This is one of the questions that will be raised at November’s 4th Algae World Asia Conference in Beijing (China). Delegates at the conference will debate whether the resource potential, experience and facilities exist in the region to drive Asia’s algae industry towards growth.
By 2020, China for example needs to reach its alternative fuels goal which mandates 15% of total transportation fuels from biofuels. Faced with increasing reluctance to use food for fuel, China needs to diversify towards other biofuel sources such as algae oil, and is indeed taking this challenge seriously.
Government-subsidised researchers are hunting for local algae strains, while clean tech companies are exploding and foreign investors are tying up deals to bring algae production technologies to China and the rest of Asia. Microalgae projects have been announced from China to North Asia to Indonesia. But how many of these will move to commercial stage remains to be seen.
The industry admits that algae cultivation simply for biofuels is not currently profitable by itself and that it must take advantage of markets for additional high-value co-products such as nutraceuticals, fertilizers, and high-end chemicals. Taking centre stage now is also the realisation that algae can form a viable part of carbon capture projects. Integrating carbon capture with algae production could really prove a major win for China - the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter.
Algae-based carbon capture
A number of research projects are underway at power plants where various species of marine microalgae are cultivated using the power stations’ carbon dioxide emissions. The microalgae are then harvested and sold into the nutraceutical market, or for feedstock for animals/fish and for biofuels.
It appears that the winners could be those who can apply their technology for high-value products and for biofuels , at the same time demonstrating cost efficient algae production in an ecologically-based environmental system , reducing global warming and emissions.
But how do you develop an economically-feasible algal integrated system to capture carbon dioxide from power plants? Can algae really be an alternative source of protein for cattle and poultry feeds? These are just some of the topics that will be aired at the 4th Algae World Asia Conference in Beijing (China), which takes place on 15 and 16 November.
Sessions will be held on a wide range of issues including capturing flue gas emissions from coal power plant for microalgae production, the large scale cultivation of microalgae for biofuels production, and the commercial viability of algae investment. Syed Isa Syed Alwi, CEO of AlgaeTech, for example, will be presenting a case study on an algae project in Indonesia, demonstrating algae-based carbon dioxide sequestration. A site tour to the ENN algae facility in Langfang, located about an hour’s drive from Beijing, will also offer delegates the chance to see first-hand how microalgae is cultivated in different pebble bed reactors and open ponds using carbon dioxide from a pilot coal gasification plant at the site. The algae industry in Europe and Australia has seen progressive developments and increased investment over recent years, so prospects for commercialisation are looking very good. However, will Asia go through similar scenario soon?
This question will no doubt be on the lips of many algae producers, experts from the biofuel, steel, cement and ethanol industries, animal feed producers and others at CMT’s 4th Algae World Asia event this autumn.
