Researchers Design Photobioreactor to Produce Biofuel from Algae

Researchers at the University of Alicante have patented a new device that allows more efficiently to cultivate microalgae and can be used as raw material for biofuel or for other valuable substances in the agri-food or pharmaceutical industry.

The Research Group in Polymer Processing and Pyrolysis at the University of Alicante is the team that has designed and developed this device, consisting of a photobioreactor, easily scalable to larger production, which has attracted the interest of both Spanish and foreign firms in the sector of biotechnology.

The director of the research group, Antonio Marcilla Gomis, explained that the novelty of this photobioreactor compared to those existing is that it allows mass production, less cleaning and maintenance operations, better use of CO₂ and better light transfer to cultivation.

Algae can provide many advantages, because they breed quickly, do not require agricultural land and not even need clean or fresh water to grow, but more importantly they produce an oil that can be converted into biodiesel fuel type, as Marcilla Gomis states.

The design of this novel technology aims to overcome any difficulties or problems that have been presented over the years with the use of other similar cropping systems. "The subject on the cultivation of microalgae is having a major boom in terms of research in the last fifteen years as an alternative energy to oil," he said. However, as Marcilla Gomis clarified, the cost of the production of microalgae for energy "is still far from what would be a profitable process comparable to oil."