If there is one thing worth looking forward to it’s a visit to a distillery, so being invited to attend the switching on of Scottish BioEnergy’s algae reactor system at the home of the Famous Grouse – the Glenturret distillery in Crieff – was something definitely not to be missed.
Scottish BioEnergy is a small company run by David Van Alstyne and is based in the village of St Cyrus, in Aberdeenshire. It has developed an algae reactor that recycles the carbon atoms from emissions such as flue gas and converts them to a range of valuable products.
Dependent on the type of algae employed, that includes a range of liquid fuels, but it is also able to produce hydrogen and perform other potentially useful functions.
In the case of the Glenturret distillery, the reactor array takes the flue gas from the heating system and the algae uses the carbon atoms from the carbon-dioxide emissions to produce oils and proteins, and also releases oxygen. In addition, though, the algae will also absorb the nitrogen and metals (copper) from the distillery waste water, so acting as a water clean-up mechanism. The oil the algae produces will eventually be recycled back into the distillery heating system and the protein will end up as fish or animal feed.
The particular species of algae being used on this project was gathered locally from a burn that runs past the distillery and then cultured. This means it is better suited for local conditions, but the use of local algae resources also implies greater sustainability.
Algae technology is moving fast, and for good reason. It could well be that this is the real answer to decarbonising power stations.
If power-generation companies can add value to their CO emissions instead of having to cover the cost of capturing them and pumping them to an offshore or onshore site for – hopefully – permanent burial, then it makes a lot more economic sense because it could help restrain future energy prices as well as easing liquid-fuel supply concerns.
This has to be a prize worth chasing, and certainly worth investing in. Algaes have been used for decades as a feedstock for hatchery-raised baby shellfish and some finned fish larvae.
It is, however, an eminently scalable technology, so domestic units absorbing CO from central heating systems are equally possible.