I-Corps: Commercialization of a Novel, Low-Energy Homogenizer Technology for Algal Oil Extraction

生物柴油是一种可再生能源，可以作为石油柴油的补充和替代燃料。虽然已经建造了许多生物柴油生产设施，但一些生物柴油的原料油（如大豆油）成本的增加，已经产生了对适合生物柴油生产的低成本替代油的重大市场需求。该团队计划使用从藻类中提取的油来满足这一需求。藻类是一种小型光合微生物，可以将阳光转化为油和其他高价值产品。藻类每英亩生产的油比任何其他传统生物柴油原料都要多，而且不会与粮食生产竞争。虽然也有人研究过大规模生产藻类油，但由于从藻类中提取油的加工成本，他们的努力在很大程度上是失败的。该团队开发了一种低成本从藻类中提取油的技术。提出的创新是一种从藻类细胞中破裂和提取油的新技术，已广泛应用于乳制品/食品，制药和化妆品行业。该技术利用藻类细胞的生物力学响应知识，将其输入到内部计算框架中，优化我们从藻类中提取油的系统设计。然后，这些油将被用作生物柴油生产的原料。该技术还可作为低能耗均质设备，服务于乳制品/食品、制药和化妆品行业。提议的项目是变革性的，因为该提案中描述的方法旨在彻底改变基于流体力学、细胞力学和颗粒流体相互作用的第一性原理的藻类油提取。

Biodiesel is a renewable energy source that can be used as a drop-in fuel supplement and replacement for petroleum diesel. Though many biodiesel production facilities have been constructed, increases in the cost of the feedstock oil (such as soy oil), from which some biodiesel is made, have created a significant market need for a low-cost oil alternative that is suitable for biodiesel production. This team plans to meet this need by using oil extracted from algae. Algae are small photosynthetic microorganisms which convert sunlight into oil and other high-value products. Algae can produce more oil per acre than any other conventional biodiesel feedstock and does not compete with food production. Though others have looked into producing algae oil on a large scale, their efforts were largely unsuccessful due to processing costs when extracting oil from algae. This team has developed a technology to extract oil from algae at a low cost.The proposed innovation is a novel technique to rupture and extract oil from algae cells that has widespread application to the dairy/food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. The technology uses knowledge about the biomechanical response of algae cells which is input into an in-house computational framework that optimizes the design of our system to extract oil from algae. The oil will then be used as a feedstock for biodiesel production. The technology can also be used as a low-energy homogenization device which can serve the dairy/food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. The proposed project is transformative as the approach described in this proposal aims to revolutionize algal oil extraction based on first-principles understanding of fluid mechanics, cellular mechanics, and particle-fluid interactions.