DEVELOPMENT OF REFINERY CO2 CAPTURE BY MICROALGAE

• Published in: Goriva i maziva Vol. 52; no. 4; p. 296
• Main Authors: Keresztényi, István, Babos, Katalin, Bohács, György, Siklósi, Tamás
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Zagreb Hrvatsko Drustvo za Goriva i Maziva (Croatian Society for Fuels and Lubricants) 01.12.2013
• ISSN: 0350-350X; 1848-9583

As a significant emitter of carbon-dioxide in the region MOL Hungarian Oil & Gas Plc. has launched an extensive research program associated with carbon capture and utilization. Research is focused on the utilization of carbon dioxide as a feedstock for biological processes such as greenhouse growing and microalgae cultivation for further industrial applications. For the development of microalgae related technologies MOL Downstream Development has established collaboration with several scientific institutions to screen for the most productive microalgal strains, to further increase their productivity by bioengineering, and to develop scalable technologies for the cultivation, separation and processing of microalgae. The potential of microalgae resides in their increased growth rates and superior lipid content compared to other plants such as rapeseed. An ideal application would therefore be the extraction of these lipids and their processing to next generation biofuels. Based on experiments performed in our outdoor photobioreactors the yearly production of 60-80 t/ha dry algal biomass and the recovery of approximately 20 t/ha algal oil are estimated. However, the aquatic nature of these microorganisms requires cost intensive pretreatment technologies to be applied prior to extraction which offset the improved yield. As opposed to extraction biogas production does not require expensive pretreatment to be applied (5 wt% dry matter content is sufficient), therefore it could be a better alternative for processing microalgae. Based on the current status of research the feasibility of extraction and biogas production has been thoroughly studied and assessed.