Biofuels From Salt Basin Algae: A Renewable Energy Crop

The goal of this research is to develop salt-loving algae as alternative biofuel feedstocks. Nevada researchers and producers are uniquely enabled to leverage the geothermal, high solar radiation, ample land area, and salt basins to produce algea in a scalable and economically viable manner.

The research rationale is to identify the algal strains that have the greatest economic potential for biofuel production. Our goal is to identify key components of the biosynthetic pathway to learn how to improve oil production and alter desirable oil characteristics with immediate and significant impact on the emerging algal feedstock biofuels industry.

In addition, we are working on a room-size "demonstration" scale production facility to educate scientists, investors, and the lay public about the potential feasibility of the algae-to-biodiesel conversion process and related technologies. Systems will be readily scalable with a minimum of capital investment in contrast to closed bioreactor systems that are capital intensive and not readily scalable.

The long-term goal of the proposed research is to optimize and implement the use of halophytic microalgae as a biofuel crop. Halophytic green algae are ideally suited as a non-seasonal, renewable energy resource for the arid western U.S. because they are 30 times more productive than terrestrial feedstocks (e.g., soy, canola), can be grown on marginal lands with brackish or saline water unsuitable for traditional agriculture, and provide unlimited potential for sequestration of CO2 from biomass, coal, and gas-fired power plants.

Research goals are 1) to determine the oil production potential for 20 strains of Dunaliella that can grow in the Great Basin and Intermountain West; 2) to conduct mutant screens to identify optimal stains of Dunaliella with enhanced production of triacylglycerols (TAGs) suitable for conversion to biodiesel and 3) to identify genes that control oil production by microarray expression profiling.

Education and extension aims of the proposal are: 1) to develop a room-size "demonstration" scale production facility whose purpose will be to educate scientists, investors, and the lay public about the potential feasibility of the algae-to-biodiesel conversion process and related technologies and 2) to develop pilot-scale "proof-of-concept" production facilities in Wabuska and Lovelock, NV with private sector collaborators to optimize biodiesel production from algal feedstocks that leverages geothermal and/or biomass cogeneration resources and to assess the economic feasibility and impact of algae-to-biodiesel production systems on local communities.