Download the Algal Biofuels Roadmap draft document - Sandia

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Turner, J., G. Sverdrup, M.K. Mann, P.C. Maness, B. Kroposki, M. Ghirardi, R.J. Evans,
and D.Blake, ―Renewable hydrogen production‖, Intl. J. Energy Res. 32:379-407,
2008.
van der Oost et al. Archives of Microbiology 152:415-419 (1989).
Genomics and Systems Biology
Currently, there is a lack of understanding of the fundamental processes involved in the
synthesis and regulation of lipid and other potential fuel products in microalgae.
Proposing to develop large scale algal culturing technology for biofuels production
without this understanding is analogous to establishing agriculture without knowing how
plants grow. In the case of algal biofuels, gaining this information should require a much
shorter time frame than that for agricultural development because high-throughput
analysis tools including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and
lipidomics can be applied, enabling detailed analyses of multiple aspects of cellular
metabolism simultaneously.
Development of Algal Model Systems
Criteria for Choosing Algal Model Systems
There are two general types of model system to consider: one would involve species or
strains amenable to providing information on the basic cellular processes and regulation
involved in synthesis of fuel precursors, and the other would involve species or strains
with characteristics useful for large-scale growth. Species with sequenced genomes and
transgenic capabilities are the most amenable to investigating cellular processes, since the
basic tools are in place, however it was shown in the Aquatic Species Program (ASP) that
not all strains that grow well in the laboratory are suitable for large-scale culturing.
Adapting the lessons learned on laboratory model species to species already known to be
capable of growing in large scale might be easier, but as noted above, we cannot be
certain that laboratory strains and productions strains will be sufficiently related to allow
for lessons in the former to be applied to the latter.
Fuel/intermediate to be produced (H2, lipids, CHO, ethanol, co- products, etc.). One
consideration in choosing model systems is the type of fuel or co-product to be produced.
Possible fuel types could include H2, lipids, isoprenoids, carbohydrates, alcohols (either
directly or through biomass conversion), or methane (via anaerobic digestion). Coproducts
could include pharmaceuticals (therapeutic proteins, secondary metabolites),
food supplements, or materials for nanotechnology in the case of the silica cell wall of
diatoms (See Section 7). Discussions at the Workshop revealed that some
commercialization strategies focused on the non-fuel co-product as the path to
profitability. While this strategy may be successful, one can assume that the DOE will
only be willing to support such an effort if the path to production of significant quantities
of algal biofuel is clearly delineated. With decisions made about fuel product and
additional co-products, a reasonable first approach to identify model species optimal for
production of a desired fuel by surveying the literature or environment for species that
naturally make abundant amounts of it. In such a strain, cellular metabolism is already
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