Bio Diesel Mozambique

8/9/2019 Bio Diesel Mozambique

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Table of Contents

Preface Pag Introduction Page Process Pag Algae cultivation Page 7 Mozambique Page Budget biodiesel project Page 10

Plan P

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PrefaceAn unique opportunity, motivated people and a huge challenge: The Imagine project. In March of 2004 our

biology teacher told us about an interesting project that was just launched. Beside the fact that you could use theproject for your profielwerkstuk (a piece all exam students in secondary schools have to make) there were also

captivating and inventive subjects which you could choose from. Furthermore there was excellent assistance andexperienced guides and last but not least, we could win a trip to a developing country.

Lets introduce ourselves first. We are Sonja Boas and Chang Liu. We are classmates and we are going to thefinal year of high school. We both live in Soest and we cycle every day together to The Baarnsch Lyceum. InDutch high schools there is a system where students can choose the direction of education which in they are

interested. We are both following the natural sciences direction and are interested in all that lives. It should notbe a surprise that we both want to study medicine.

During the International Biotechnology Congress in Ede the five promising propositions were presented to us.After many discussions we decided to continue with the biodiesel proposal. In the course of the project welearned more and more about the subject. We got to know our guides and the scientists who proposed the

biodieselplan better in a short time as well. We want to seize this occasion to thank Daan Schuurbiers, Marije

Blomjous and Tycho Malmberg for all their assistance and patience in answering all our questions. Also we wantto give thanks to Wouter van Winden and Bram van Beek for their wise advices, great tips and professionalknowledge.

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IntroductionOur world is dying, and we are the cause of it. We pollute her air and we poison her water. We exploit her andtake from her all that she has build up in the thousands of years and use it up in just a few decades. Millions of factories and cars emit thick smoke day and night. Not only does this pollute the air but the soil too. It even

damages the ozone layer and provokes the notorious green house effect. We have to realise that if we go on thisway, we will devastate Mother Earth and therefore ourselves. For that reason changes in our lifestyle must bemade.

We think that an important problem for our environment lies with the production and use of fuels. First of all weaim at diesel but in the future other types of fuel could be converted into ecological friendlier products. For theproduction of contemporary fuels fossil reserves are used. Eventually, this natural source will not be sufficientanymore for our gigantic consumption. Additionally the production process creates an enormous emission of carbon dioxide. When the diesel is burnt in the engines, more carbon dioxide will be released into ouratmosphere. The concentration gets too high and the greenhouse effect is worsened.

Thanks to the Imagine project we encountered a good solution. Wouter van Winden and Bram van Beek submitted a proposition, which we think that if it could be realised, it would be a large step to a durable lifestyle.They wanted to make fuels with algae as primary product. This cleaner fuel is called biodiesel. Biodiesel isalready used in several countries. In Germany for example cars drive on a mixture of 60% of conventional dieseland 40% biodiesel. The experiences so far are highly positive. As yet biodiesel is too coarse for most of thediesel engines to run on exclusively. But even if 40% of all diesel would be replaced by biodiesel, a great part of our goal would be achieved.

The biodiesel in Germany is made from rapeseed. However it is impractical and not lucrative to producebiodiesel from rapeseed on a large scale because the cultivation of it takes in too much space. That is why wewant to use algae as material for our biodiesel. Algae produce relatively much more oil than rapeseed. Sometypes of algae can convert up to 70% of their total biomass into oil. Algae for our fuels will make us lessdependant of the fossil fuels. Also the production process of diesel from algae is much better for the nature. Thealgae reuse all carbon dioxide that is emitted during the process for more oil production. The exhausts of biodiesel are cleaner than that of fossil diesel as well. In a word we can say that biodiesel is a promisingcandidate for sparing the fossil fuels and reducing the current immense pollution.

