Algae lipidomics Biodiesel from brown grease Lipid fingerprinting

83 Pages·2014·2.5 MB·English

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Algae lipidomics
Biodiesel from brown grease
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Lipid Oxidation
Challenges in Food Systems
Amy Logan, Uwe Nienaber, and
Xiangqing (Shawn) Pan, Editors
2013. Hardbound. 548 pages.
ISBN: 978-0-9830791-6-3. Product code 269
List: $250 Now $212.50!
AOCS Member: $190 Now $161.50!
eBook available on iTunes and Amazon!
Lipid oxidation in food systems is one of the
most important factors which aff ect food
quality, nutrition, safety, color and consum-
ers’ acceptance. The control of lipid oxida-
tion remains an ongoing challenge as most
foods constitute very complex matrices. Lipids
are mostly incorporated as emulsions, and
chemical reactions occur at various interfaces
throughout the food matrix. Recently, incor-
poration of healthy lipids into food systems to
deliver the desired nutrients is becoming more
popular in the food industry. Many food ingre-
dients contain a vast array of components,
many of them unknown or constituting diverse
or undefi ned molecular structures making the
need in the food industry to develop eff ec-
tive approaches to mitigate lipid oxidation in
food systems. This book provides recent per-
spectives aimed at a better understanding of
lipid oxidation mechanisms and strategies to
improve the oxidative stability of food systems.
Use promo code 269sale,
valid through February 13, 2015.
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inform
January 2015
contents
6 Flush to fuel

