The project's main goal is to implement innovative solutions for the production of biomass from waste streams in industrial scale using micro- and macroalgae. The project aims to create a network of relevant actors in algae industry in the Botnia-Atlantica region. The target group is medium-sized and small companies, such as wastewater treatment plants, biogas producers, dairies, power plants, and pulp and paper industry.

We aim at finding solutions for production of biomass from micro and macro algae, as a source of bio-energy and high added value products on an industrial scale.

We want to make demonstration of benefits for the environment and climate through algae production because algae purifies and recycles nutrients from wastewater and flue gases and forms biomass for valuable products and biofuels.

The project's expected results are an established network of relevant stakeholders with the capacity to reuse wastewater through the production of biomass for bioenergy and products with high added value. We want to make three designed and
installed cost and energy efficient production units in cooperation with the participating SMEs in the participating regions. We want to produce new commercial products based on biomass from algae. We aim to develop regional expertise in the field who can go on exports. The project has plans for how the results should be put into practice at the end of the project and there is a demand for results. The results also possess buoyancy outside the program area.

The project combines the expertise from participating organizations and in addition the project will collaborate with companies in the industry. The project's target group is small and medium-sized enterprises from the industries, fish farming, dairy business, power plants, sewage treatment, biogas production and paper industry.

Read more about the project: www.biofuelregion.se/transalgae

The research group Bioenergy at FSCN is going to work with this part of the project:

Preparation of Biocrude

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of algae biomass has been shown to be a feasible technique to treat large amount of wet algae biomass for the production of a biocrude suitable to be used as biofuel similar to fossil oil. From HTL process, bio-crude or bio-oil is produced at temperature of 250 to 370 °C and pressure of 5 to 25 MPa with a residence time of 5 to 60 min. In the process, up to 85% of the oxygen contained in biomass can be removed as CO2 and water. Thus, only about 10% oxygen remains in the HTL biooil which leads to a high heating value of 35 MJ/kg (fossil diesel 42 MJ/kg) in comparison to pyrolysis oil with oxygen content 38% and heating value 18 MJ/kg. A further process of hydrotreatment and hydrocracking can remove the 10% oxygen completely and finally a drop-in fuel, gasoline or diesel, can be produced. Comparing biomass gasification and pyrolysis, HTL uses wet feedstock and avoids high temperature operation and energy consumption for feedstock drying. However, HTL technology development is so far in the stage of lab-scale study. Very little information is available in public for the downstream hydrotreatment of HTL bio-oil. This task in the project is to study algae-HTL-diesel process and to identify the feasibility of HTL application to algae. A techno-economic analysis will be performed for such a process in comparison to pyrolysis oil-hytrotreatment, gasification pathway as well as directly lipid-to-biodiesel production from algae.