Dr. Patrick McGinn of the National Research Council of Canada (Photo: National Research Council of Canada)

Locations for algae growth are often associated with warm and sunny regions of the world. However, researchers at the National Research Council of Canada are looking into ways that Canada can become a producer of algae and their derivative products. Dr. Patrick McGinn is one of those researchers and agreed to answer a few questions on how the algae industry will look differently in the United States’ northern neighbor.

1) What aspect of algae biofuels is the National Research Council of Canada currently researching?

We are researching many aspects of microalgae biofuels production from microalgae strain isolation through cultivation and processing as well as looking at various conversion processes to a variety of different fuels. Through a collaboration with NREL (Golden, Colorado) we have embarked on a microalgae strain isolation program. With these strains, we are screening for characteristics such as robustness and capacity to thrive on industrial flue gas and/or municipal and industrials wastewaters. A major driver for our R+D is focused on the use of microalgae to remediate environmental waste streams – waste CO2 and waste nitrogen and phosphorus – and to produce what quantities of biofuel we can from those applications. In parallel with this strain isolation and screening program, we are collaborating with partners from industry, academia and other government departments to develop innovative new technologies for both microalgae harvesting and dewatering and for lipid extraction. The overarching theme linking all of these projects together is to develop an integrated processing ‘critical path’ which is as cost-effective as it can be.

2) What production methods are being looked at to grow algae in Canada’s climate?

It is unlikely that the traditional open pond systems will ever be feasible in Canada, at least for about 6 months of the year due to our cold winters and less favorable levels of solar insolation. Different designs and configurations for algal cultivation systems are being looked at. In one project, deeper covered ponds have been designed – it is envisaged that these could be deployed next to an industrial CO2 emitter (cement plant, aluminum smelter etc.) to be used as test beds to research the productivity of algae with natural levels of solar insolation. These systems would be designed to accommodate the introduction of waste heat to dampen daily and seasonal temperature swings and to maintain culture temperatures at or near the optimum. In another project, we are experimenting with cultivation systems designed with two features meant to address the challenges of climate in Canada: low temperature and low light intensity. These are modular systems which are fitted with an array of mirrors meant to collect, concentrate and direct sunlight with high efficiency into a series of light guides which propagate the light into the algal cultures housed inside the structure. The unit is essentially a cube with a thick coat of insulation for optimal thermal efficiency (very high R-value) to minimize heat loss during the colder months when the sun isn’t shining as often. We are hoping to develop a prototype suitable for field trials by early next year.

3) What kind of obstacles will algae producers have to overcome that may be unique to Canada?

I think far and above the biggest obstacle will be solving the productivity problem in places like Canada with lower annual amounts of solar energy to work with and wider swings in temperature. In the near-term, this can be mitigated with technology (PBRs etc.) but this has the unfortunate consequence of being very expensive and therefore more challenging for companies to turn a profit by making biofuels from algae. One encouraging thing about the situation in Canada is the enormous amount of space that we have to work with, along with the fact that, at least in some places in Canada (on the Prairies for instance) we actually receive among the highest amounts of sunny days anywhere on the planet. Therefore, low local productivity can be mitigated somewhat by cultivating over a larger area.

4) Are there any Canadian algae biofuel companies you are working with?

Yes. We are working with companies in a mutually beneficial way in which the company brings a unique technology to the collaboration and uses our facilities at our research station in Ketch Harbour, Nova Scotia as a sort of ‘test bed’. For instance, we work with a Canadian company which is currently engaged in research to optimize its gas diffusion technology for introducing CO2 from stack gases into algal cultures very efficiently. The idea is that, once optimized, the company can ‘shop’ its technology around to algae producers all over the world as a strategy to more efficiently capture CO2 from point sources so that it can be fixed more easily by the algae. Other collaborations with industrial partners follow a similar model.

5) In the United States, hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested by the U.S. government into algae research. How invested in the Canadian government into seeing that this source of fuel becomes a reality, financially and otherwise?

I am not sure what the relative investment is in Canada compared to the US. I know that the NAABB (based at the Donald Danforth center in St. Louis) at about $70 million $US is large compared to our program. The total investment by the NRC in our R+D program is somewhere in the vicinity of $5 million (Cdn; about the same in $US) over 3 fiscal years. This does not include the value of in-kind contributions from industrial partners however. Going forward, we expect a larger investment by the NRC in algal biofuels (something on the order of the value of the NAABB consortium) but one in which there will be a much larger focus on industrial CO2 biomitigation using microalgae. This continued investment in algal biofuels will take the form of large demonstration projects in partnership with key industrial stakeholders (emitters, algae producers etc.) where the objectives will be to show the feasibility of the technology for meaningful CO2 capture and biofuel production.

Dr. Patrick McGinn
Research Officer, Marine Bioactives
National Research Council of Canada, Institute for Marine Biosciences
http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/