing them from organisms.
• High contents of vitamins, especially pro-vitamin A carotene which not only plays an important role during the growth process, but destroys cancer cells in their initial stages and improves the generation of macrobacteriophage in the immune system.

An ability to intensively synthesize high concentration of nucleonic acids with a combination of high contents of fibres, peptides, amino acids, vitamins, sugars and trace elements. Not only does this promote rapid reproduction of algae, but as a growth factor also provides favourable conditions for algae use in other organisms.

The potential poultry demand for microalgae powder (as feed additives) is US$8.8m in the Armenian domestic market, more than US$1.2-7.2b in the US, more than US$1.4bn in China, and US$600m in Iran.

The specific algae is microscopic, green, single cell organism with a diameter of 3-10μm. During 12 hours the cell undergoes four-fold reproduction in optimum conditions. Compared to traditional plants, water consumption is 10-times lower. The biomass yield per unit area is five times higher.

The right naturally occurring algae species can, under just the right conditions, produce oil at near-theoretical limits. Their small size less than 30 microns and aquatic nature makes them ideal for a large-scale, highly automated, closed production system called a PHOTO BIO REACTOR. Microalgae have uniform cell structures with no bark, stems, branches or leaves, allowing easier extraction of products and higher utilisation of microalgae cells. Large scale systems are highly-tuned to provide each cell the precise conditions needed for maximum productivity with light and carbon di oxide sensors for faster multiplication and yield. The cellular uniformity of microalgae makes it practical to manipulate and control growing conditions for the optimization of cell properties. This means that even land not suitable for farming can be used to grow algae. Furthermore, this may be beneficial to countries not capable of raising crops due to their economy; the relative cheapness of growing biodiesel algae could be a saviour for them.

Algae live on a high concentration of carbon dioxide-the GREEN HOUSE GAS (GHG), nitrogen dioxide (NO2)-a pollutant of power plants and diesel exhaust. These pollutants in the atmosphere from the automobiles, cement plants, breweries, fertilizer plants, steel plants are nutrients for the algae. Algae production facilities can thus be fed with the exhaust gases from fossil fuels of these plants to significantly increase productivity and clean up the air.

It is known that the biological method is considered the most eff ective and economically efficient manner for the purification of industrial wastewater by using the microbiological active slime and algae. However, bacteria of the active slime have low stability to high concentrations of organic and mineral components. This method also requires further destruction of superfluous quantities of active slime, which also contains other pathogenic microorganisms. Microalgae on the other hand possess higher stability, which enables their use in more concentrated and toxic environments. One specific species of algae utilises mineral elements, spirits, sugar, and amino acids, and compared to active slime, enables higher purification rates up to 96-98% for organic and 80% for mineral components. It also has organic acids which prevent the growth of pathogenic microorganisms in solution. For example, a chemical plant in europe demonstrated high levels of cleaning of its phenol wastewaters from this specific algae species. Similar observations have been made at a nitric acid fertilizer and sugar plants, as well as cattle-breeding and poultry farming establishment. Sewage derived raw materials, which at present pollute the environment, and simultaneously provides biological clearing for these wastewaters creating an additional source of profit is possible with algae.

The Oxygen can be used for the hospitals and industries.

The carbohydrates remaining after the oil has been extracted from the algae and can be used to make animal feed.

During 2007, the primary goal was to increase the feed assimilability, but it was achievable principally by using small concentrations of powdered activated carbon and adding enzymes, raising only the degree of cellulose hydrolysis, assimilability and the commodity weight of production per feed unit. This one-sided approach has resulted in product quality impairment and a decrease in animal resistance to illnesses. Furthermore, an acute increase of frequency of mass epidemics among animals and poultry in various countries was observed. This has caused great economic damage to manufacturers and whole countries. The manufacture of vaccines against mass epidemics requires enormous feats of organization and is not always effective. A notable example was a new strain of H5N1 avian flu virus, which, at the end of 2006, was detected in China and was resistant to previously-produced vaccines.

Another problem faced today is the consequences caused by the over-use of antibiotics in animal feed. While antibiotics were proven to be effective in improving poultry production, their use came under pressure as an increasing number of consumers feared that their inclusion in animal feed rations would lead to antibiotic resistant bacteria that are pathogenic to humans.

In 2005 the EU removed the last antibiotic growth promoters from pig and poultry diets. The search for alternatives to these additives continues to attract intense interest. As consensus begins to develop among the scientific community on this subject, a few approaches stand out in terms of efficacy, technological and economical feasibility, particularly in terms of organic acids and the use of essential or botanical oils. Organic acids provide a natural alternative, reducing production of toxic components by bacteria and causing a change in the morphology of the intestinal wall that reduces colonization of pathogens, thus preventing damage to the epithelial cells. Anions of organic acids deactivate the RNA transferase enzyme, which damage the nucleic acid multiplication process and eventually result in death of the organisms. But the use of organic acids and essential oils in the feed industry are potentially a source of other problems: corrosion, worker safety, handling, vitamin stability in pre-mixes, environmental concerns, and the stability of products.

In general, traditional large scale biomass sources are not yet practical for the cement and power plant industry. Furthermore, not all biomass sources are available all the year-round for this application. The exhaust steam and effluent gases emitted from cement and thermoelectric power plants could be used for microalgae suspension heating in pools and biomass all year round. During microalgae aeration of effluent gases, CO2 is turned into O2 by photosynthesis, further potentially reducing industrial CO2 industrial emissions

Microalgae production and its biomass use for biofuel industry has global prospects and may provide sustainable economic development. It is possible to expect that in the near future algae will solve fuel problems and also will improve the quality of life of farmers, thus leading to a global re-orientation of priorities for fuel production.

Microalgae production may turn out to be a truly global way to settle global warming problems and farmers poverty problems in all developing countries.

HYDRODRIVE SYNTHESIZER makes use of the patented process to synthesis the algae biofuel upon excitation by waves resulting in plasma catalysis yielding HIGH CETANE GREEN SYNTHETIC DIESEL  with better cloud point, changed physical properties such as HIGH CETANE INDEX above 80  with excellent combustion and emission properties such as NOx free emission than the petro diesel at a cost very much less than the conventional petro diesel and also for use as an additive to improve the existing petro diesel qualities.