In this report we will elaborately discuss a few concerns. First we will show how the process works and that itcan be realised. The cultivation of the algae is an important part of this process; it will therefore get the neededattention. Because our goal is to make this project successful, we made an extensive project plan. In this plan wethoroughly examined how the project can be achieved effectively. To support this, we tried to work out thefinancial aspects as much as we could and adapted it to a realistic location. This location is selected carefullyaccording to several criteria. These criteria will be discussed in this report too.

We believe in the plan but we are the pioneers of this method. We will make the first step and we will surelyencounter many problems on our path. Especially the financial matters will be a challenge. However, wherethere is a will, there is a way and we will follow it. We are confident that in the future solutions will be found forall problems. We see a future for biodiesel.

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distilled to remove the remaining of the algae. Distillation is a better method than filtration in this case becausewe can withdraw the last bits of oil out of the algae and remove solid bits. This will raise the output. The twofinal products are now oil (triglyceride) and algae pie. This pie can be used as cattle feed or fish feed. The algaein the breeding pond can also reuse it.

D. Biodiesel from oil and alcohol Now it is time for the last step. In part B we obtained alcohol and in part C oil. Now we are going to put thosetwo products together in a reactor to produce usable fuel. This oil was namely not good enough yet because theviscosity was too high due to the glyceride-connections. That is why we have to remove the glycerol from thetriglyceride. We do this with the aid of alcohol. The OH-group of alcohol will bind with the detached, aloof C-atom of the triglyceride. Moreover the two remaining carbon atoms of the alcohol will bind to the remainingester. The result is two end products: glycerol and three fatty acids. The fatty acids constitute our biodiesel. Thisprocess is presented below with the reaction formula.

Now we have a mixture of glycerol and biodiesel. The last step is the separation of these two products. This willbe done with distillation.

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Algae cultivationThe algae are the indispensable link in our project. We have to win the mainconstituent out of the algae, namely oil. Algae absorb carbon dioxide andnutrients from the water and make oil out of their biomass, while they produce

oxygen. Algae reproduce themselves nonsexually; they divide themselves intotwo cells, grow bigger and divide again. We have chosen a type of algae thataccumulates a lot of oil and satisfies a few requirements. Some of theserequirements involve their habitat. These criteria will be worked out when wediscuss the location of the project.

The alga that we preferred was the Botryococcus braunii BBG-1. On the leftthere is a picture of this specie. The Botryococcus braunii have green cells with dimensions of 15 to 20micrometers and an oval shape. They form star shaped colonies. This specie has one of the highest oilproductions. Under optimal circumstances the Botryococcus braunii can achieve a share of 61% oil out of theirdry body mass. Under stress this will reduce to 31%. Relatively this is a excellent performance and since the oilproduction is essential for the success of our project it makes the Botryococcus braunii our number one alga. Thebraunii has an maximum growth when the temperature is between the 22 and 25 . Just like all other algae the

Botryococcus braunii needs minerals as nitrate and phosphate. In the appendix in figure 3 there is a list of important nutrients that optimize the habitat of the algae. Natural seawater contains all of these nutrients and donot have to be added. It also appears that the Botryococcus braunii can survive under poor circumstances.

The next item we have to consider is that the algae have to be bred on salt water. For this water we use seawater.First of all natural seawater contains as said nearly all of the needed nutrients. Second of all it is affluentlyavailable. We are going to breed the algae in a circuit-shaped pond. In the appendix in figure 2 it is representedschematically. The width of the pond will be around the 23 meters and 76 meters in length. The height will bearound 15 cm. The total space the pond will take in will be 1750 square meters. Detailed constructioninformation can be found in the appendix (figure 6). The algae must remain compounded and therefore the watermust be constantly stirred. To reach this we will install a pump that keeps the water circulating. There isinsufficient nitrate and phosphate in the seawater and we have to insert more of those minerals additionally. Forthis we can use the wastewater from the factories in the neighbourhood. Beside the fact that there is enough

nitrate and phosphate in this water for the algae, we can also keep the salt concentration on a certain level.Further we can heat or chill the water with a regulation system before we add it to the pond to control the watertemperature. We will connect a thermometer to the system to watch the water temperature.

