Fort Myers, FL-based Algenol, and India’s Reliance Industries Ltd., have deployed India’s first Algenol algae production platform. The demonstration module is located near the Reliance Jamnagar Refinery, the world’s largest.
“The project is designed to demonstrate how robust the Algenol system is in India, and how the two companies will more broadly integrate refinery operations with Algenol’s platform in the future,” said Paul Woods, Founder and CEO of Algenol. “The deployment of our technology in India is a critical milestone,” added Woods.
The demonstration has completed several production cycles of Algenol’s wild-type host algae, and shows the production capabilities of Algenol’s advanced fuel-producing algae and systems.
The Algenol fuel production process is designed to convert 1 ton of CO2 into 144 gallons of fuel while recycling CO2 from industrial processes and converting 85 percent of the CO2 used into ethanol, gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. The advanced fuel-producing algae technology is operating at Algenol’s headquarters in Fort Myers.
“The initial project start-up and smooth transition begins to prove the viability of our technology in varying environments across the globe and the ability of partners to operate our production systems without Algenol’s day-to-day involvement,” Woods said.
Construction of the system was completed in November by Algenol and Reliance engineers and biologists. Shake-down runs and systems tests have been completed and several successful batches of algae have been grown. Day-to-day operations of the project are now managed solely by Reliance, after Algenol provided training and operational support.
India is the world’s third largest producer of CO2 and the facility’s ethanol and renewable crude oil production could help meet critical demand for energy in the country as well as help to reduce greenhouse emissions from carbon dioxide.
Algenol’s fuel production process requires saltwater from the Arabian sea, which is fortunate as India has weathered serious droughts in the past and faces huge demand for fresh water.
Next steps of the project will be determined jointly by Algenol and Reliance.
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Source algaeindustrymagazine