Could coupling algae growth with wastewater treatment pave the way for algal bio-
fuels?
14 Lipids from algae: novel applications and powerful
quantification methods
Learn how new spectroscopic techniques coupled with multivariate data analysis
can be used to rapidly screen algal strains for specific lipid profiles.
46 commercial-scale biodiesel using immobilized enzymes and
waste feedstocks
An immobilized enzyme technology converts all types of feedstocks into commercial
grade biodiesel that complies with international specs. Read how its use is expanding
worldwide.
19 58 61
52 electronic storage of Lc/esI-Ms total ion current profiles of
total lipid extracts for subsequent recovery of new data
Detailed analyses of plasma lipid mixtures are time-consuming, and samples de-
grade when stored. Scientists at the University of Toronto describe how they suc-
cessfully used electronically stored data to conduct chemical, physico-chemical, and
enzymatic analyses of oxo-lipoprotein lipids.
58 three reasons to attend the Aocs Annual Meeting in 2015
The 2015 AOCS Annual Meeting is expected to draw more than 1,600 professionals
from more than 60 countries. Find out why you should be one of them.
61 stanol fingerprint identifies source of fecal contamination in
shellfish
Coastal and shellfish harvesting areas in populated environments with high runoff
from local farms and sewage treatment plants are particularly susceptible to con-
tamination from human and animal waste. Scientists in France describe how they
used a stanol fingerprint to identify the source of fecal contamination in oysters.
Inform app and digital edition only:
• commentary on trans fats
• Aocs World Detergent conference recap
DepArtMents
5 Index to Advertisers MArketpLAce 36 Latin America Update
35 classified Advertising 19 news & noteworthy 40 professional pathways
17 Aocs Meeting Watch 23 energy
25 Food, Health & nutrition pUBLIcAtIons
31 Biotechnology 39 patents
33 Home & personal care 42 extracts & Distillates
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ENERGY
6 • inform January 2015, Vol. 26 (1)
Flush
to
ethanol, have received criticism because
Christine Herman
they oft en compete with food for land space,
putti ng food stocks at risk.
It is a matt er of ti me before biofuels become For this reason and others, algae have come into the
spotlight in recent decades as a source of biomass for fuel.
essential for powering the planet. As the
The term algae refers to a diverse group of photosyntheti c,
populati on grows and the fossil fuel supply eukaryoti c organisms, which includes unicellular forms, such
as microalgae and cyanobacteria, as well as multi cellular
conti nues to dwindle, we will need sustain-
macroalgae, more commonly known as seaweed. (For sim-
able, bio-based fuels to take the lead in the plicity, we will refer to microalgae simply as “algae” in this
energy market. But, biofuels, most notably report). Algal biofuels avoid the “food versus fuel” conun-
drum since they can be grown on nonarable land—typically
in open ponds or enclosed photobioreactors. And, given
their incredible diversity, algae have enormous potenti al
for helping solve the world’s energy crisis.
“There are conservati vely 100,000 diff erent species of
• It sounds like the ideal scenario. Mu- algae, and up to closer to a million if you really dig into the
nicipal wastewater—a rich concocti on con- literature,” says Ryan Davis, senior member of the technical
staff at Sandia Nati onal Laboratories (Livermore, California,
taining nitrogen and phosphorous—is fed
USA). “Not all of those are going to grow really fast, and not
to algae, which grow while simultaneous-
all of them will be oleaginous like we’d like for biodiesel,
ly converti ng carbon dioxide into oxygen, but there’s defi nitely some opportunity there.”
treati ng the water, and creati ng biomass
ALgAL BIoFUeLs:
that can be harvested and converted to
tHe proMIse AnD tHe cHALLenge
biofuel and other useful products.
Algae have att racted the interest of biofuels researchers
• seem too good to be true? some ex- worldwide because of its high-oil content, which can be
extracted and converted into biodiesel. Its other compo-
perts think so, while others conti nue to
nents—including proteins, carbohydrates, and metabolites—
hold out hope that this approach will help
can be separately processed into valuable products using a
keep wastewater from wreaking havoc on variety of conversion technologies, including chemical, bio-
the environment while reducing our depen- chemical, and thermochemical processes. The process of
extracti ng and isolati ng the individual components can be
dence on fossil fuels.
energy-intensive and diffi cult to opti mize. So, others have
developed methods to convert the enti re algal biomass into
• there may be a long road ahead for al-
biocrude, which can be further refi ned and blended in with
gal biofuels, but coupling algae growth with petroleum as a “drop-in” fuel.
wastewater treatment could help pave the There are many strains of algae that naturally grow
on marine water, and those that require freshwater can
way. this feature presents examples of how
be grown on municipal wastewater, which contains nitro-
researchers in both academic and industry
setti ngs are taking the lead in these eff orts.
inform January 2015, Vol. 26 (1) • 7
fuel
gen and phosphorus—nutrients necessary for growth. Bio-
fuel production from algae has the potential to be a nearly
“carbon-neutral” process, meaning the amount of carbon
released to produce and process it is roughly equal to the
amount of carbon that was captured in the process of grow-
ing it (see http://tinyurl.com/algae-carbon-neutral (pdf)).
Also, on average, algae have a higher oil yield than tradi-
tional oilseed crops—anywhere from 30 to 100 times more
oil per acre than corn and soybeans.
“We and others have demonstrated that you can grow
algae to produce 70% of their dry weight as lipids that can
be converted to biodiesel in a one-step process,” Davis says.
So why has biofuel made from algae not taken the
energy market by storm? A large part of the explanation
comes down to the economics.
Peter Pfromm, chemical engineering professor at Kan-
sas State University (Manhattan, USA), says there are two
major cost considerations: the infrastructure for growing
and processing the algae, and the ongoing costs for oper-
ating the facilities. The facilities can be quite expensive, he
says, but “then you hopefully will make that money back
over time and make some more money by selling biodiesel
in the marketplace.”
The problem is that algal biofuels are not cheap to make,
and there is only so much you can do to make the process
more efficient. “There is not unlimited room for improve-
ment because ultimately you have so many photons com-
ing from the sun per square meter and time,” Pfromm says.
“That is not something you can change . . . That’s the phys-
ics that limits the process.”
Pfromm and his coworkers conducted a 2014 research
study on the economic feasibility of algal biodiesel (see
http://tinyurl.com/Pfromm-2014), in which they concluded
that the success of algal biodiesel will require “significant
and continued support” from the government in the form
of regulations and financial incentives. The analysis was
performed with optimistic assumptions about algae pro-
ductivity, such as an estimated yield of 50 grams of bio-
mass per square meter per day. The academic study was
performed without external financial sponsorship of any
kind, Pfromm says, emphasizing that since he and his col-
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
8 • inform January 2015, Vol. 26 (1)
sUnLIgHt
WAsteWAter
cLeAn H 0
2
ALgAe
co , HeAt
2
FIg. 1. The process of creating algal biofuels involves four basic steps: growing, harvesting, dewatering, and extraction. Microal-
gae growth, which requires sunlight, nutrients, and carbon dioxide, can also be coupled with wastewater treatment to produce
clean water, fertilizer, and other useful valuable products.
laborators do not perform research on algal biofuels them- For this reason, those interested in producing algal bio-
selves, they did not have a bias going into the analysis to fuels tend to lean toward open pond systems, which come
favor one outcome over another. with their own challenges, namely contamination and water
But, the economic challenges aren’t stopping research- evaporation. Researchers in the field seem to agree that
ers from trying to make algal biofuels a success—with or photobioreactors will likely be reserved for higher-value
without supportive governmental policies. algae-based products, such as nutritional and food ingre-
Bruce Rittmann, a professor of environmental engi- dients, and the more affordable open pond systems will be
neering at Arizona State University (ASU; Phoenix, USA), is used for generating biofuels.
working on ways to maximize the output of algal biomass Still, it’s not enough for algal biofuels to simply sell
grown in photobioreactors with the goal of increasing its for greater than the cost of making them. They have to be
overall production rate. “The No. 1 holdup is we can’t get produced cheaply enough to compete with other fuels on
high enough productivity to make it economically viable,” the market.
Rittmann says. “If we had that now, everybody would be “If you can get an energy return of greater than one,
doing it. But, we’re doing various types of research and you’re doing something,” Sandia’s Davis says. But at this
development to get over this hump.” point, petrochemicals are getting a much greater return
Photobioreactors, since they are closed systems, allow on invested energy, so it’s hard to compete.
the algae to grow in a highly controlled environment, which Because of the tough technical challenges, Flatt says
results in higher yields. But, they are about 10 times more Synthetic Genomics is simultaneously pursuing algae for
expensive than traditional open pond systems. “There’s both intermediate- and high-value products in addition to
no question that you can get better performance in a pho- a separate research effort with ExxonMobil (Irving, Texas,
tobioreactor,” says Jim Flatt, president of the Genovia Bio USA) on biofuels. In an effort to make algal biofuels eco-
Division of Synthetic Genomics (La Jolla, California, USA). nomically feasible, the company is exploring various tech-
“The challenge has been that that incremental performance niques, including genome editing and genetic modification,
benefit hasn’t usually been justified by the added capital to improve photosynthetic efficiency and direct more of the
investment.” carbon absorbed in the process to lipid production.