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University of Toronto student gets financial boost for top spot in a national automotive R&D competition utilizing marine-derived Chitin
Posted On: February 3, 2012A new biodegradable material made from shrimp and crab shells that can replace petroleum-based plastics used in auto components helped a University of Toronto student win a national automotive competition. Aaron Guan, a master of science student, won the AUTO21 TestDRIVE competition, receiving a $10,000 scholarship for his work on recyclable, lightweight, polymeric nanocomposites.
Shrimp and crab shell fibres called chitin nanowhiskers form the base of this new material, which would allow automotive components to meet strict environmental standards without compromising vehicle safety. This material has a much higher strength-to-weight ratio compared to conventional plastics used in most automotive components, and provides higher mechanical strength without aesthetic flaws or deformation at lower densities.
Due to the composite nature of the material, mechanical properties can easily be engineered to suit various strength, stiffness and weight requirements simply by varying the combination of chitin nanowhisker and polymer content. The material is also completely renewable and sustainable as chitin nanowhiskers are derived from the waste of the fishing industry.
Algae-based fuels a growing business in New Mexico
Posted On: January 22, 2012Sapphire Energy Inc., which uses a proprietary process to turn algae oil into renewable gasoline to replace fossil fuels at the pump, broke ground last June on a 300-acre commercial demonstration facility in Columbus.
In Hobbs, in the heart of southeast New Mexico’s oil patch, Massachusetts-based Joule Unlimited Inc. broke ground this fall on a five-acre site that will use concentrating-solar biorefineries to extract ethanol and diesel from bacteria in salt-water mixed with carbon dioxide.
Maersk Tests Algae-Based Biofuel in Cargo Voyage to India
Posted On: December 27, 2011Maersk is testing a range of algae-based biofuel blends aboard a container ship headed to India as part of a project with the U.S. Navy.
Maersk, based in Denmark, has worked with the Navy for about 30 years. However, the biofuels testing program is the first partnership between the world’s largest commercial container carrier and the Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command.
Both the Navy and the Maersk Line, which is part of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, are on a mission to reduce the environmental impacts of their operations at sea and on land.
Turning algae into energy gets Halifax company on award shortlist
Posted On: December 27, 2011A Halifax biotechnology company is hoping green slime will help its business take flight.
Marine Arctic & Antarctic Technologies Inc. is one of 10 startups that made the shortlist of the Nova Scotia Clean Tech Open, Innovacorp announced Wednesday.
The competition’s goal is to assist a clean technology company in getting established in the province.
Marine Arctic & Antarctic Technologies is developing technology to mass produce micro-algae for use in biofuel and other products.
“It’s like slop,” CEO Mather Carscallen said of the raw material during an interview.
“Some of it smells bad. Some of it doesn’t. It’s pretty much every different smell, shape, colour you could ever imagine.”
The algae would be incubated in a bioreactor that could vary in size and designed to be cost effective, he said.
A more profitable use for fish waste
Posted On: December 6, 2011The majority of fish waste is turned into fishmeal or fish oil. But what if there was a way for processors to earn three to four times more money from selling their fish waste?
Gurry Investments, a Boston-based investment firm established in 2000, is using its technology to produce organic fertilizer using waste from farmed fish. The company, working with fertilizer producer Multi Bloom and Mega Green, which is owned by Consolidated Catfish of Isola, Miss., uses a hydrolysis process. The skin and bones are removed from filleted fish, leaving the protein. The offal is ground into a slurry form, processed and separated in a three-stage centrifuge. The result is a product with 10 percent high quality fish oil and 4 percent sediment, which is used as ground cover, hydrolysate or organic fertilizer.
According to Carl Reetz, president of Gurry Investments, using fish waste for organic fertilizer instead of fishmeal or fish oil can benefit both processors and the seafood industry as a whole.
Acetate from chitin suggested as an economically viable source for bioethanol
Posted On: December 6, 2011In a Viewpoint published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, Adão Montel of the Universidade Federal do Tocantins in Brazil suggests that the production of acetate from chitin may be a path to economically viable bioethanol.
