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Landscape of Marine Biotechnology infrastructures and technologies in the energy sector The conversion technology of macroalgae and microalgae to energy is in general the same as for land based biomass. Although the fermentation and digestion processes do not work well with the common used microbes and enzymes. New types of, sometimes modified, organism are needed to improve the conversion efficiency. For example, the digestion of seaweed to bio methane with the normal land based organisms remains much lower than could be expected. For the production of ethanol form the polysaccharide in seaweed the same challenge is met. BAL had to use modified enzymes to produce ethanol from seaweed. Much attention is paid to processes that do not form ethanol but isobutanol. Companies like Gevo (US) and DuPont (Europe) are working on these processes. The advantage of isobutalnol is that it could be blended in higher percentages in the fossil fuels. And isobutanol could be further processed by hydrolysation (HDO) to produce bio kerosene or biodiesel. These process steps are the same for land based biomass as for marine biomass. Microalgae are harvested by centrifuges that are concentrating the microalgae mass. The algae mass need to be further processed to break down the cells and extract the lipids. The lipids need to be refined to be used as a biodiesel or kerosene. The processing of marine microalgae is not different form the processing of land based microalgae. Socio-economic performance of the energy sector in relation to biofuels The development of biofuels from marine biomass in Europe is not very strong. In the microalgae sector the position of the US is leading. Europe is strong in research and has some start-ups. It is not possible to distinguish the development of marine based microalgae form other microalgae. The current production costs of biofuels from microalgae are in the range of USD 5 to USD 10 per litre of fuel. In the seaweed sector Europe has just started with research pilots and demonstrations. Around the North Sea and in Ireland are many groups and SMEs active with some encouraging results. Nations with large coastlines, such as Japan and Indonesia (the longest coastline in the world), have great potential for developing a seaweed biofuel industry. Canada’s province of British Colombia also has a vast coastline. In 2013, the University of Victoria showed that this coastline could produce 1.3 billion litres of seaweed-based ethanol, more than enough to replace what is currently being imported to the province. By-products have also been identified, such as animal feed. The expected costs for biofuels from seaweed are between € 0.5-1per litre. The lower figure is for large scale ocean biomass cultivation and the higher figure is expected with seaweed cultivation in wind parks or near fish farms. Biofuels from micro and macro algae are seen as 3rd generation biofuels and expected to be strongly stimulated by the EU biofuel policy. In the mandatory blending regulation they are expected to be counted 4 times in the blending target. This policy makes the market value of 3rd generation biofuel much higher than the current bio ethanol. Some researchers estimate that the 3G biofuel value could be around €1.5 /litre ethanol. Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology 143

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