Like oxygen is essential for human beings, carbon dioxide is for algae. We must add it to the algaes habitat.Like said before there is a alcohol factory nearby the cultivation where alcohol is produced from sugar canes.The only waste product is carbon dioxide. We will seize this and conduct it into a pipe through a compressor.This compressor will give the gas a higher pressure and a smaller volume. The tube leads to a sparger that iszigzag installed into the bottom of the pond where the carbon dioxide gas will bubble through the water to thesurface. On account of the zigzagging structure of the sparger all flowing algae are provided with carbon dioxide.The CO2-bubbles are multifunctional in this system. First of all the algae absorb the carbon dioxide for theirgrowth. Second of all they can loose their oxygen to these bubbles which prevents the algae to get stressed.Finally through this gas-exchange a perfect buffer arises. The oxygen binds hydrogen atoms that can make the

water too acid. H2O is the product of this reaction and the pH stays on a constant level. Below you can find thereaction formula.

We can watch the pH with a pH-meter. This will be connected to the sparger which adds the CO2. In this waythe concentration of the buffer can be controlled.

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MozambiqueAn important part of the project is of course finding a good location. We looked carefully at the process andexamined which geographical factors will be important. The first demand was that it must be a developingcountry. Now we could exclude many countries. The next demand is that there must be enough sugar cane

cultivation. If there is sugar cane, there is alcohol production and since alcohol is one of the main components of the process this is a necessity. Now just a few countries are leftover. The finalists were Cuba Brasil andMozambique. But there are more criteria. Cuba was excluded because of political instability. The next factor wasthe presence of natural seawater. We need this water for the algae breeding pond. Brasil and Mozambiquesuffices both but we decided to go on with Mozambique because our motivation to help this country is bigger.

Now we had to choose a specific place in Mozambique. Without doubt this place must lie to the coast. Second of all it has to be near sugar cane plantages. The last but surely very important factor is the temperature. Our algaefeel the most comfortably when the temperature is between the 22 up to 25 . The temperature in the wholeyear must be as close as possible to this level. After some research we found that the middle part of the coast linecame closest to these temperatures through the whole year. Beira is at the coast in the middle of Mozambiqueand had the most favorable temperatures. Beside that Beira is also the second great port of Mozambique and theinfrastructure is relatively developed. In the appendix (figure 4) is a monthly statement of temperature and

precipitation in the city of Beira. Not much to the north there are sugar cane plantages. We have found ourdestination.

History

ColonisationMozambique lies in the south-west of Africa. The Portugezeexplorer Vasco da Gama discovered Mozambique on his journeyto India in 1498. In 1505 The first military posts arrived at Sofala(province where Beira lays today). Mozambique became aPortugeze colony. The colonists were interested in the gold andivory from the midlands of Mozambique. They first lives of theslavery and later they exported agricultural products and lived of the transit of products from Rhodesia (the current Zimbabwe) andSouth-Africa. The country was fully exploited during thiscolonization. There was little to no attention paid to the localdevelopment of the infrastructure for example, or the proficiencyof the natives.

DecolonizationThe decolonization went violently because the Mozambiquanslived very poor under the colonial system and they saw how thePortugeze took their riches and posessions. They saw that the mostfertile land was owed by the white farmers and they had to use thedry, infertile pieces of ground to stay alive. Inevitably protestgroups were formed. The Frelimo (Frente de Libertacao deMocambique = Front for the liberation of Mozambique) was asuccesfull protestgroup. It was founded on the 25th of June in 1962by Eduardo Mondlane (among others). A ten-year battle forindependance arose between the Mozambiquans and the colonists.Eventually in 1975 liberty was reached. Mozambique wasindependant.

