{"600283":{"#nid":"600283","#data":{"type":"news","title":"The Promise of Blue-green Algae: An Environmentally Friendly Source for Producing Biofuels and Other Products","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMany people are familiar with ethanol \u0026mdash; a popular biofuel mixed with gasoline \u0026mdash; and how it\u0026rsquo;s made in the United States: from corn. Second-generation biofuel is also coming on to the market, made from inedible plant materials such as corn stalks, leaves, and cobs.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ENow, thanks to a $6.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), a third generation of biofuel is being developed via blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\u003C\/div\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe three-year grant was jointly awarded to Algenol, an industrial biotechnology company; Georgia Tech; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and Reliance Industries under the DOE\u0026rsquo;s Advancements in Algal Biomass Yield, Phase 2 (ABY2) program to produce biocrude and co-products. Valerie Thomas, the Stewart School of Industrial \u0026amp; Systems Engineering\u0026rsquo;s Anderson Interface Professor of Natural Systems, and Matthew Realff, the School of Chemical \u0026amp; Biomolecular Engineering\u0026rsquo;s Professor and David Wang Sr. Fellow, are the lead researchers from Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis grant will enable the team to explore the environmental process and impacts of cyanobacteria-produced biofuels and other high-value chemicals. The ethanol is extracted from the algae\u0026rsquo;s water and nutrient bath in a process that is similar to whiskey distillation. Algenol has developed a process that produces pure ethanol from very dilute ethanol in a way that is highly energy efficient.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhy is cyanobacteria as a source for ethanol so promising? Principally, cyanobacteria-produced biofuel is environmentally friendly \u0026mdash; for a number of reasons.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs Thomas explained, \u0026ldquo;The algae are grown in photobioreactors, which are basically large plastic bags, along with water and nutrients. The plastic bags hang in rows out in the sun, and there\u0026rsquo;s no reason for the land to be good agricultural land. It can be in desert areas or near the coast for shipping. It\u0026rsquo;s also quite productive per acre compared with land plants [that can be used to make first- or second-generation biofuel].\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn addition, the carbon dioxide that the algae need to grow could be siphoned-off fossil fuel power plant emissions and piped into the photobioreactors. A number of other carbon capture and utilization scenarios for biorefineries have been studied by the Algenol-Georgia Tech team, including stand-alone systems where carbon dioxide is generated on-site. Many of those scenarios show competitive economics and very low carbon footprints compared to gasoline.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThomas \u0026mdash; an expert on greenhouse gas emission evaluation \u0026mdash; and Realff \u0026mdash; an expert in chemical process modeling and optimization \u0026mdash; have been working with Algenol on its biofuel production processes for a number of years. Thomas works in environmental systems analysis, with a main area being life-cycle assessment. This means that she looks at the entire supply chain for producing and using this biofuel. She said that this includes \u0026ldquo;what kind of fertilizer it uses, how the production facility is built, and the energy used in the facility \u0026mdash; how much is used and where it comes from. All the emissions need to be taken into account.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo proceed to commercial-scale production, the process needs to be both environmentally sound and cost-effective. It\u0026rsquo;s challenging to make third-generation biofuel that can match today\u0026rsquo;s historically low petroleum prices. However, Algenol technology can yield other products, including natural food colorants and fertilizers, that are well along in the pipeline.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EExpanding on the multi-product approach, the grant team is evaluating additional biofuel components that can be made within an Algenol biorefinery that would be cost-effective and have low environmental impact.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAn Algenol-Georgia Tech team that includes ISyE Anderson Interface Professor of Natural Systems Valerie Thomas is working to produce ethanol from cyanobacteria.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"An Algenol-Georgia Tech team that includes ISyE Anderson Interface Professor of Natural Systems Valerie Thomas, is working to produce ethanol from cyanobacteria."}],"uid":"28766","created_gmt":"2018-01-02 17:00:48","changed_gmt":"2018-03-21 23:48:13","author":"Shelley Wunder-Smith","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2018-01-02T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2018-01-02T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"600282":{"id":"600282","type":"image","title":"Photobioreactors are large plastic bags that contain the nutrient bath in which algae is grown.","body":null,"created":"1514911716","gmt_created":"2018-01-02 16:48:36","changed":"1521676080","gmt_changed":"2018-03-21 23:48:00","alt":"Photobioreactors are large plastic bags that contain the nutrient bath in which algae is grown.","file":{"fid":"230278","name":"algae.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/algae.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/algae.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":85523,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/algae.jpg?itok=B1fHjtcs"}}},"media_ids":["600282"],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"},{"id":"1243","name":"The Supply Chain and Logistics Institute (SCL)"},{"id":"1316","name":"Green Buzz"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"1135","name":"valerie thomas"},{"id":"176639","name":"Matthew Realff"},{"id":"426","name":"isye"},{"id":"173096","name":"cyanobacteria"},{"id":"136271","name":"Algenol"},{"id":"663","name":"Department of Energy"},{"id":"3441","name":"DOE"},{"id":"176640","name":"ehtanol"},{"id":"2056","name":"biofuel"},{"id":"479","name":"Green Buzz"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:shelley.wunder-smith@isye.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EShelley Wunder-Smith\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EStewart School of Industrial \u0026amp; Systems Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E404.385.4745\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["shelley.wunder-smith@isye.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}