Making Algae Biodiesel at Home

Making algae biodiesel at home is simple but let’s get real! Based on the calls we receive at the office I wanted to clear up a few items for you, why you ask? The public seems to have the idea that all algae farms can be set up in a back yard operation and generate 110,000 gallons per acre of algae oil based biodiesel “True Story” and that is just not true. Our commercial algae photo bioreactor is capable of 25,000 gallons per acre per year of algal biofuel production. The second item I want to clear up is the cost to generate 110,000 gallons of fuel. Our 1 acre system is over 1million dollars, and that is more than the back yard hobbyist usually wants to spend. Not to say the backyard hobbyist cannot grow algae to produce algae biodiesel, but to say let’s be realistic in our approach.

One of the simplest algae photo bioreactors (PBR) I have seen utilized a food grade liquid container supplemented with artificial lights, nutrients and Co2 and it is very effective, but that system is a long way from producing 110,000 gallons of algae biomass fuel. Next after you get the algae grown to maturity, what will be your harvesting method? Will you simply dewater the algae cake or will you use a solar dryer? How will you extract the algal lipids? Sonification, hexane extraction or cold pressing? But all of this is possible when making algae biodiesel at home you just need to work out the details. At www.Algae-Book.com David Sieg offers a 3 book Algae Farming course on the matter and even shows you how to make your own algae photo bioreactors at home. So to all algae entrepreneurs and algae enthusiast, I wish you luck and wanted to let you in on a few of the conversations my office has daily. Success!