Nano Cavitation Approach to Algal Oil Harvesting

Cavitation Technologies sells equipment for a wide array of purposes -- from food processing to wastewater remediation to desalination, and now for economically separating algal oil from algae.  The process involves the application of massive imploding pressures on the algal organisms.

This technology is able to extract oil from Algae on a continuous basis for commercial applications, resulting in another renewable fuel technology from CTI. The algae industry is poised to dominate the world of biofuels and we are prepared to participate in supplying the world with what we believe to be the most advanced technology.

...Extraction can be broadly categorized into mechanical methods as well as chemical methods. The most efficient method is cavitation based extraction. By utilizing CTI's cavitation reactor, the extraction processes can be greatly accelerated. CTI's Nano reactor is used to create cavitation bubbles in a solvent material, when these bubbles collapse near the cell walls it creates shock waves and liquid jets that cause those cells walls to break and release their contents into the solvent.

Algae is often referred to as the "Ultimate" renewable energy source, we are excited to offer a technology that refines and accelerates the process considerably. _Bioenergy

Current methods of producing algal oil cost between $20 and $100 a gallon -- clearly not competitive with fossil diesel or other biodiesels. But as each expensive step in the algal-oil production process is treated to technological breakthroughs, the price of production is incrementally reduced.

Al Fin biofuels engineers predict that algal oil will achieve price parity with petro-diesel in the lab, within 10 years. Full-scale industrial parity will take between 15 and 20 years. Within 30 years, algal (and other microbial biofuels) will have captured 30% of the transportation fuels market.

The US military is pursuing various approaches to bio-jet fuels and biodiesel as a strategic imperative. If the civilian US government under Obama (or anyone else) declares an official policy of "energy starvation", or "political peak oil", the military must get its fuel somewhere without bowing to the oil dictatorships of the world. The military is willing to pay more for its strategic supplies if it must.

The US consumer is more limited in its resources, and will have to wait longer for giga-scale biofuels.