Microalgae are expected to solve the problem of shortage of biodiesel raw materials

The first national key basic research and development plan (973 Plan) for microalgae energy in China, which was approved in 2010 and launched in 2011, "scientific basis for large-scale preparation of microalgae energy", was officially launched in Jiaxing Science and Technology City, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province on February 19 The project is jointly organized and implemented by East China University of science and technology, China Ocean University, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Jiangxi new daze Industrial Group Co., Ltd The supporting department of the project is Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, and the supporting unit is East China University of science and technology Professor Li Yuanguang, State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering of East China University of science and technology, is the chief scientist of the project At present, the raw materials used in the production of biodiesel all rely on the cultivation of oil plants, palm trees, jatropha, rape, etc Due to the low oil area yield of oil plants, the development of biodiesel will inevitably occupy a lot of arable land and affect the grain production Microalgae are the simplest and oldest low-grade plants with various species, wide distribution and fast propagation They can grow rapidly and synthesize a large amount of oil (mainly triglycerides) in the cell by using simple nutrients such as sunlight, CO2 and N / P, which provide new oil and fat resources for the production of biodiesel Meanwhile, they can use the vast salt alkali wasteland and other non arable land in China to breed a piece of biodiesel A new way of oil development Although microalgae energy has broad development prospects and unique advantages, which has been recognized at home and abroad, so far, the research and development work in this field in the world is still in the initial stage of experimental research and pilot demonstration, all of which encounter the bottleneck of high cost due to immature technology, so microalgae energy has not yet achieved large-scale preparation in the world and basic research is weak The project of "scientific basis for large-scale preparation of microalgae energy" will aim at promoting the major breakthrough of core technology in the large-scale preparation of microalgae energy, take the actual conditions of outdoor large-scale cultivation of microalgae energy as the background, take improving the efficiency of each unit in the large-scale preparation system of microalgae energy as the main line, and study the construction of the system from algal breeding to the large-scale preparation of microalgae energy Three key scientific problems in biology and engineering that need to be solved urgently in the process - "systematic biological mechanism of intracellular metabolism and oil synthesis and accumulation of energy microalgae", "law of material and energy transformation and environmental regulation of large-scale photoautotrophic cultivation of energy microalgae" and "principle of large-scale processing and system integration optimization of energy microalgae" Based on the above problems, the project plans to carry out a systematic and in-depth study from three aspects: Cognition of intracellular metabolism, scale cultivation, energy product processing and system integration optimization The first level is mainly focused on the selection of algae species and the discovery of basic metabolic laws and regulatory mechanisms of cells themselves; the second level is from the perspective of scale culture, to study the response and regulatory mechanism of microalgae cells to the environment, the design principle and amplification rule of photobioreactor, the optimization and amplification method of photoautotrophic culture technology of energy microalgae; the third level is mainly from the collection of algae cells The principles and methods of energy microalgae processing such as harvesting, oil extraction, biodiesel preparation and comprehensive utilization of non oil components, as well as the integration and optimization of cultivation and processing system, are explored to improve efficiency The projects include "the principle of selection and comprehensive evaluation system of excellent microalgae species (strains)", "the metabolic network and system biology research of photosynthetic carbon fixation and oil accumulation of microalgae", "the design and amplification principle of photobioreactor based on the characteristics of light direction mixing and light attenuation", "the environmental response, optimization and amplification principle of large-scale photoautotrophic cultivation process of microalgae" "Principles and methods of energy microalgae harvesting, oil extraction and biodiesel preparation" and "optimization of non oil components utilization and large-scale system integration of microalgae energy" The project is expected to achieve a major breakthrough in key scientific issues in the large-scale preparation of microalgae energy in 2015, providing innovation sources for the breakthrough of industrial technology bottleneck.