Chemicals Technology - Algenol Biofuels is constructing an integrated algae-based pilot-scale biorefinery in Lee County, in the state of Florida in the US. The biorefinery is expected to produce about 100,000 gallons of fuel-grade ethanol a year. The plant was earlier planned to be located at Dow's industrial site in Freeport, Texas. It was, however, relocated to Florida in 2010.
Construction of the facility was started in October 2011. It is expected to be completed by late 2012. The project is expected to create about 130 jobs.
Algenol was founded in 2006. The new facility in Lee County brings together the company's aquaculture, engineering, biological, research and production facilities in to a single site. The company plans to develop the hybrid algae process technology to a scale of about 6,000gal/yr of ethanol per acre.
Feedstock for the pilot-scale biorefinery
Algenol's process produces ethanol from carbon dioxide (CO2), salt water and sunlight using metabolically enhanced hybrid blue-green algae.
The process takes place in patented photobioreactors (PBR). The feeding of algae in salt water is expected to require about two dry tons of CO2 a day.
Technology at Algenol Biofuels' facility
The ethanol pilot plant is located on a 36-acre site at Fort Myers in south-west Florida. The facility consists of a saltwater well, 4,200 square feet greenhouse, 10,000 square feet ethanol processing and water pavilion and a 10,000 square feet operations support building. The facility will accommodate about 3,000 PBRs in a commercial module. The main component of the technology is the patented photobioreactor (PBR) made from flexible plastic film.
The biorefinery is based on Algenol Biofuels' proprietary Direct to Ethanol algae technology. It will also have the proprietary membrane-based ethanol dehydration and advanced vapour compression steam stripper (VCSS) technology to yield high concentrations of the fuel product. The downstream ethanol separation is done through membranes or distillation processes to make it suitable for transportation.