Spanish algal biofuel consortium builds new pilot plant

A Spanish consortium is scaling up its efforts to produce biofuel from algae by building a pilot plant in Chiclana at a cost of 11.5 million Euros, with 7.5 million Euros being put forward by the European Union.

The ultimate benefits of the project are twofold; not only to produce algal biofuel from the nutrients in wastewater, but also to use the algae for the treatment of this wastewater. Water security and treatment will be one of the biggest challenges facing the world in the future as the global population grows and the effects of climate change are felt. 

The integration of biofuel production and water treatment in a single process could be of great value in the future. Indeed, when this project was presented to the EU Seventh Framework Programme Biofuels from Algae, it was commended for its scientific and technical innovation and also for the sustainability of the project.

Initially this project will focus on research, but then will progress to production after two years. The production stage will see ten hectares of algae production space installed at the plant. It is estimated that with the commissioning of the plant it will be possible to produce enough biofuel to run 200 cars. 

In Spain there are various research projects for the production of biofuel from microalgae. In the province of Cadiz, a pilot plant is under construction, funded by Celulosa Investment (part of the Aurantia Group). Business groups such as Acciona, which invested 2.5 million Euros in a pilot biodiesel plant in Caparroso, or Repsol, through the Business Unit for New Energies, are also work in the production of next generation biofuels.