Development of a High Throughput Algal Dewatering System Using Magnetic Particles.

Algal biofuels hold the promise of directly replacing fossil fuels through domestic production of renewable gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel. Before algae can be converted to fuel it must be harvested and concentrated 400-fold, however no commercial technology can perform this step cheaply enough to allow economic production of fuel from algae. The lack of a low cost algal harvesting technology is a critical roadblock preventing the commercial development of algal biofuels. This project is focused on designing, building and field testing a new type of low cost algae harvester. The harvester will incorporate proprietary magnetic algae harvesting technology, which has been proven effective in open water field tests with an initial prototype. Further research and development is needed to increase the harvesters efficiency and throughput. In Phase I the efficiency of the harvester will be improved by data driven engineering. We will collect data on algal harvesting rates under various conditions which will be used to build computational models of different harvester designs. The computational models will be used to select the design with the best performance and the lowest cost. The harvester will fabricated and tested, first at small scale and then at full scale in the field. Successful development through Phase II and Phase III will result in an algae harvester with sufficiently low cost to allow economic harvest of algae for fuel. Enabling production of renewable algal biofuel as scale will have significant public benefits. Development of renewable fuels will reduce greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming. It will drive the creation of sustainable jobs in rural America where biofuel production will take place. Domestically produced fuel will reduce dependence on foreign oil and help decouple US foreign policy from US energy needs. Deriving our fuel from a sustainable source will provide economic security through predictable production and prices as opposed to the boom-and-bust cycles that dominate fuel markets today.