Efforts to pioneer a commercially sustainable South Australian biofuels industry from microalgal biodiesel feedstock have been boosted with a Premier’s Science and Research Fund grant of $1.2 million.
The funds have been matched by resource recovery company SANCON, the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) and Flinders University to total $4 million.
This will enable scientists to develop a Proof-of-Concept facility, exploring the viable production of microalgal biodiesel feedstock and high value co-products such as nutraceuticals.
The project will include a facility on Torrens Island including four 50 square metre raceway ponds that will utilise nutrient rich saline water from the Port River estuary, carbon dioxide from adjacent power plants and solar energy to produce the products.
Assoc. Professor Rob Thomas says the scientists will be developing an elite algal strain for biodiesel production tapping into SARDI’s collection of native strains that show high oil production potential, and to optimise algal production systems, overcoming the current high costs of production, scalability, yield, harvesting and extraction technologies.
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