UTS:C3 Algal Biofuels Research update
“I refer to this book as ‘The Bible’, it really is the essence of what we do here at C3 and having John visit us, and for our students and researchers to get the opportunity to talk with him, is outstanding,” C3 Director Professor Peter Ralph said.
Professor Raven said there were excellent synergies at work in C3 especially in the area of blue carbon, biofuels, ocean processes and microalgae.
“Seeing relationships between things is my forte, I think,” professor Raven said.
“I hope I can provide some insight and see both the flaws and opportunities in what Peter and his team are trying to do.”
One such opportunity gaining momentum is the Biofuels Research Program that is working on optimising algae for biofuel production. Professor Raven will be co-supervising a new PhD student with Professor Ralph.
“In terms of renewable energy algae are the dream for Australia and C3’s collaboration with David Kramer [from Michigan State University] on optimising algal photobioreactors is important. Although small scale it is state-of-the-art and a lot of work is going into upscaling without compromising the algae’s ‘life support’. It’s challenging but I believe there are ways of getting around the problems,"Professor Raven said.
Professor Raven said that there have been a lot of exaggerated claims made by the biofuels industry and during his public seminar, as part of the Trends in Environmental Research Seminar Series, gave a critique of the possibilities for algal biofuels. He said that the full lifetime cost of producing algal oil needed to be addressed.
“Algae are a better proposition than terrestrial plants and in general use less water per unit of algal biomass produced. Research indicates that the maximum biomass yields look promising especially at mid latitude [light regimes]. Through improved strain selection and culturing techniques you will get more biomass,” Professor Raven said
“The Evengold™ system developed here at C3 is a very innovative way of equalising solar photon supply throughout the algal culture to get higher algal growth rates and by tinkering with the way algae photosynthesize I believe we could get improvements in algal oil production by 20%.”
However Professor Raven lamented the constraints of current biofuels research.
“It’s a very frustrating field in that large amounts of money are being poured into biofuels research but IP constraints dilute the overall research effort. This isn’t helpful and is not the usual way Science is done,” he said.
More information:
C3 Algal Biofuels Research Program