Cepsa will develop biofuels from microalgae
Cepsa and the Technological Institute of the Canary Islands (ITC) will promote the development of biofuels from microalgae, as reported by the energy company on Wednesday.
The research, which is scheduled to end in the third quarter of 2024, is focused on producing raw material that can be converted into biofuels and sustainable chemical products in Cepsa's Energy Parks, without the need to make any modifications to the plants and equipment.. For this, it will be previously used in the pilot plants of the company's Research Center.
This project is an example of open innovation, in which ITC will be in charge of cultivating these microalgae in water from industrial processes, and a joint team from both companies will carry out the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) process. of hydrothermal liquefaction) on the crop to valorize the biomass. With the HTL reactor, designed by Cepsa, the raw material that will be evaluated in the pilot plants of the energy company will be obtained.
The cultivation of these microalgae, native to the Canary Islands, will take place in the Archipelago, which has a stable temperature throughout the year and a high availability of solar radiation, which makes it an optimal place for its cultivation.
The initiative allows promoting the circular economy and will use raw materials of renewable origin, which do not compete with water resources or food. In this sense, fresh water from the secondary treatment of a wastewater treatment plant is used, as well as brine from a desalination plant.
The use of these biofuels from microalgae allows a reduction of up to 90% of CO2 emissions compared to the use of traditional fuels. Specifically, with the production of one hectare of microalgae cultivation, 72 tons of CO2 are reduced per year, which is equivalent to the CO2 absorbed annually by 3,000 trees.
This initiative takes into account criteria of sustainability and efficiency at all levels of the process, in addition, these raw materials are characterized by having a great capacity to capture CO2, rapid growth and high energy potential.