Both current methods of producing bioethanol, reducing carbon dioxide or the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose or lignocellulose, are onerous. In this context, the acetate-to-ethanol reduction has shown to be a promising source of economically viable bioethanol. Many works consider that obtaining ethanol from acetate would be excessively onerous due to the cost of separating acetate present in wastewaters.
There is, however, an abundant natural source of acetate that has been neglected in this discussion: chitin. Acetate is abundantly present in chitin, the second most abundant natural polymer in nature (by cellulose only). The obtention of acetate from chitin can take place in a simple way, through the alkaline or acidic hydrolysis of this polymer.
GC Rieber Oils utilizes fish oil for biodiesel
Posted On: November 8, 2011GC Rieber Oils currently possesses two plants in Kristiansund, Norway, where they refine fish oils into omega-3 oils. All processes in the refineries are driven by steam. Until recently, fuel oil from fossil fuel has been used in the steam boiler to create steam. GC Rieber Oils has found a more environmentally friendly replacement for the fuel oil.
When producing omega-3 concentrates, all omega-3-fatty acids are preserved. In fish oil there is also a rather large amount of saturated fat which from a nutritional point of view, is not interesting for further production. Using distillation, these saturated fats are being separated from the process. The waste of fatty acids can be used as biodiesel and replace today’s fuel oil. The Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency has approved our replacement of fuel oil with self-produced biodiesel.
Biodiesel from fish oils is a renewable resource, and even though the emission of CO2 will be the same, it will be CO2 neutral in the cycle considering the accounting/final statement of greenhouse gasses.
GC Rieber Oils is expecting a reduction of fuel oil of approximately 25% in 2011. Our target is a 100% replacement of fuel oil.
Japanese IHI Corp. plans algae biofuel R&D firm
Posted On: July 13, 2011Heavy machinery maker IHI Corp. plans to establish a research and development company for algae biofuel in early August in conjunction with a university venture, eyeing commercial production in fiscal 2020.
Algae biofuel has been drawing attention because unlike fuels made from agricultural crops such as sugarcane and corn, it doesn’t lead to an increase in food prices, IHI said.
IHI will invest ¥400 million over two years in the joint company IHI NeoG Algae, expecting it to release sample products that may be used as an alternative to jet fuel in three years, it said.
It currently costs about ¥1,000 to produce 1 liter of oil from algae, but the joint company aims to reduce that to ¥100.
Aurora Algae has announced the launch of new A2 product portfolio, including omega-3 products
Posted On: April 15, 2011Aurora Algae recently introduced the A2 product portfolio, a series of natural products derived from its proprietary algae platform. The A2 product portfolio is uniquely sustainable, scalable, and flexible to address growing demand in the explosive nutrition, aquaculture, pharmaceutical, and energy markets
A2 Omega-3™ is a family of Omega-3 oils aimed at the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical markets with the goal of providing a natural, sustainable and cost-effective alternative to fish oil and fermented products. The first offering in this family, A2 EPA Pure™ will make the benefits of EPA available to a broader market since it is derived from an allergen-free, vegetarian source.
Seafood byproduct research in Alaska in possible jeopardy
Posted On: March 25, 2011Seafood byproduct research at the Fisheries Industrial Technology Center (FITC) on Kodiak’s Near Island could be in trouble if President Barack Obama’s budget proposal for the coming fiscal year comes to fruition.
The proposal would eliminate funding for the federal agricultural research station in Alaska, and calls for a cut of $42 million to the Agriculture Research Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
If the cuts go through, it would result in a loss of almost $1 million dollars to the FITC — a bad proposition for the seafood waste research.
“The research that it funds stops,” FITC interim director Paula Cullenberg said. “It’s the primary source of funding for seafood byproduct research in the state and one of the few in the country. I think it would be a bad thing for Alaska.”
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