Microalgae biomass is flagged as the next generation platform for bio-based fuels and chemical building blocks as its production does not compete with agricultural activity. While only about 15 microalgae species are currently applied for industrial production of food additives and fine chemicals, an extensive microalgae biodiversity remains to be discovered and characterized. To be cost-competitive, microalgae cultivation for biofuel production can only be carried out in technically simple open-pond systems. In terms of process stability terrestrial contaminants, such as amobae and bacteria, remain the greatest challenge. Therefore, state of the art production systems utilize extremophile algae species derived from hypersaline or hyperalkaline lakes.
To broaden the potential products derived from microalgae on a commercial scale, the project “AlgenFlugKraft” (AFK) aims to identify and optimize new algae strains isolated from extreme habitats for the production of sustainable, bio-based aviation fuels. By using high-throughput procedures and optimization techniques such as Fluorescent-Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) in combination with a down-scaling of the respective cultivation processes, an extensive variety of algae strains can be screened and optimized for the desired process parameters.
As a unique feature of this project the optimized algae strains are tested under diverse climate situations, ranging from arid to humid and temperate to tropical, in a unique tailor made pilot plant, which provides both technical scale open-pond algae cultivation and downstream processing facilities. The integration of innovative laboratory and pilot plant procedures allows for iterative optimization of the entire process flow and thereby enhances time to market scenarios for the desired algae technology platform aimed at the mass- and energy efficient production of aviation fuels.