Investigating the future of biodiesel with algae oil
Perstorp is one of the partners in the project “Bäckhammars Algbruk” that was inaugurated today. The aim for Perstorp is to find a way to use algae oil in biodiesel – already now thinking about the second generation of biofuels.
Today, Bäckhammars Algbruk and its pilot plant in Sweden was inaugurated, a project aimed at learning how to cultivate algae in different conditions, and extracting beneficial substances. The project is led by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, with the help of several partners from the Industry, Academia and the Public sector. Perstorp is one of these partners. Lars Lind, VP BioFuels, explains why:
“We are in the forefront of biofuels with our successful biodiesel Verdis Polaris™, based on rape seed oil. But in order to secure a future with more fossil free fuels, we need to keep developing. We are actively searching for the 2nd generation of biofuels, and we believe that algae might be a solution”.
The pilot plant at Bäckhammars Algbruk was started last summer, and the “algae soup” from the first season is now being examined. The second algae season started in May.
“Our idea is to find an algae oil fraction that is useful for our purpose – to use in biodiesel. There are some fatty algae species that are of interest to us”, says Lars Lind.
The inauguration of the plant included guided tours, presentations and a press conference.