1. Biofuels Production & Analysis
Presenter: Elmar Schmid, Ph.D.
Associate Faculty, MiraCosta College, Oceanside, CA
VP & CSO, Sustainable Green Technologies Inc., Escondido, CA

2. Why Biofuels? Biodiesel
Unsaturated C16–18 Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME)

3. National Security & Energy Portfolio Diversification
America’s dependency on increasingly costly imported petroleum oil contributes to U.S. budget and trade deficit U.S. domestic oil production is about 8.5 million barrels/day but the nation consumes about 20 million barrels (840 million gal) of oil per day
U.S. energy bill signed in 2007 mandates 36 billion gallons of fuels to come from biofuels by 2030.

4. Annual (2009) Oil Production/Imports of California (Thousand barrels)
State’s Petroleum Oil Production is Declining
California imports more than 45% of its petroleum oil from foreign sources
Annual (2009) Oil Production/Imports of California (Thousand barrels)
Foreign
CA Domestic
National
Source: CA Energy Commission
Annual Total: 605,089

5. Political Reasons & Incentives
In April 2006, former CA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order (S-06-06), directing Californian agencies to take steps in increasing the state’s biofuels production and biomass power generation % of biofuels used in the state from state sources by % by 2020 and 75 % by more electricity generation from renewable biomass.
Schwarzenegger also proposed a Hydrogen Highway plan. California has invested $6.5 million to support a network of more than 16 filling stations and a growing fleet of cars and buses that run on this clean fuel.

6. Ecological Reasons
Global average temperatures are rising most likely due to rising anthropogenic green house gas emissions (CO2, CH4, NOx)
Need for “carbon neutral” fuel and energy solutions
Annual carbon emissions from fossil fuel consumption
Deep water horizon oil drilling rig explosion (Gulf of Mexico) April 10, 2010

7. Environmental Reasons
Fossil fuel extraction takes increasing costly toll on diverse environments (oil spills, oil shale fracturing, mountain top mining)
Accelerated fossil fuel combustion has costly negative impact on human wellbeing and health Particulate matter (PM)  Diesel engines NOx and ozone  Otto engines Benzene  Gasoline Heavy metals  Coal SO2  Coal

8. What are Biofuels?
Biofuels are liquid or gaseous fuels produced from renewable biomass, such as: 1. Corn  Starch  Bioethanol 2. Sugar cane  Sucrose  Bioethanol 3. Sugar beet  Sucrose  Bioethanol 4. Wood,  Cellulose  Bioethanol 5. Manure  Protein  Biogas (CH4) 6. Rapeseed  Oil  Biodiesel 7. Palm seed  Oil  Biodiesel
8. Diverse  Sugars  Biohydrogen
Many biofuels are produced with the help of microorganisms, such as yeast, bacteria, or microbial enzymes

9. Biofuels Biogas Bioethanol Bio- H2 Biodiesel Potatoes Sugar Beet
Manure
Landfills
Wheat
Corn
Sugar Cane
Biogas
Bioethanol
Biofuels
Bio- H2
Biodiesel
Sun Flower
Microalgae
Palm
Biomass
Rapeseed
Soybean
Figure©E.Schmid-2011

10. Why Biofuels from Microalgae?
Chlorella minutissima
Photo©E.Schmid-2010

11. What are Microalgae?
Microalgae are microscopically small aqueous life forms which perform
a biological process called photosynthesis.
Sun
Water
(H2O)
Carbon Dioxide
(CO2)
Oxygen
(O2)
Light Energy +
Micro
algae
Biomass
Sugars
Starch
Cellulose
Oils
Graphic©E.Schmid-2010

12. Microalgae Advantages
Fast growth rate and biomass productivity. Double in less than 24 hours.
Higher sunlight conversion efficiency than terrestrial green plants Solar conversion efficiency is with 4-5% a factor of 50 higher than in plants.
Large scale cultivation of microalgae removes significant amounts of
the green house gas CO2 from the atmosphere.
Microalgae are metabolically very versatile. Many value products can
can be produced, including antioxidants, poly-unsaturated fatty acids, (PUFAs), cattle feedstock and algae oils.
Algae oils have been shown to be suitable for biodiesel production.