The joy however was only of short duration. The Portugeze left thecountry suddenly in 1975 without preparing the country for it. Alleducated and skilled men were taken away. To give you an idea: Inthe whole country there were ten teachers left. The Frelimobecame the nieuw Mozambiquean government and they embracedthe socialism. With this they closed tight ties with the Soviet Union.

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Unfortunately, socialism failed in Mozambique and a group named the Renamo protested. They destroyedschools, public buildings and the little infrastructure that Mozambique posessed. Finally the Peace Treaty of Rome was concluded in 1992. At that point in time Mozambique was a havoc. Now it had to be rebuilt. Thesocialistic system was replaced by a free market economy. In 1994 the first democratic elections were held sinceyears.

FutureEven though Mozambique achieved a lot in the passed few years and it now may call itself a independantdemocracy, it remains one of the poorest countries in the world. But this is not surprising. First of all the countryhas been free only just since 1992. When it was time to make a new start they had to begin with nothing at allbecause everything was demolished. There was barely education because there were no educators. Even aftertheir libertation, fortune does not seem to be on their side. Drought, floods and famine afflict the nation. As aresult of the floods in 2000 the international society gave Mozambique US$ 450 million for rehabilitation andunburdened them of debt.The Netherlands donated besides calamity aid with a cash value of US$10 million, anamount of money of US$45 million to support the reconstruction. Mozambique put this money into Educationand Water and Sanitary from their reconstruction programm. The floods in 2001 in Central Mozambique led to asecond reconstruction programm of US$132 million. The Netherlands contributed US$13 million.

We can say that Mozambique receives much financial support in the reconstruction of their country. The

economy grows as one of the fastest in the world (also because of the low starting point). This gives us hope andwe can also contribute to a better future for Mozambique. If biodiesel production will be a important point of attention in the world, then Mozambique will be the pioneer of it.

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Bugdet Project Biodiesel

Entry Specification Total costs in euro's

Land rent 5 000

Algae pond 10 000

Pond

Pump

Algae

Thermometer

pH-meter

Seawater transportNutrients 2 000

Heating installation

Chilling installationCarbon dioxide 7 000

Compressor

Sparger

Oil production from algae 15 000

Filter

Extractor

Distillator

Alcohol 2 000Biodiesel production 5 000

ReactorDistillator

Automation 10 000

Laptop

Telephone-/internetconnection

Energy (electricity) 3 000

Distribution 6 000

Storage reservoir

Transportation

Employee 20 000

SalaryAdventitious 25 000

Total budget 110 000

For all transport we engage another company. For the budget we must find a sponsors. We can approachcompanies which support developing countries or we can adress ourselves to nature organisations likeGreenpeace. We also can appeal to the EOF; the European Development Fund since this organisation offersfinancial support to various projects in developing countries. Finally we can also conclude a cheap loan at EIB;the European investment bank. This organization also offers cheap loans for projects in Third World countries.

Once the production is on pace we will get incomes from it. First of all we will be able to sell the biodiesel.Secondly we can sell the remained alga wafer as cattle fodder or fish fodder.

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PlanTo give the project a maximum chance, we must work out all of the details as well as possible. Here we willmake a good start by discussing the most important matters step by step. Of course during the implementation it will become clear where the difficulties lie and what appears to run prosperous. The pilot system will be well

observed for a year. Afterwards we will look at the results and decide together what potential possibilities the future of biodiesel holds. Now we will start at the very beginning and find a suitable destination for our project.

LocationAs already presented in the report, Mozambique is a promising location. Not only it is a developing country bythe sea, but it also has suitable temperatures. Moreover, nowadays there is a political stable environment inMozambique and the economy grows tremendously. We will now discuss the location more specific. The areabetween the cities Beira and Quelimane proved to have the best circumstances for this project. In that area wemust find a piece of land. Since there are many farmers who live there and cultivate their ground for ownconsumption, this must be no problem. If we would rent a piece of soil of approximately a hectare of a farmer,this would bring advantages for both sides. First he would receive rent from us, what will be a relatively largeamount of money for him (the average year income amounts to $250, - we apprehend a hiring budget of $5000,-).Secondly we can adopt the farmer himself as an employee of the project and he would receive a high salary.

