Large multinational bottling companies are currently spending millions of dollars to promote a greener image to their plastic bottles. Think for example of the new Coke “Plant Bottle” which contains up to 30% of corn-based materials.

Although these are positive steps into the direction of increased sustainability, it is tempting to wonder if these are not merely marketing campaigns. Whether sincere or not, these solutions are still far from truly bio-based and biodegradable bioplastics.

A true bioplastic would be 100% based on renewable bioresources and fully biodegradable within a reasonable time. Ideally it would replace the need for fossil based oil and there would be net zero CO2 emission during the production process.

However, to provide an economically viable solution it is important that the new product is compatible with existing manufacturing equipment and processing and that it can be priced competitively to petroleum based plastics. Given the necessary research and investment we believe that algae have the potential to be the disruptive feedstock that can change our plastics and fuels of the future.

Current research is targeting chemicals which have properties that make them potential substitutes for current petrochemicals. The production cost is an important factor, in order for the new biomass-based chemicals to compete with current petrochemicals and thereby find an initial niche in the market. In addition it is important to perform a full life cycle analysis (LCA) of any new alternative solution.

Lactic acid and its polymer poly-lactic acid (PLA) can be used as building blocks for alternatives to fossil derived polymers like PET plastics and polystyrene. Currently PLA is already used as a biodegradable alternative for packaging and as fiber materials and could very well become economically viable alternatives on a large scale in the future (current PLA production is 450K tons per year).

Lactic acid can be produced by bacterial fermentation of plant or algal biomass. Besides in packaging, PLA polymers have been used for decades in the medical industry in e.g. resorbable implants. The big advantage is that PLA can be produced from renewable non-food based sources like algae and is completely degradable.

Propanediol can be produced from glycerol and is expected to find increasing applications in the near future. Interestingly glycerol is the major byproduct from biodiesel production. As the price of glycerol decreases in the near future due to increasing biodiesel production, propanediol will become more competitive.

The production of propanediol from glycerol is in itself a relatively cheap dehydration process. 1,2-propanediol is currently produced in quantities of larger than 500K per year from petrochemicals, but its production level is expected to increase if a cheaper production source can be found  (e.g. like cheap glycerol).

Besides the innovative production of these building blocks from renewable sources, a large portion of the R&D efforts are focused on additives to strengthen and optimize these bioplastics so they are suitable for molding and extrusion and have a high impact strength.

Initially the main R&D focus for most plastic producing companies is expected to be on hybrid plastics that replace only a certain percentage of the fossil oil derived compounds, however there is a global push to develop a fully bio-based and biodegradable alternative to PET. A recent trend is that certain places and even whole cities are banning bottled drinks to decrease their chronic waste problem.

The development of algae-based plastics could become a breakthrough technology that provides an acceptable alternative to petroleum based plastics. While absorbing CO2 from the industrial process, algae generate biomass that could be turned into sustainable, renewable plastic products and biofuels and reduce our unsustainable need for fossil fuels.

Source: http://algaeforbiofuels.com/algae-based-plastics/

Algae have the potential to be a sustainable feedstock for the production of advanced biofuels and green chemicals. Production of advanced biofuels and bioproducts from algae, however, faces a number of challenges toward commercialization, in particular issues encountered upon scale up.

A large portion of the algal research around the world is focused on developing economically viable harvesting technologies and optimizing refining technologies for the final products.

Algae biomass composition is dependent on the algae species grown and on the environment in which the cells are cultivated. Some species have a high preference for lipids as storage material and others become rich in starch and sugars.

Depending on the hydrocarbon and sugar composition, the specific algal biomass can be further processed for biodiesel through transesterification, biogasoline or biojetfuel through hydrocracking or processed for bioethanol, either through fermentation or thermal pyrolysis (syngas formation).

Byproducts from these reactions can be fed into the current main stream chemical industry.

Importance of Integrated Algae Production Systems

Newly developed types of novel algae production systems will need to be directly integrated into an existing biorefinery or gas-fired power plants to make the overall process viable.

Biorefineries are similar to petroleum refineries in concept; however, biorefineries use renewable, sustainable biological matter (as opposed to petroleum or other fossil sources) to produce transportation fuels, chemicals, and heat and power.

An integrated system implies not only that the algae biomass is fed directly into the biorefinery but also the direct utilization of the outputs and exhausts (e.g., syngas, methane, heat, carbon dioxide, wastewater, etc.) from the biorefinery or power plant into our novel algae production systems. This will pave the way toward a robust mass production of high-end algae fuels and chemicals at manageable costs.

Our group of cientists at Advanced Energy Creations Lab is currently developing a vertically integrated production-refinery system consisting of different “platforms”. Each of these is devoted to a specific product line of fuels or high value chemicals. Here are some examples of such platforms that theoretically all can use algae biomass:

- C2 platform: Ethanol; Acetic acid production
- C3 platform: Acrylic acid; Lactic acid; Propanediols synthesis
- C4 platform: Butanol production
- C10 and up platform: Biodiesel, bio/green jetfuel, carotenoids, etc.

(The C number in each platform refers to the length of the carbon chain in each product line, for example, ethanol has a two carbon chain, butanol has a four carbon chain, etc.)

In addition, the “sugar platform” is based on biochemical conversion processes and focuses on the fermentation of sugars. The “syngas platform” is based on thermochemical conversion processes and focuses on the gasification of biomass feedstocks and by-products from the conversion processes.

The challenge is to optimize each of these processes so that they can be scaled up and performed in existing processing plants. To achieve this, we are optimizing the biomass composition and processing efficiency of the algae using state-of-the-art genetic and microbiological methods.

In the end it is always essential to conduct full life-cycle and economic analyses associated with the commercialization of the integrated bioprocesses.

Source: http://biofuelsrevolution.com/algae-oil-based-biorefineries/