Mario R. Tredici

Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni

Agroalimentari e dell’Ambiente

Università degli Studi di Firenze

6-8 April 2016Real Marina Hotel Olhão, Portugal

Techno-economic analysis of microalgal

biomass production in a 1-ha Green Wall

Panel (GWP®) plant

The Green Wall Panel (GWP®)

A suitable tool for production of commodities?

GWP-I 7 April 2016 at 17:21

Enel S.pA.

Brindisi, Italy

GWP-I

GWP-I

Eni R&M 1- ha plant (Gela- Sicily)

GWP-I

GWP-I

AlgaeFuel objectives: 1. Selection and molecular characterization of autoctonus

algal strains 2. Development of the basic engineering for design and

operation of a pilot plant for algae biomass production 3. Produce algal biomass at pilot level (1 ha) 4. Optimization of culture parameters in PBR and ponds 5. Maximize algal lipid and oil production (for biodesel) 6. Use of co-products as feed (evaluation of nutritional and

toxicological features of algae meal) 7. Create an economically viable and sustainable enterprise

for producing, at 300 ha level, oil for biodiesel and biomass for feed, using flue gas as CO2 source

AlgaeFuels (Atacama - Chile)

GWP-II

GWP-II

The GWP III in Saudi Arabia

GWP-III

The GREEN WALL PANEL Developed at Florence University and commercialised by Fotosintetica & Microbiologica Srl

PHOTOFUEL - BIOCATALYTIC SOLAR FUELS FOR SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY IN EUROPE

Societal Challenges - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Call: H2020-LCE-2014-1; Topic: LCE-11-2014

List of participants 1 Volkswagen AG, Germany (Coordinator) 2 Uppsala Universitet, Sweden 3 Universität Bielefeld, Germany 4 Imperial College London, United Kingdom 5 Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy 6 A4F Algafuel SA, Portugal 7 IFP Energies nouvelles, France 8 Neste Oil Corporation, Finland 9 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany 10 Centro Ricerche Fiat SCPA, Italy 11 VOLVO Technology, Sweden 12 SYNCOM F&E Beratung GmbH, Germany

NOMORFILM - NOVEL MARINE BIOMOLECULES AGAINST BIOFILM. APPLICATION TO MEDICAL DEVICES.

CALL: H2020-BG-2014-2; TOPIC: BG-03-2014

Societal Challenges - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Project ID: 634588

List of participants 1 Barcelona Centre for International Health Research, Spain

(Coordinator) 2 University of Coimbra, Portugal 3 University of Oviedo, Spain 4 Karolinska Institute, Sweden 5 University of Florence, Italy 6 University of Almería, Spain 7 Copenhagen University, Denmark 8 Trinity College of Dublin, Ireland 9 Fotosintetica & Microbiologica Srl, Italy 10 NanoMedPharma Ltd, United Kingdom 11 KTEDOGEN Srl, Italy 12 MBA Incorporado SL, Spain 13 PyroGenesis SA, Greece

Cementa AB Degerhamn

Linnaeus University - Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Kalmar (Sweden)

The GREEN WALL PANEL: commercial applications

MICROALGHE

CAMPOROSSO (Imperia-Italy)

GWP-I

Algae biomass in the GWP – At which cost?

NER : the net energy ratio

Σ Energy produced (lipid or biomass)

Σ Energy requirements

An energy analysis NER

The energy output

It is the total energy stored in the produced biomass of Tetraselmis suecica assuming an average caloric content of 22.2 MJ/ Kg dry biomass For Tuscany (13.4 MJ m-2 d-1) we assumed an average productivity of 15 g m-2 d-1 for 240 days (2.5% PE)

BIOMASS OUTPUT 36 t ha-1 year-1 ENERGY OUTPUT 799 GJ ha-1 year-1

NER of algae biomass production in a 1-ha GWP plant

The energy inputs

The energy inputs: 1. Embodied energy 2. Fertilizers and chemicals 3. Operations

Productivity gr m-2 day-1 15

Kg ha-1 day-1 150

Ton ha-1 year-1 36

Biomass energy content

MJ kg-1 22,2

Energy output

Eout in 240 days GJ ha-1 799

NER (EROI) of Tetraselmis biomass production in a 1-ha GWP-II plant producing 36 ton ha-1 yr-1 (240 days)