The presence of an alcohol factory is also of importance. Since there are many sugar plantations in the area it isassumable that there is an alcohol factory. We have to approach them and make a deal with them. First of all wemust be allowed to capture the carbon dioxide they produce and use it for the algae. Probably this will not be aproblem since this gas is nothing but a waste product for them. Second of all we would be a consumer of theiralcohol for the last step in our biodiesel production process. Annually we will be needing approximately 3000liters of alcohol, depending on the performance of the algae to produce oil. Beira is a large city and it is nowonder that there are many factories around it, for example a steel factory. We will need the waste water of oneor more of these factories. It contains namely nitrate and fosfate that our algae need for their growth. Wepresume that they will allow us to use their waste water. Possibly they can even transport it for us for a smallcompensation.

AlgaeWhat are vital for the process are of course the algae. There are many kinds of algae which all require differentlife environments. We choose the Botryococcus braunii for our project. Our pioneer algae must be healthy and intop condition. That is why we will order them at a specialised organization. CCAP is an acknowledged firm forthese matters. CCAP stands for Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa. It is the longest established of theworld's major protistan service culture collections. It holds over 2000 strains of algae and protozoa which aresupplied worldwide to industry and the academic community. They can deliver us the Botryococcus braunii. Formore information you can go to their website: http://www.ife.ac.uk/ccap/index.html

Material Now we must think about the materials. Our first concern is the algae breeding pond. The material must be solid,durable, stainless and impermeable. A good candidate is stainless steel and since there is a metalfactory in theneighborhood we can make the pond there. The tube installations can be made of a metal. The high-tech

materials like the hydraulic pump, filter, extractor, distillators, compressor, chilling-/heatingsystems and areactor we must find in a more developed area. South-Africa would be a good sourcefor these instruments. The hydraulic pump must be able to pump the water around 2meters per seconde. Since the length of the pond circuit is approximately 131meters the pump must move 150 000 liters of water per 65.7 seconds. There arepumps that meet this requirement. Techinally qualified pumps can be found athttp://wholesalehydraulics.com/AFPProducts/Products.asp?c=5 A suitable pumpthat can be found on this site is the DPG2, produced by different firms.

ConstructionAfter all the materials are complete we have to start the construction. We will ask an expert from TheNetherlands to go with us and lead the construction. The construction workers we can find in Mozambique.Africon will be a good source of professional experienced men. They have worked several times before with

Mozambique so they are familiar with the people and culture. It would be a great integration aid for us whenAfricon would be involved in the construction. More information about Africon can be found at their website:http://www.africon.com/ T We start with the breeding pond. The pond must be installed firmly into the ground in

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a sunny place. Mathematical information about the pond can be found in the appendix. It must be as much aspossible isolated from other organisms. The carbon dioxide installation must be connected to the sparger, whichis installed in the pond. The other side must be connected to the compressor, where the CO2 is stored. Thehydraulic pump must be placed. The addition of nutrients will be done with the waste water. Each day we needto refresh 5000 litres of waste water to suffice in the algaes needs. This water will first pass the cooling-/heatingsystem so the water temperature in the pond can be controlled.

To start the process the algae must be taken out of the pond. This will happen through a filter. With the filter wetake half of the amount of algae out of the pond every day. The Botryococcus braunii reproduces at least onetime per 24 hours provided that it has enough nutrients and sunlight. So the concentration algae on the momentyou start filtering must be constant every day. The following step is to install the extractor and the distillator. Theoil that is finally made pure by the distillator will go through a direct connection to the reactor. Next to the oilsupply is a connection made for the alcohol supply. Finally the reactor is connected to a distillator. This willfinish the process and produce ready-made biodiesel. In the appendix (figure 5) you can find a schematic plan of the system.