13. Taken from the website of Bioprodukte-Prof. Steinberg GmbH, Germany
Large scale cultivation of microalgae under controlled, contamination-free conditions can be achieved in closed loop photobioreactors.
Commercial tubular closed loop algae photobioreactor
Taken from the website of Bioprodukte-Prof. Steinberg GmbH, Germany

14. Microalgae have higher oil productivity than agricultural plants
Some microalgae accumulate up to 50% of their dry weight as oil.
Microalgae farming has the potential to yield more than 70,000
gallons of oil per hectare per year (70,000 gal oil/ha/y).
Crop
Oil Yield (kg oil / ha x year)
Oil Yield (gal oil / ha x year)
Corn
146 45
Soybeans
375
120
Peanuts
921
282
Rapeseed/ Canola
1,000
306
Olives
1,051
322
Avocado
2,298
705
Palm oil
5,000
1,575/1,890
Algae Farming
268,950 (Valcent) 60,000 (Shell) 21,842 (Molina et al.) 33,000 (other)
82,500 18,405 6,700 10,123

15. Microalgae Fuel Advantage
Microalgae-derived fuels offer many advantages over currently used fossil fuels:
1. Fuels can be produced in a sustainable, renewable way algae are harvested and quickly regrown within days or weeks within designed photobioreactor environments 2. Fuels, e.g. biodiesel, burns carbon-neutral when combusted in internal combustion engines or other energy conversion devises CO2 emitted through combustion of algae-derived biodiesel does not add new carbon into the atmosphere
3. Microalgae oils and fuels are non-toxic and highly bio-degradable. 4. Algae can grow in low grade water, waste water and even marine water Production of 1 t of algae biomass requires about 38,500 liters of water

16. Biofuels Production & Analysis
Why a
Biofuels Production & Analysis
Curriculum?
Photo©E.Schmid-2010

17. - Work force development -
Economical Reasons
- Work force development -
Important California Biofuels Companies with rapidly developing “green tech” workforce demand in the future.
Sapphire, San Diego - “green crude” from algae
Verenium (former Diversa), San Diego
Synthetic Genomics, San Diego - fully synthetic microbes for biofuels production
Pearson Fuels, San Diego - built first ethanol (E-85) station in CA
Amyris, San Francisco - genetically modified yeast for hydrocarbon production
AE Biofuels, Cupertino - cellulosics ethanol production
Cobalt Biofuels, Mountain View
Imperial Valley Biodiesel, El Centro
“In San Diego County, the algae biofuels industry already provides 410 direct jobs and $56 million in direct economic
activity.”

18. Biofuels Production & Analysis Curriculum
Lecture a. History of fossil fuels & Introduction b. Energy c. Fuels d. Carbon chemistry & Biomass e. Enzymes f. Gases g. Photosynthesis & Algae h. Biofuels
Laboratory a. Media preparation & Cell counting techniques lab b. Cellulase enzyme lab c. Biohydrogen production lab d. Algae photobioreactor lab
e. Algae oil extraction & analysis lab
In Progress
A laboratory manual and textbook written the presenter will be available as part of NBC2’s Global Biomanufacturing Curriculum at

19. Educational biohydrogen reactor – fuel cell work station
Photo©E.Schmid-2010

20. Educational bubble column photobioreactor work station
Photo©E.Schmid-2010

21. $ $ Algae oil extraction & analysis curriculum ELSD- HPLC Analysis
Curricular Development in Progress $
Purchase of Evaporative Light Scattering Detector
ELSD- HPLC
Analysis
Accelerated
Solvent Extraction
(ASE)
Transesterification
Purchase of ASE Unit $
FAME
(“Biodiesel”)
Algae
Harvest
Dry Algae
Biomass
Algae Oil
Extraction
Algae Oil/FAME
Analysis
Figure©E.Schmid-2011

22. Acknowledgements
Special thanks to following individuals, organizations & corporations:
Mike Fino MEng – Bioprocess Technology Program, MiraCosta College, Oceanside, CA
Kathleen Alfano, PhD - Director/PI, NSF ATE CREATE Renewable Energy Center, College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita, CA
Sonja Wallman, PhD - Executive Director, Northeast Biomanufacturing Center and Collaborative (NBC2), Portsmouth, NH
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Dionex Corporation