Tata Chemicals obtains technology from CSMCRI to produce biodiesel from microalgae

“Microalgae are capable to grow rapidly, their high photosynthesis efficiency coupled with the ability to accumulate a large amount of bioproducts within their cells make them a suitable candidate to serve as industrial raw material,” an official release from CSMCRI quoted Prof Srinivasan, Arup Gosh, senior principal scientist, CSMCRI and Sourish Bhattacharya, senior scientist, CSMCRI as having stated.

TCL, one of the biggest chemical companies in India, is the first private firm to enter into an agreement with the CSMCRI for cultivation of this species of microalgae and extract biodiesel from it. Chlorella genus refers to some 13 species of single-celled green algae. The species, identified by CSMCRI, can grow in seawater as well as freshwater, scientists say.

Kanti Bhooshan Pandey, a senior scientist and public relations officer (PRO) of CSMCRI said that microalgae are important organisms for carbon sequestration and sources of energy and their cultivation has the potential to generate employment opportunities. “Crude oil extracted from microalgae will be a type of biodiesel which can be directly used to power automobiles,” Pandey said, adding that the licensing of the technology will be a milestone in the exploration of renewable fuel sources and providing livelihood to coastal farmers.

CSMCRI is a premier research laboratory functioning under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) headed by the Prime Minister.

Kamalesh Prasad, head of business development department at CSMCRI, said CSMCRI scientists have been working on the technology for the past 20 years and have developed a technology which can be scaled up to commercial levels. “Harvesting microalgae from water is a very challenging job because of their very small size. Therefore, the major task was to identify the microalga strain which is oil-bearing and yet easy to harvest. Eventually, scientists identified the chlorella species, which is easy to harvest as it is a self-settling strain, meaning, it settles at the bottom of a waterbody when it is ready for harvest,” Prasad said.

Incidentally, Tata Chemicals has a huge salt cultivation facility called Charakla Saltworks on Devbhumi Dwarka coast to meet the chemical demands for its plant in Mithapur and for manufacturing other products like edible salt. “As part of the agreement, CSMCRI scientists will work with TCL for two years and help TCL scale up the technology,” Prasad said, adding, “The plan is to start cultivation of microalgae initially on two beds and then expand it to a 10-acre area over the next six months.”

Prasad further said that the ratio of microalgae biomass production in a controlled environment has been around one gramme per litre of water and that scientists will work to maintain the same ratio while helping cultivation of chlorella microalgae in an open environment in Mithapur.

The agreement with TCL is non-exclusive, meaning CSMCRI can license the technology to other entities also, Prasad said.