Algal Biorefineries: Volume 1: Cultivation of Cells and Products

331 Pages·2014·6.24 MB·English

by  Rakesh Bajpai

Algal Biorefineries
Rakesh Bajpai · Aleš Prokop · Mark Zappi
Editors
Algal Biorefineries
Volume 1: Cultivation of Cells and Products
1 3
Editors
Rakesh Bajpai Mark Zappi
Department of Chemical Engineering Department of Chemical Engineering
University of Louisiana at Lafayette University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette Lafayette
Louisiana Louisiana
USA USA
Aleš Prokop
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Vanderbilt University
Nashville
Tennessee
USA
ISBN 978-94-007-7493-3 ISBN 978-94-007-7494-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7494-0
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013948473
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Preface and Editorial Plan
There is a strong correlation between per capita energy consumption and standard
of living as envisaged by per capita gross domestic production (GDP). As a result,
global energy consumption is going up rapidly. Over the past century, a majority
of chemical and energy needs of our industrial society has been met by fossilized
carbon sources (coal, crude oil, natural gas). Increasingly, there is a realization that
utilization of the fossilized carbon sources has adverse environmental consequences
in the form of increasing concentration of greenhouse gases. We are also becoming
aware of the limited nature of these resources. As a result, considerable efforts are
being made to produce chemicals and fuels from renewable carbon resources.
The renewable carbon is basically produced in two systems—terrestrial and
aquatic. Both of these capture solar energy and atmospheric carbon dioxide as a part
of natural carbon cycle. The production of terrestrial biomass is highly developed
and it is an important component of our food chain. Significant amounts of terrest-
rial biomass such as forest products, agricultural residues, and plant products can
be, and are being, made available for transformation into fuels and chemicals. The
amounts of terrestrial biomass that can be spared for these activities are large yet
limited and these can support only a fraction of renewable carbon needs. Aquatic
biomass production, on the other hand, is less developed but it has a huge potential
for delivering renewable carbon. Serious efforts are, therefore, underway targeting
cultivation of photosynthetic autotrophic microbes for the production of biomass
and lipids. In this category, algae appears to offer the most potential for capturing
solar energy and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and delivering sufficient quantities of
biomass/lipids that can offset the fossilized carbon utilization in a meaningful man-
ner without impacting food supplies adversely. But several advances both technolo-
gically as well policy-wise are needed before algae can realize its full potential. It is
also clear that a biorefinery approach must be undertaken in order to get renewable
energy and chemicals from algae economically.
In a refinery, multiple products are produced to take advantage of all the compo-
nents in the raw materials thus making economic production feasible. This allows
one to take advantage also of market shifts, seasonal or otherwise. A classic examp-
le of a biorefinery is the wetting milling of corn where seasonal variations of market
demands is accommodated by producing shifting production between corn ethanol
v
vi Preface and Editorial Plan
and high fructose corn syrup, while producing corn oil, gluten, corn steep liquor,
corn protein hydrolyzate, etc. A successful biorefinery operation requires not only a
set of efficient and productive processing technologies, it also requires an effective
system of collection and transportation of raw materials, economic analysis of inte-
grated systems to establish the optimal plant sizes based on local conditions, public
education, and favorable policy environment.
Microalgae have been explored as sources of fuels and chemicals for the past
forty years. Because of the very large scale of demands of fuels and chemicals, the
production systems being sought are those that can be easily scaled-up and those
that result in very large scale production of biomass. Different algal platforms (pho-
toautotrophic vs. heterotrophic, even mixotrophic, oleaginous vs. starch producers)
are being considered. Similarly, production reactors ranging from outdoor open ra-
ceways utilizing natural sunlight to indoor photobioreactors with artificial lights
are being investigated. In this volume, several different aspects of algal production
systems are reviewed. These provide a background of the state of the art that can
form a basis for discussing the advances relating to the algal platforms for produc-
tion of fuels and chemicals in multi-authored multi-volume edited-series which will
document new advances involving algae-based technology. The following topics
are planned to be covered in the subsequent volumes on Algal Biorefineries:
• Algal selection and metabolism
− Classical selection methods with aim to produce useful products
− Metabolic engineering to improve photosynthetic efficiency and carbon
dioxide capture
− Metabolic engineering to direct carbon flow to carbohydrates or to lipids
− Genetic approaches of monitoring cultures in open bioreactors
• Cultivation of algae and algal substrates
− Algal strains—sources, characterization, selection, preservation
− Nutritional and environmental requirements
− Closed bioreactors—photosynthetic efficiency, volumetric yields and pro-
ducts formed
− Open bioreactors—volumetric and surface area productivity, stability of ope-
ration, start-up issues, strategies for monoculture operation, contamination
control, seasonal effects on composition of algae
− Cultivation in cold climates
− Heterotrophic and mixotrophic cultivation of algae
