Presentation on algae and sustainability of the earth. Discusses the Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae (OMEGA)

Baertsch, Robert

Buckwalter, Patrick

Embaye, Tsege

Gormly, Sherwin

Liggett, Travis

Reinsch, Sigrid

Trent, Jonathan

NASA Technical Reports Server

Sustainability?!
Population!
A"uence!
Species!
Technology!
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20110011153 2019-08-30T15:31:30+00:00Z


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You are here Peak oil:  
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(PPM) 
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(Billions) 
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(°C) 
What happens next? 
? 
? 
? 
Sustainability?!
Population!
A"uence!
Species!
Technology!
Our Future?!
Title: Beyond Biofuels 
NOW! 
Feasible, affordable, scalable, sustainable… 
Not use agricultural land 
Not use freshwater 

How green are biofuels? 
*CO2 kg/MJ: Growing, harvesting, refining, burning fuel (cf., gas=94) 
Corn Sugar Cane Switch Grass 
Product Ethanol Ethanol Ethanol 
GHG output* 81-85 4-12 -28 
Water HIGH HIGH med-low 
Fertilizer HIGH HIGH low 
Pesticide HIGH MED low 
Energy HIGH MED low 
US crop land/ half 
demand 157%- 262% 45%-57% 60%-108% 
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/25/10219 
Wood 
Residue 
Soybeans 
Rapeseed, 
Canola 
Algae 
Product 
Ethanol, 
biodiesel 
biodiesel biodiesel biodiesel 
GHG output* N/A 49 37 -183 
Water low HIGH HIGH low 
Fertilizer low low-med med low 
Pesticide low med med low 
Energy low med-low med-low HIGH 
US crop land/ 
half demand 
150 -250% 180-240% 30% 1-2% 
*CO2 kg/MJ: Growing, harvesting, refining, burning fuel (cf., Diesel=83) 
     
The problem with biodiesel… 
Biodiesel crops and production:!
Plant  Gal/acre-yr Barrels/yr 
Soybeans 50 >10,000,000 
Sunflower 100 > 1,000,000 
Canola 160 >10,000,000 
Jatropha 200? some, not much 
Palm Oil 600 >10,000,000 
Microalgae 2,000 to ? ~0.1 
from: Benemann 2007. Algae Biomass Summit !
Biodiesel crops and production:!
Plant  Gal/acre-yr Barrels/yr 
Soybeans 50 >10,000,000 
Sunflower 100 > 1,000,000 
Canola 160 >10,000,000 
Jatropha 200? some, not much 
Palm Oil 600 >10,000,000 
Microalgae 2,000 to ? ~0.1 
from: Benemann 2007. Algae Biomass Summit !

Botryococcus braunii 
Gasoline  
   (65%) 
Kerosene (15%) 
Diesel (18%) 
Oil (3%) 
Algal colony 

Remove CO2 from atmosphere 
ALGAE:  
Remove nutrients from municipal wastewater… 
 (Remediate “dead zones”) 
Produce fertilizer, food, cosmetics, medicine… 
AND OIL (carbon-neutral biofuel, plastics, etc) 
Biodiesel crops and production:!
Plant  Gal/acre-yr Barrels/yr 
Soybeans 50 >10,000,000 
Sunflower 100 > 1,000,000 
Canola 160 >10,000,000 
Jatropha 200? some, not much 
Palm Oil 600 >10,000,000 
Microalgae 2,000 to ? ~0.1 
from: Benemann 2007. Algae Biomass Summit !
What about just 
collecting algae  
growing in the  
ocean? 
Harvest  
wild algae?  
Too dilute 
Spatially/temporally dispersed 
Species composition wrong 
















Open circulating ponds 
(raceways) 
Algae Cultivation 
Systems 
Closed bioreactors 

Aquacarotene, Australia 
Cyanotech, HI 
Yaeyama, Japan 
NBT/Seabiotics, Israel 
What’s wrong with this picture? 
Bioreactor 
Algal Bioreactor 

