New Technology in Biomass Conversion to Crude Oil

ThePigSite.com
Monday, January 23, 2012

US - Researchers at the University of Illinois are preparing to develop an educational and research facility that will be used to demonstrate the process of converting swine manure and algae into crude oil.

Lance Schideman, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) at Illinois, has done significant research in the area of integrated algae systems for water purification and biomass production. Yuanhui Zhang, also a professor in ABE, has spent almost a decade researching the conversion of swine manure into crude oil. Now they have combined their efforts to develop a system that will use biowastes such as swine manure to grow algal biomass, purify wastewater, recycle nutrients, capture carbon dioxide and produce biofuels.

"With this system, we will first convert swine manure into crude oil in a hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) reactor," Professor Schideman said. "The resultant wastewater contains nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which can be used to grow algae. These fast-growing algae will remove the excess nutrients and capture carbon dioxide. Finally, the algae will be fed back into the HTL reactor to be converted into additional biocrude oil." Schideman said that the first stage of the project should allow them to produce up to two gallons of crude oil per day, using manure and algae grown on site. A second phase is also being planned that will produce up to two barrels of oil per day.

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