PROJECT ENERBIOALGAE (SUDOE): FLUORESCENCE SPECTRA TECHNIQUES FOR THE CONTROL OF PHYTOPLANKTON CULTURES AND MONITORING OF WASTEWATER PARAMETERS

There is a significant interest in alternative renewable energy sources due to the global increase of energy demands and the daily decrease of fossil fuel resources. Biofuel production from microalgae can be both sustainable and economically viable. Particularly in the case of algal growth in wastewater it is considered as possible to achieve the removal or biotranformation of pollutants from these types of waters and algal biomass production. EnerBioAlgae is project funded by the Interreg SUDOE (“Espacio Sudoeste Europeo”) program and led by the University of Vigo, Spain which aims to investigate the biofuel production by microalgae grown in several types of wastewater. Among the objectives of this project is the development of a system based on spectral fluorescence analysis techniques and neural network methods for the continuous monitoring of microalgae status and the different contaminants in the wastewater. In the first place this monitoring system is going to be developed and tested in continuous systems of microalgal cultivation (photobioreactors). In this study we present the objectives of the project. The possible applications of a spectral fluorescence analysis system in the monitoring and characterization of wastewater contaminants in coastal areas are also discussed. INTRODUCTION Among the various types of products that can be derived from microalgae (e.g. methane, biohydrogen), biodiesel from microalgae lipids (Spolaore et al., 2006) is considered of great interest due to the global increase of energy demands and the daily decrease of fossil fuel resources. This idea is not new since Meher et al., (2006) mentions that biodiesel production from algae is known for at least three decades. Biofuel production from microalgae can be both sustainable and economically viable. Briggs (2004) indicates that from 1978 to 1996, the Department of energy of the USA, under the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), known as "aquatic species program", developed research to identify the microalgae with high content of oils, which can be cultivated in order to produce biodiesel. The results of this program established that some species of microalgae are ideal for the production of biodiesel, due to its high oil content (more than 50 per cent) and its rapid growth. However, some problems related mainly to the production costs were considered as hard to solve. To date the knowledge provided by NREL has been the most ambitious in the production of biodiesel from microalgae. However, there are currently many countries trying to improve the microalgae cultivation techniques in order to make them simpler and more profitable. According to the www.oilgae. com portal, the oil production from microalgae is greater than in traditional oil seeds. In this respect, the estimates made by the company Bio Fuel System (BFS) indicate that soya, rapeseed and palm oil produced 50 m km year, 100 to 140 m km year, and 610 m km year, respectively; While the micro-algae can produce 10000 to 20000 m km year. 5 EARSeL Workshop on Remote Sensing of the Coastal Zone 146 Prague, Czech Republic, 1st – 3rd June, 2011