DistributionSince the present-day diesel engines can not yet drive on pure biodiesel, but only on mixed diesel (conventionaldiesel and biodiesel it is a advantage tot be in Beira. Here is namely a large oil connection to the inlands wherewe may be able to include our biodiesel into the existing diesel in the future. In this way we can sell our productdirectly and it will be surely consumed .If this possibility is not available for some reason; we will have to findother ways to turn over our biodiesel. We hope that itwill be mainly for the inlands. We will begin withconquering the market in the bigger cities, expectingthe smaller towns and inland countries will follow.For the transport we will approach a transportcompany.

ObstacleAn obstacle where we have less hold on than theother matters is the financial support. Nonetheless wehave good hope because many countries in the worldput a lot of investments in projects in developingcountries. The UN-countries are even obliged todonate an amount of money for these projects or countries annually. We hope that the people realise theimportance of this project for the future of our environment and are willing to offer their support in any way.Thus we can appeal to companies or organizations that focus on a better environment. Another option is the EOF,the European Development Fund. This fund can offer financial support for projects in Third World countries. If needed we can obtain a cheap loan at the EIB, the European Investment bank, which offers particular interestsfor projects in developing countries. There are therefore many possibilities.

Pioneers of the 21st centuryIt is proven that the process works. Theoretically this pilot works without problems and many litres of biodieselwill see the light every day. That is why we have to construct this system precisely so we can prove to the rest of

the world that it is also possible. Many steps of the process are already studied and proven. A few examples areproducing alcohol from sugar canes, oil from algae, breeding algae and the reaction between oil from algae andalcohol. What we are doing is fixing all these steps into a complete system. We hope we get the chance to showthis to the rest of the world so they can see it with their own eyes.

It is improbable that biodiesel will be produced on a large scale before the fossil fuels are exhausted. Theproduction of biodiesel is namely more valuable than the production of fossil fuels. Yet we must be preparedbecause it will not be long before the natural resources are worn out definitively. That is why we have to developthe technology now and master it so when the moment comes we will be prepared to switch over to the eternalsource of biodiesel.

Now that Mozambique has reached the position of a free, independent state, it can begin with the reconstructionof the country. The nation can contribute to this by continue doing what they were successful in a broader

context, namely fighting for freedom; this time the freedom of Mother Earth and mankind.

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Figure 1The process

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Figure 2

The breeding pond

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Figure 3 Table of nutrients for algae

1000 ml of seawater

NaNO3 2 mM NaH2PO4 0.1mM

ZnCl2 1 M

MnCl2 1 M

Na2MoO4 1 M

CoCl3 0.1 M

CuSO4 0.1 M

Ferric citrate 20 M

Na2-EDTA 26.4 M

Thiamine* 35 g/l

Biotine* 5 g/l

pH: 7.5-7.7

E. F.G.

H. I.J. Figure 4

Table of temperatures of Beira

BEIRA 19 80 S, 34 90 E, 52 feet (16 meters) above sea level.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Avg. Temperature 28 27 27 25 23 21 20 22 23 25 27 27

Avg. Max Temperature 30 30 30 28 27 26 25 26 27 28 30 30

Avg. Min Temperature 24 24 23 22 19 17 16 17 19 21 23 24

Avg. Rain Days 5 5 7 4 2 1 2 2 2 2 3 4

Avg. Snow Days 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Figure 5The complete process

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Figure 6 K. The dimensions of the breeding pond

Now we are going to lay out the calculations which led to these dimensions. First of all thesurface of the pond must be 1000 square meters. We choose 30 meters for L and 10 meters forB.

The two round ends of the pond must cover a surface of 1000 600 = 400 square meters. Youcan calculate the radius with the formula for the surface of the two ends of the pond:

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Bio Diesel Mozambique