Application of aqueous alkaline extraction to remove ash from algae harvested from an algal turf scrubber

摘要: Abstract Efforts to develop algae as a sustainable feedstock for the bioenergy economy have largely focused on cultivating microalgae optimized lipid production. Because of this, filamentous are often overlooked in biomass field because their relatively low content, although they do contain high levels convertible carbohydrates and proteins. Systems designed produce biomass, such algal turf scrubbers (ATS), advantages over planktonic produced raceway systems. Unlike production, ATS systems not require inoculum, nutrients, or CO2 inputs these readily obtained from atmosphere natural waters feeding them. exceptional at removing nutrients affected waterways. However, consequence growth environment (sand, silt other suspended solids), composition (diatoms), periphytic can very ash, which represents non-convertible material that complicate downstream conversion processes. We explored both physical chemical approaches remove ash with goal improving overall preprocessing costs yields while minimizing loss organic material. The simplest method involved repeatedly rinsing water 25 °C, removed 34.5 ± 3.4 wt% no appreciable biomass. When treated 2.0 wt% NaOH 80 °C, up 87.8 ± 1.4 wt% was removed. These severe conditions, however, also resulted losses 29.9 ± 3.2 wt%. Ultimately, results will inform future tests, mechanical, provide input models identify energy bottlenecks potential savings.