NovaGreen, Germany www.nerc.ac.uk 
www.bioenergy-noe.org 
Subitec, Germany 
Vertigro Energy, Texas 
What’s wrong with this picture? 
1: Open circulating ponds 
(raceways) 
Not practical to grow 
algae on land… 
2: Closed photobioreactors 
 (PBRs) 
O ffshore 
M embrane  
E nclosures for 
G rowing  
A lgae 

Selective 
membranes tender 
sewage river water 
FILLING 
Solar Energy 
Nutrients/CO2 
Gas exchange 
CO2 
O2 
Osmosis Temperature 
wave power mixing 
GROWING 
osmosis 
osmosis 
osmosis 
DEWATERING 
FO membranes 
recover 
      reuse 
           recycle 
cradle 
to 
cradle 
recover 
      reuse 
           recycle 
Solar Energy utilized 
Waste nutrients/CO2 
Temp control Osmosis dewater 
Mixing 
What we get… 
    Wave-pumps 
CO2 Sequestration 
CO2 
O2 
Remote filling 
Plastic 
Maintenance 
Tending-monitoring 
Reusing, removing 
Loss… 
What it costs… 
Remote harvesting 
Osmosis  
membranes 
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT? 
Sewage Processing 
CO2 Sequestration 
CO2 
O2 
DZ remediation Algae products 
Benefits? 
Nutrient reclamation 
raceway 
Cap/op cost 
Evaporation 
Temp. control 
Invasive spp. 
Mixing 
Harvesting 
Envir. impact 
 
bioreactor  AlgaeOMEGA 
Critical  
Factors* 
? 
? 
? 
? 
? 
? 
*Biology, Engineering, Environment, Economics 
? 
biofuels 
fertilizer 
biochar 
etc.  
dewatering   
treated  
waste- 
water 
OMEGA system 
trent 5/30/09 
OMEGA OMEGA 
FO water 
Algae 
Nutrients (NPK) 
Ocean (3.5% salt) 
What about the water?!
waste 
Ocean 
trent 5/30/09 
Freshwater! 
brine 
Desal 
Plant 
seawater 
Desalination  
system 
RO 
High !
Energy!
biofuels 
fertilizer 
biochar 
etc.  
freshwater 
ocean dewatering   
treated  
waste- 
water 
OMEGA system 
trent 5/30/09 
OMEGA 
brine 
Desal 
Plant 
FO water 
Algae 
nutrients 
waste 
seawater 
Desalination  
system 
RO 
High !
Energy!
diluted 
brine 
brine 
dewatering enclosure 
Desalgae system (OMEGA + Desalination) 
trent 5/30/09 
s
e
a
w
a
te
r 
biofuels 
fertilizer 
biochar 
etc.  
Wastewater 
nutrients/water 
C-neg 
N/P/K  
recycle 
C-seq 
-(DZ)  
FO 
OMEGA  
Algae 
NPK 
water 
freshwater 
Utilize 
brine 
Desal 
Plant 
brine 
RO 
High !
Energy!
6+% salt 
Utilize/detoxify 
diluted 
brine 
brine 
freshwater 
dewatering enclosure 
Desalgae system (OMEGA + Desalination) 
trent 5/30/09 
brine 
Desal 
Plant 
biofuels 
fertilizer 
biochar 
etc.  
Wastewater 
nutrients/water 
OMEGA  
Algae 
FO 
s
e
a
w
a
te
r 
brine 
C-neg 
N/P/K  
recycle 
C-seq 
-(DZ)  
NPK 
RO 
water 
dilute  
brine 
1% salt 
6+% salt 
diluted 
brine 
brine 
freshwater 
dewatering enclosure 
Desalgae system (OMEGA + Desalination) 
trent 5/30/09 
brine 
Desal 
Plant 
biofuels 
fertilizer 
biochar 
etc.  
Wastewater 
NPK/water 
OMEGA  
Algae 
FO 
s
e
a
w
a
te
r 
brine 
diluted 
brine 
C-neg 
N/P/K  
recycle 
C-seq 
-(DZ)  
NPK 
1% salt 
RO 
LESS !
Energy 
per vol. !
water 
Utilize/detoxify 
OMEGA Challenges? 
•"Biology 
•"Engineering 
•"Economics 
•"Environment (policy, politics) 
OMEGA 
•"What have we done? 
•"Barriers to success? 
•"Materials 
•"Logistics 
•"Collaboration? 



