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Industrial Biomass algal biopetroleum technology uses algae in new and innovative ways to avoid the major problems of biofuels in general and algal biofuels in particular. The major problems associated with previous algal biofuel technologies are described on the right of this page.
Algal biopetroleum is easily separated from water, which saves the most energy intensive steps of previous algal biofuel technologies.
Algal biopetroleum does not suffer from serious contamination in the same way as previous algal biofuel technologies. It can also be grown naturally at very high densities without complicated agitation or expensive bioreactor design.
Algal biopetroleum does not suffer from self-shading.
Algal biopetroleum is not biodiesel or ethanol, our feedstock can be used to produce a fuel product identical to traditional gasoline or aviation fuel, and can also be used as a feedstock for hydrogen and biochemical production.
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Industrial Biomass is a biotechnology research company and early stage technology company. Industrial Biomass technology is designed to produce large amounts of high quality biomass as a feedstock for the production of next generation biofuels and bio-based products for the petrochemical industry.
We use algae in new and innovative ways to make the most of its superior qualities. Because algae can grow in salt water and can be grown in aquatic environments or in ponds on arid land they do not compete with the food supply. This flexibility will also be critical as the changing climate makes agriculture ever more unpredictable. Also, algae are the fastest growing plants on earth, making them potentially the most productive and efficient biofuel feedstock.
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Most biofuel production methods using algae suffer from similar problems. These problems add inefficiencies and cost to the algal biofuel systems and negate their environmental benefit. Some of the major problems are described below.
Dewatering Perhaps the biggest cost for algal biofuel systems is removing the biomass from the surrounding water. This applies to both removing the plants from their environment (flocculation) and removing the oil from the plants (pressing). These processes require energy and chemicals and therefore add considerable cost as well as offsetting the environmental benefits of bioenergy.
Contamination Because traditional algal biofuel systems require cells to be grown at unnaturally high cell densities in order to produce adequate biomass, these systems are prone to contamination by anything from bacteria to brine shrimp. High cell densities as well as concentrations of carbon dioxide and other nutrients create a perfect environment for contaminating organisms the control of which is costly.
Self-shading Because algae are self-contained microorganisms they each need access to light. In traditional algal biofuel systems this means that at high cell densities the algae require agitation and stirring which adds significant cost as well as loss of efficiency from less than saturating light levels.
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