Eoperations* Eembodied** Efertilizer E tot NER GJ ha-1 GJ ha-1 GJ ha-1 GJ ha-1 -

Energy inputs

(240 days)

800 410 152 1362 0.6

**Partially from recycled material *Electric energy converted to primary energy

Productivity gr m-2 day-1 20

Kg ha-1 day-1 200

ton ha-1 year-1 66

Biomass energy content

MJ kg-1 22,2

Energy output

Eout in 330 days GJ ha-1 yr-1 1465

NER (EROI) of Tetraselmis biomass production in a 1-ha GWP-II plant producing 66 ton ha-1 day-1 (330 operation days)

Eoperations Eembodied Efertilizer E tot in NER GJ ha-1 GJ ha-1 GJ ha-1 GJ ha-1 -

Energy inputs

(330 days)

1093 410 278 1781 0.82

NER > of 37%

Let’s move to a better location to improve productivity

Photovoltaic integration

Gas recycling

Inclined panels to increase light interception and decrease material use per hectare

Thinner reactors

New materials to decrease embodied energy

The GWP III Decreasing the inputs

NER increased to 1.7

When comparing energy crops we should not consider exclusively the NER…

With a NER of 3.7 can provide: an energy gain of 30 GJ ha-1 yr-1

a protein yield of ~ 1 t ha-1 yr-1

Algae at low NER, can provide 20 times the energy gain and 20 times more protein per unit occupied land than soybean

SOYBEAN ALGAE

With a NER of 1.7 can provide: an energy gain of 600 GJ ha-1 yr-1

a protein yield of > 20 t ha-1 yr-1

LCA and economic analyses of algae biofuels should duly consider the value of co-products and the efficiency of land use

An economic analysis

Algae biomass in the GWP-II – At which cost?

Main equipment and plant components

Scheme of the 1-ha GWP®-II plant and process flow sheet. The plant consists of eight 1,250-m2 GWP®-II modules (GWP_1 to GWP_8) served by four main pipelines: a) the CO2-enriched gas supply pipeline that delivers flue-gas to the panels; b) the seawater pipeline that, fed by the submersible pumps, brings the seawater (after filtration) to the heat exchangers or delivers it to the storage tank where the growth medium is prepared; c) the growth medium pipeline used to transfer the fresh medium from the storage tank to the reactors and d) the culture harvesting pipeline that is used to transfer the culture from the modules to the centrifuges.

Solid source of data

Capital costs of a 1-ha GWP-II plant

Direct capital costs DEPRECIATION

(€/year)

GWP-II 505,320 35,225

Piping, fittings, valves, tanks 140,945 9,534

Machinery & Equipment 376,504 22,321

Electrical equipment & control 272,728 13,293

Laboratory and inoculum section 50,000 2,000

TOTAL direct costs

1,345,497

82,373

Installation (10% of direct costs) 134,550 5,382

Engineering (5% of direct costs) 67,275 2,691

Interest rate (2.5% of direct costs) 33,637

1,345

Total (€)

1,580,959

91,791

Biomass production cost in a 1-ha GWP-II plant located in Tuscany (Italy)

Annual depreciation of CAPEX € 91,791

Annual operating costs

€

291,068

Labour € 179,400

Fertilizers € 7,620

Electricity € 37,526

Consumables € 6,980

Maintenance (1.5% DIRECT CAPEX) € 20,182

Overheads + administration € 39,360

TOTAL COSTS

€

382,860

Biomass production cost € kg-1 10.6

When located in Tuscany (Italy) the plant operates for 240 days at an average productivity of 15 g m-2 d-1

Annual productivity: 36 ton

Annual productivity: 36,000 kg

Cost (€ kg-1) of T. suecica biomass produced in a GWP® -II plant in Tuscany and Tunisia at 1-ha and 100-ha scale

Tuscany Tunisia

1-ha scale TOTAL COST A- depreciation B- labour C- electricity

10.6 2.5 5.0 1.0

5.0 1.7 1.7 0.5

100-ha scale TOTAL COST A- depreciation B- labour C- electricity

4.0*

1.8 0.41 0.86

2.4**

1.2 0.14 0.41

* 3.3 no cooling

**1.8 no cooling

Cost of microalgae biomass: 2€/kg

The GWP® -I

The GWP® -II

250 m2 GWP-II modules used for inocula production at Camporosso (project EU FP7 BIOFAT - 2011-2016)