Seagull Movie 


The vision… 





ETFE 
OMEGA Logistics 
•"Biology 
•"Engineering 
•"Environment 
•"Economics 
Come to the edge, he said.  
We’re afraid, they said.  
Come to the edge, he said.  
He pushed them… 
And they flew… 
Apollonaire 
   

How much energy 
does it take to move 
big structures in water? 
How realistic is OMEGA? 




Are we up to the engineering challenge? 











* 15 production facilities significant damaged.  
* Four accounted for nearly all delayed production.   
* Repair time estimates: 3 to 6 months. 
Are we up to the OMEGA challenges? 
•"Biology 
•"Engineering 
•"Environment 
•"Economics 
URS & OMEGA? 
Sustainability?!
Population!
A"uence!
Species!
Technology!
Our future?!
Failure is not an option… 
The stone age didn’t end  
because we ran out of stones… Yamani 
There is no limit to what you can accomplish 
If you don’t care who gets the credit...  Truman 
OMEGA TEAM 
Google GREEN project/CEC PIER Grant 
-" NASA Ames:   
       Jonathan Trent (PI), Tsege Embaye, Patrick Buckwalter, Sigrid Reinsch,    
       Travis Liggett, Robert Baertsch, Sherwin Gormly 
 Interns: Craig Foster, Graham Akeson, Marlowe Primack, Jenny Kaehms,  
 Jonathan Bach, Stefan Eckhardt  
Collaborators:  
–" Algae Lab:  Aaron  Baum 
–" JPL:  Bob Easter, Gerald Voecks, Robert Danziger, Ken Johnson 
–" Cal Poly:  Tryg Lundquist 
–" SRI International: Brian Bedwell, Barbara Heydorn 
–" MBARI/UCSC:  Zbigniew Kolber 
–" UCSC:  John & Vicki Pearse, Mary Silver, Raphel Kudela, Mark Carr 
–" Sembiotics: Ami Ben Amotz (Israel)  
–" Poseidon:  Chris Costello, Jon Deitrich 
–" Scripps Institution of Oceanography:  Richard Seymour 
–" Harbor Branch Oceanographic: Brian LaPoint 
–" UOP: Steve Lupton 
–" Aquaculture:  Peter Lindgrin 

DOE Funding of biofuels 

Fertilizer runoff 
Stratified  
water column 
Suffocation 
Dead Zones 2008  
Science vol. 321: 15 Aug 2008 
Remediating Dead Zones 
OMEGA TEAM 
-" NASA Ames:   
       Jonathan Trent (PI), Tsege Embaye,  Sigrid Reinsch,  Patrick Buckwalter,   
       Travis Liggett, Robert Baertsch, Sherwin Gormly 
 Interns: Craig Foster, Graham Akeson, Marlowe Primack, Jenny Kaehms,  
 Jonathan Bach, Stefan Eckhardt  
Collaborators:  
–" Algae Lab:  Aaron  Baum 
–" Aquaculture:  Peter Lindgrin 
–" Cal Poly:  Tryg Lundquist 
–" Harbor Branch Oceanographic: Brian LaPointe 
–" JPL:  Bob Easter, Gerald Voecks, Robert Danziger, Ken Johnson 
–" MBARI:  Zbigniew Kolber 
–" Poseidon:  Chris Costello, Jon Deitrich 
–" UCSC:  John & Vicki Pearse, Mary Silver, Raphel Kudela, Mark Carr 
–" Scripps Institution of Oceanography:  Richard Seymour 
–" UOP: Steve Lupton 
–" Sembiotics: Ami Ben Amotz (Israel)  
–" SRI International: Brian Bedwell, Barbara Heydorn 
River water 
nutrients 
Coastal  
nutrients 
Harvested algae 
REMEDIATE REUSE RECYCLE NUTRIENTS 
VALUE?  
Remediating Dead Zones 


Sustainability? Population Affluence Species Technology

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