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Production of algae in floating greenhouses
for biofuel
Manuel Casta?ón – manuel.castanon@alumni.esade.edu

Project description
The project consists of algae farming in confined floating
greenhouses (therefore controlled) disposed on an open
environment as the surface of a reservoir or the sea, for the
subsequent production of biofuel.
It will impact people in 67.000 new employees, adding 3.900
Million € in the Spanish treasure and in the 25 million Spanish
car drivers reducing the cost of fuel , and therefore, the rest
of products meanwhile transportation cost.

The problem
? Spain burns around
500 million Oil
barrels every year
and pays 40 Billion €
for it (4% of GPD) to
other countries (source:
index Mundi)
? The price for it
rounds 110$/barrel
(108.47 USD source: investing.com)

The problem
? Projections
suggest that
oil price will
continue to
rise over the
next 10 years,
and perhaps
never again
below $100.

The vision
Leveraging some of the assets of Spain to help solve the
problem of energy deficit, at the same time we contribute to
a new and profitable production model and save foreign
exchange.
Assets:
- Solar radiation 70W/m2.
- Reservoirs (150,000 ha)
We pretend to use this surface and the power of the sun to
produce one kind of algae which could be used to produce
Diesel oil.

Stakeholders that support the vision
The science:
- In 2012, Chemical Eng. Rosa María Escudero projects “Micro Algae Plant production for
Biofuel” (TRABAJO.pdf) and there is much more bibliography about that application.
- In 1988, UC Berkeley was granted US Plant Patent 6169 for Botryococcus
braunii variety Showa, because of its highly reproducible hydrocarbon content. The patent
has expired in April 2008.
- In May 2006, Nonomura filed a patent application disclosing novel growth and harvesting
processes for Botryococcus braunii variety Ninsei that can be processed in existing gasoline
refineries to transport fuels.
- In August 2011, variety Enomoto was announced by IHI NeoG Algae LLC.It has the highest
yield for this fuel production over all the algae that have been discovered in the world“.It is
additionally said to be very robust, presumably meaning it could be grown in an open
environment (in ponds, instead of photobioreactors).

The algae:
Botryococcus braunii is a green planktonic
microalga.
The species is notable for its ability to produce
high amounts of hydrocarbons that are
typically around 86% of its dry weight can be
long chain hydrocarbons.
It has been shown to grow best at 23°C, a light
intensity of 60 W/M?, 12 hours per day, and a
salinity of 0.15 Molar NaCl (Spanish conditions)
But there are much more other algae that could
also be used depending on the placement.

The weather:
Spain is in the
northern border
of sun radiation
area that allows
the grow of this
kind of high
performance Oil-
content ratio
algae.

The seaweed
farmers:
Nowadays exist
some
production
plants of algae,
for some uses
other than
biofuel.

The Oil productors
Production plants of
biofuel from algae, are
also something that
exist.
- http://biodiesel.com.ar/3
966/oil-fox-s-a-
inauguro-su-planta-de-
biodiesel-a-partir-de-
algas

The open sea fishbowl manufacturer
Aqualine (www.aqualine.no) produces equipment to the fish
farming industry.

Scope of the Project
? The novelty is a plastic sealed bag that contains the substrate for algae
and has a semi-permeable membranes where exchanges gases and
water with the external environment, maintaining the ideal conditions
for cell growth. It two tube connectors, one to retrieve the sludge and
the other to reintroduce the substrate and readjust if necessary.
? The purpose of the project is create a new industry that will produce
20% of the needs of Spanish diesel oil.
? This calculation of opportunity is based in a Oil cost of $110/barrel
It will be true just achieving a production of algae equivalent to 10 kg
per year of Botryococcus braunii per m2 of installation.

The idea
One plastic bag (here called seaweed raft) contains the
green algae inside and controls by itself the
composition and conditions of the content.

The idea
The upper lid is made on transparent plastic and allows
the light getting inside the bag. The bottom lid has a
1m2 gate where the membrane is located.
The gas permeable membrane allows the dissolved CO2
gas within the outer water getting inside the bag, due to
its concentration is higher than inside, where it is
consumed in cell grow.

The idea
- The membrane
The membrane must let the gases
and vapors interchange within the
environment. This will allow the
CO2 diffusion from out to inside.
This membrane could be made as
C90 waterproofing, but must be
evolved to assure better
exchange.
There are some manufacturers,
also in China
http://www.underlaychina.com
Breathabe y Waterproofing Membrane (C90)

The scaled idea
To make a grid of plastic bags
as shown in the drawing, 20m
away one from the other,
covering the 76% of available
surface with those bags.
For using in open sea, as well
as reservoirs, we must plan a
flexible bag and structure.
Here is how we imagine it.
Aqualine/5 secs/
So now we have all that we need! Let’s go for it

Targets
Technical Target:
To cover with that bags the 11 biggest reservoirs in Spain (90.000 ha), to
produce up to 7 million tons/year meaning 3.700 Million €/year in Diesel oil.
Performance target:
The 100m diam. bag occupy 7.800 m2, has 0.8 m deep and a volume of 6.300 m3

Targets
Income target:
Each 100m bag produce 100tons per
year of algae meaning 43.600 €/bag.
Cost Target:
The bag weights 63ton and cost
158.000€ each. Operation costs are
for retrieving the sludge.
Maintenance include financial cost.
Payback:
9 years at 6.2% of Oil price increase
(average from 1973 to 2013) It make sense with today’s tech. from just 3% of
oil price increasing for the next 12 years

Succeed Factors – How impacts
? Covering the biggest 11 reservoirs (90.000 ha):
- Will produce 10 million tons of Sludge
- Will produce 7 million tons of Diesel oil (20% of needs)
- Will save 3.900 Million € to Spanish Treasury
- Will create 67.000 employees
- Will save 18.5 Million tons CO2, the 5% of Spanish emissions, equivalent
to 6.200 km2 of green forest (the area of Tarragona province or the State
of Delaware)
- Will reduce in 5% the 35% exceeding the Kyoto Protocol emissions
Spanish commitment.

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