The proposed effort is aimed at the development of a new low-cost technique for extracting the fuel precursor components from marine alga cells. The effort is aimed at reducing the total production costs of alga-derived fuels, up to one-half of which may be attributed to the recovery/extraction process alone. Development of advanced processing technologies such as that proposed here is necessary in order to bring alga production costs into line with competing fossil fuels. The proposed effort will primarily consist of an experimental effort aimed at demonstrating the technology and assessing technology capabilities and limitations. SUMMARY OF
Anticipated Results: Over the course of the proposed Phase I effort we anticipate identifying process operating conditions suitable for economical disruption of the targeted marine algae, Dunaliella sp., and extraction of fuel-precursor materials from them. After determining the optimal processing conditions and parameter sensitivities, we will project process operating costs and scaling and incorporate those into a preliminary design for an industrial-scale system in order to assess the technologys suitability in various algal-fuel production scenarios