GWP® – III

The GWP® III.A 1. Automatic change of inclination 2. Gas recycling 3. Continuous dilution 4. Variable distance between panels 5. Multiple independent units

The GWP® III.A

The GWP® III.A

degasser

movable legs

Pneumatic cylinder

1980 - The Vertical Alveolar

Panel

1990 - The Near Horizontal Tubular

Reactor

2016 – The GWP®-III.A

2004 – The GWP®

36 years

The advancement of applied sciences is very slow…

There is a highly visible difference between the pace of basic science and the application of new knowledge to human problems ( Lewis Thomas- The Lives of a Cell)

Decoupling We need to decouple food

production from impact on the environment…

The negative externalities of agriculture

We can not continue with

10 million hectares of arable land are lost every year

…soil loss due to erosion.

thehui.wordpress.com/.../

…pesticides pollution that

affects soil, water and air

oneocean.cbc.ca

www.ecofriend.com

nofishleft.wordpress.com

Ocean dead zones are increasing in number and size

Half of nutrients applied on

farm are lost in runoff,

leaching or erosion.

Desertification

Texas 1938

Do not forget the Dust Bowl!

http://www.surfbirds.com/mb/media/living-planet-0207.jpg

http://www.sustainablescale.org/images/uploaded/causes%20of%20biodiversity%20loss%201.JPG

http://www.mondonotizie.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/deforestazione-italia.jpg

Deforestation and Biodiversity loss

Food production is responsible for about 1/3 of GHG emissions (above all CH4 e N2O)

Algae can provide nutrient-dense, protein-rich products:

1. In deserts or marginal areas

2. Without using freshwater and good soils

3. Without pesticides

4. Using nutrients with 100% efficiency

5. At much higher productivities than traditional crops

With suitable strains and technologies

We are at the beginning of algae domestication…

There is a BUT: €/kg!

There is a HOPE:

From “The Ring” (ffffound.com)

Thank you very much for your

attention!

The EROI of the PV integrated GWP III = 1.73

An EROI/NER of 1.7 may seem not sufficient…

Tubular and panel PBR developed by UNIFI and F&M In 60 years of applied phycology

Applied phycology starts in Florence in 1956 thanks to an intuition of Prof

. G Florenzano

1990s

FIGURE CAPTIONS Figure 3 – 250-m2 GWP®-II modules at Microalghe Camporosso (Imperia, Italy). Modules used at Microalghe Camporosso within the activities of the EU FP7 project BIOFAT. a) general view of the plant; b) a particular of a module with the skid containing the electric cabinet, the control system, the blower, the pump, the plate heat exchanger and valves. Figure 4 – The GWP®-III.A photobioreactor. An automatically inclinable GWP® used for research and inoculum production at F&M facilities. The system is also in use at AlgaePARC (The Netherlands), University of Bergen (Norway), University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), KAUST (Saudi Arabia).

CROP Biomass

yield (ton ha-1 yr-1)

Energy output

(GJ ha-1 yr-1)

Energy input

(GJ ha-1 yr-1)

NER or EROI

Energy gain

(GJ ha-1 yr-1)

Protein yield

(ton ha-1 yr-1)

Soya * 2.6

39.2

10.6 3.7

28.5

0.91

T. suecica (Tuscany)

36 799 1362 0.6 -563 16.2

T. suecica (Africa)**

56

1243

848

1.5

395 24.1

*Pimentel, USA (2009) ** in a PV integrated GWP

Techno-economic analysis of microalgal

biomass production in a 1-ha Green Wall

Panel (GWP®) plant

Scheme of one 1,250-m2 GWP®-II module. The module consists of twenty-four 48-m-long panels hydraulically connected at both ends by PVC manifolds that ensure homogeneous distribution of the culture by means of pump circulation. Each panel can be isolated by closing a valve, e.g. to be cleaned or for maintenance. The module displays a total panel surface area of 800 m2 and occupies a land surface area of 1,250 m2 (including piping and manifolds). Pipelines for culture circulation, seawater transfer, medium preparation, culture movement and gas supply, pumps, blowers, filters and the heat exchangers are shown.