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Integrating Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and nutrient recycling. Solar heat and pressure convert waste feedstock into liquid bioenergy fuels, chemical compounds and bio-plastics
About
Phycofeeds has patent pending heating and cooling, heat transfer exchange and fluid dynamics technologies. Waste and wastewater are processed for end use in biomaterials, bio-plastics, biofuel, and aquaculture markets. The business has a demonstration of pre-commercial feasibility in India, just one of many potential target markets worldwide. Research data validates the scaled production system capacity for commercialisation potential and scale revenue forecasts. Waste plastic pollution contaminates the sea, land and air. Agri- and industrial waste is not used as effectively as it could be. We need to provide increased animal and fish feed from sustainable sources, without capture fisheries to feed a growing world population. Phycofeeds' approach utilises the integration of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) technologies into the conversion process to improve the energy efficiency and the economic case for scaling waste-based biofuel production. Bio-oil produced through an integrated HTL process does not use embedded energy from petroleum derived substances as input heat energy is supplied via CSP. Further sustainability enhancements are achieved by integrating wastewater feedstock as inputs and the delivery of output by-products for the aquaculture feed industry.
Key Benefits
Phycofeeds has patent pending heating and cooling, heat transfer exchange and fluid dynamics technologies. Waste and wastewater are processed for end use in biomaterials, bio-plastics, biofuel, and aquaculture markets.
Applications
The market value for bio-crude aligns with conventional crude oil prices of USD $500/ton or USD $70/barrel, while the market price of protein and oil-based feedstocks is in the region of USD $1200/ton. Incremental added value is attained from product development that includes fish feed formulation and integrated aquaculture. The first major segment targeted by Phycofeeds is the biofuels market valued at $168.18bn (€149.05bn) in 2016 and to reach $246.52bn by 2024 at 4.92% CAGR. Within the EEA, the market is expected to reach €30 billion (USD $33 billion) in 2020, based on its use in the transport sector and projected price developments. The next segment targeted is feed for aquaculture, from microalgae produced as a co-product from the Phycofeeds process. The global aquafeed market is set to grow to USD $155 Billion by 2022, with CAGR of 13.2%. The Asia-Pacific region has the highest projected growth rates, of which China and Indonesia account for more than 75% . A conservative 5% penetration of this market with aquafeed from bio-sources puts the market size for such products at $7.8 billion globally. Further refinement of the Phycofeeds production process and additional capabilities in downstream processing expands the scope of the market applications into high value chemicals and nutraceuticals. Phycofeeds’ solar HTL infrastructure avoids additional bolt-on components of conventional solar parabolic trough systems used for power generation systems. This reduces the capital intensity that considerably lowers the production costs of biofuels compared to conventional CSP electricity generation. Further differentiation is achieved through the combination of nutrient recycling with HTL/CSP integration for economically sustainable microalgae bio-oil production.