With oil prices reaching $105 a barrel for the first time since 2008, the biofuel industry is looking more attractive every day. As global demand rises and petroleum supplies diminish, countries are turning to algae for energy security.
In smaller countries, like Croatia, where oil demand is low, and emission standards are poor, algae biofuel has the potential to significantly reduce reliance on foreign oil.
CCRES ALGAE TEAM
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Biodiesel from MicroalgaeThe oil from the algae can be used for any combustion process. An even wider range of use for algae oil is obtained by the transesterification to biodiesel. This biodiesel can be blended with fossil diesel or can be directly driven as pure biodiesel B100.
Biodiesel from microalgae has a comparable quality as rapeseed methyl ester and meets the standard EN 14214. At biodiesel production about 12% glycerin is produced as a by-product. This glycerin is a valuable resource for the production of algae in closed ponds, the heterotrophic processes. Thus, the entire algae oil can be used as fuel.
Fish FoodAlgae provide a natural solution for the expanding fishing industry:
High-protein fish food
Replacement for existing fish meal production
Algae have nutrients of many young fishes available
The fishing industry recorded an annual growth of over 10% and, according to experts, will beat the global beef consumption in 2015.
The Technology developed by CCRES offers the opportunity to deliver part of the needed proteins for fish farming on the resulting algal biomass.
Protein for the food industryThe demand for high-quality protein for the food industry has been growing rapidly over the years.
The big growth opportunities are:
Weight control
Fitness and Sports Nutrition
Food supplements
The market volume in the protein sector is continously growing and at the rate of US $ 10.5B in 2010 and according to experts, will steadily increase to approx. $25B until 2030.
“There is intense interest in algal biofuels and bioproducts in this country and abroad, including in US,Australia, Chile, China, the European Union, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, and others,” says Branka Kalle, President of Council Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES).
Advantages algae has over other sources may make it the world’s favored biofuel. Algae could potentially produce over 20 times more oil per acre than other terrestrial crops.Algae avoids many of the environmental challenges associated with conventional biofuels.Algae does not require arable land or potable water, which completely avoids competition with food resources.
“The Asia Pacific region has been culturing algae for food and pharmaceuticals for many centuries, and these countries are eager to use this knowledge base for the production of biofuels,”says Zeljko Serdar, President of CCRES.Without sustained high prices at the pump, investment in algae will likely be driven by demand for other products. In the short term, the growth of the industry will come from governments and companies seeking to reduce their environmental impact through carbon collection.
CCRES ALGAE TEAM
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Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)
CCRES 
Green Car Congress reports that biodiesel derived from microalgae, yeast, and bacteria can effectively outperform both petroleum diesel and biodiesel produced from plant oils, according to the findings of a new study by a team from Utah State University.
The researchers, who reported their results in a paper published in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels, examined the properties, engine performance, and emissions for biodiesel produced from the microalgae Chaetoceros gracilis; the yeast Cryptococcus curvatus; and the bacterium Rhodococcus opacus, all compared with commercial soybean biodiesel.
From the study: While biodiesel derived from plant seed oils has advantages as a replacement for petroleum diesel, there is strong interest in the potential for biodiesel produced from microbial derived oils because of potential use of contaminated water, the diversity of oils that can be produced, use of marginal lands, and potential for higher oil yields per acre. Three different groups of microbes are known to produce high neutral oils including select microalgae, bacteria, and yeast.
Plant-based oils, commonly used to produce biodiesel (e.g., soybean, canola, and sunflower) are similar to one another in terms of fatty acid composition, containing primarily C16 and C18 fatty acids with varying degrees of unsaturation. Microbial oils, however, can differ substantially and may contain uncommon fatty acids that differ in both chain length and structure.
This study demonstrates that microbial-derived biodiesel shows comparable properties in the parameters tested to soybean biodiesel. Future wide scale use of microbial oils as a source for biodiesel will require advances in large-scale cultivation, dewatering, and oil extraction.