
Archimede Ricerche Srl and Microalghe Camporosso Srl, through their parent company A&A Fratelli Parodi Spa, are active members of the BIOFAT European Project.
The BIOfuel From Algae Technologies (BIOFAT) project, jointly funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), aims to demonstrate that biofuels produced from microalgae can offer energy efficiency, profitability and environmental sustainability at the same time.
This innovative project brings together ten partners from seven countries to demonstrate that bio-ethanol, bio-diesel and other by-products can be derived from microalgae on a large scale. The ability of microalgae to provide products with high energy yields and low greenhouse gas emissions has long been known, but the downsides associated with developing this field are less clear.
Algo-refinery
BIOFAT aspires to maximise the benefits of microalgae while minimising the environmental impact. Along the way, the project will emphasise the concept of an algo-refinery, an integrated facility capable of supplying high value-added by-products along with bio-fuel.
BIOFAT’s approach integrates complementary technologies and skills, brought in by the project partners, in a multidisciplinary context.
In the course of the project, the bio-fuel production chain from microalgae will be evaluated, with three main objectives:
- Energy efficiency
- Economic feasibility
- Environmental sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the key factor in the production of bio-fuel from microalgae, both in the environmental field (e.g. considering the use of marine strains to limit the use of fresh water) and in the economic field (low energy consumption).
The implementation of the project comprises two distinct phases:
- Process optimisation in two pilot plants, each of 0.5 hectares, located in Italy (Camporosso) and Portugal.
- Economic modelling and scale-up, with the construction of a 10 hectare ‘demo’ plant.
The technologies applied in the two pilot plants are fully representative of the solutions that will characterise the demo plant.
Please visit the official BIOFAT project website for more information.