− Carbon dioxide delivery and pH control
− Light attenuation and shading effects in bioreactors
− Temperature control in algal bioreactors
− Concentration, harvesting and processing of cells
− Ecological control of contamination in open bioreactors
− Strategies of cultivation
Preface and Editorial Plan vii
• Products from algae
− Algal lipids and their uses
− Carbohydrates from algae and their utilization
− Extraction of lipids and carbohydrates from algae
− Algal cake utilization
− High value products from algae and their fractionation
• Environmental and social issues in algal biorefineries
− Water needs, conservation, and reutilization
− Solvents used in extraction and air quality
− Land quality and use
− Impact of local and migratory birds
• Process improvement and economics
− Process optimization and increase of efficiency
− Systems simulation of multiproduct batch/continuous facility
− Systems analysis (systems biology models of algae metabolism and their
exploration at optimization)
− Life-cycle assessment
− Costing and economic analysis
The following volumes may include other biomass resources, such as short rota-
tion forestry (willow, poplar, eucalyptus), wood wastes (forest residues, sawmill
and construction/industrial residues, etc.), sugar crops (sugar beet, sweet sorghum,
jerusalem artichoke), starch crops (maize, wheat), herbaceous lignocellulosic crops
(miscanthus), oil crops (rapeseed, sunflower), agricultural wastes (straw, slurry),
municipal solid waste and refuse, and industrial wastes (residues from the food
industry). It will also discuss other processing technologies such as pretreatments
(physical/chemical/microbial and enzyme) and other conversion technologies: Fer-
mentation of Sugar/Starch Crops, Fermentation of Lignocellulosic Biomass, Trans-
esterification of Triglycerides, Gasification: Formation of Syngas, Fast Pyrolysis,
Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis, Hydrogenation, Conversion of Syngas to Methane and
Anaerobic Digestion.
The following individuals contributed with reviewing in this volume: internal
reviewers (those who are authors of this volume): Rakesh K. Bajpai, Larry E. Er-
ickson, Aleš Prokop, and Vilem Zachleder; external reviewers: F. Gabriel Acien,
Tomas Branyik, John R Benemann, Oliver Lenz, Dusan Lazar, and Rodrigo E. Tei-
xera. Their contributions are gracefully acknowledged.
Finally, we invite contributions from different researchers to this Series.
Rakesh K. Bajpai
Aleš Prokop
Mark E. Zappi
Contents
Part I Bioreactors for Cultivation of Algae
Status of Algae as Vehicles for Commercial Production of Fuels
and Chemicals ................................................ 3
Rakesh Bajpai, Mark Zappi, Stephen Dufreche,
Ramalingam Subramaniam and Aleš Prokop
Algal Reactor Design Based on Comprehensive Modeling of
Light and Mixing ............................................. 25
Alexandra D. Holland and Joseph M. Dragavon
Low Cost Nutrients for Algae Cultivation ......................... 69
Manjinder Singh and K. C. Das
Microalgae Bioreactors ......................................... 83
João C. M. Carvalho, Marcelo C. Matsudo, Raquel P. Bezerra,
Lívia S. Ferreira-Camargo and Sunao Sato
Micro Algae in Open Raceways .................................. 127
Ramanujam Ravikumar
High Density Outdoor Microalgal Culture ......................... 147
Jiří Doucha and Karel Lívanský
Part II Algae Products
Mixotrophic Algae Cultivation for Energy Production and
Other Applications ............................................ 177
Amarjeet Bassi, Priyanka Saxena and Ana-Maria Aguirre
Engineering Photobiological H -Production ....................... 203
2
Linda Vuorijoki, Pauli Kallio and Patrik R. Jones
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x Contents
Starch Overproduction by Means of Algae ........................ 217
Vilém Zachleder and Irena Brányiková
Oil Overproduction by Means of Microalgae ....................... 241
Pavel Přibyl, Vladislav Cepák and Vilém Zachleder
Commercial Products from Algae ................................ 275
Kelly Hudek, Lawrence C. Davis, Jwan Ibbini and Larry Erickson
Recovery of Lipids from Algae .................................. 297
Dheeban Chakravarthi Kannan and Vikram M. Pattarkine
Index ........................................................ 311
Contributors
Ana-Maria Aguirre Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, University of Western Ontario, N6A 5B9 London, Ontario,
Canada
e-mail: [email protected]
Rakesh Bajpai Chemical Engineering Department, University of Louisiana at
Lafayette, PO Box 44130, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
Amarjeet Bassi Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Faculty
of Engineering, University of Western Ontario, N6A 5B9 London, Ontario, Canada
e-mail: [email protected]
Raquel P. Bezerra Department of Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Technology,
University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes 580, Bl. 16, São Paulo 05508-900,
SP, Brazil
Irena Brányiková Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Chemical Technology
Prague, Technická 5, Prague 6, Czech Republic
e-mail: [email protected]
João C. M. Carvalho Department of Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Technology,
University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes 580, Bl. 16, São Paulo 05508-900,
SP, Brazil
e-mail: [email protected]
Vladislav Cepák Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic,
Algological Centre, Dukelská 135, Třeboň, 379 82, Czech Republic
K. C. Das Biorefining and Carbon Cycling Program, College of Engineering,
Biological and Agricultural Engineering Program, The University of Georgia,
Athens, GA 30602, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
Lawrence C. Davis Department of Biochemistry, Kansas State University,
Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
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