The Industrial Technology Research Institute has unveiled its newly-developed technology for producing biofuel from microalgae.
The high-efficiency processes developed with the financial support of the Department of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs were showcased at the four-day Taipei International Invention Show and Technomart.
Lin Yun-hui, head of the ITRI’s biofuel lab, said like plants, microalgae consumes carbon dioxide in the air through photosynthesis and converts it into materials containing oils, or lipids, that can be processed into biofuel.
He pointed out that up until now, Taiwan has been promoting the use of biodiesel products made from recycled cooking oil. Currently, diesel sold at local filling stations contains about 2 percent biofuel.
However, Lin said, if Taiwan wants to raise the percentage of biofuel in diesel, it must find other source materials for producing the biofuel.
Microalgae is a perfect candidate as Taiwan, surrounded by seas, enjoys an abundance of the material that can be harvested in large quantities.
According to Lin, every liter of ocean water contains about 1 gram of microalgae. This figure can be raised to 5 grams after one week of cultivation and further boosted to as high as 150 grams per liter using the ITRI’s advanced ocean water filtering process.
Also, the institute’s new continuous-extraction process allows for more than 0.5 grams of lipids to be produced from a single gram of microalgaes.
Aside from better extraction process, another advantage is that the leftover microalgae in the bioefuel production process is high in polysaccharides, Lin explained.
The leftover could be used as feed for livestock and poultry. This in turn could help cut down on the use of agricultural land for growing feed such as soybean and corn, eventually reducing commodity price fluctuations, Lin said.
