A green light for engineered algae: redirecting metabolism to fuel a biotechnology revolution

Rosenberg, Julian N.; Oyler, George A.; Wilkinson, Loy; Betenbaugh, Michael J.

doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2008.07.008

Cited by 532 publications

(297 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…While microalgal bioindustrial technology is still in its infancy (Pulz and Gross 2004), this emerging industry has the potential to revolutionise industrial production, agriculture, aquaculture, and biofuel technologies (Chisti 2008;Rosenberg et al 2008;McHenry 2010). Crucially, this potential technical transformation will be dependent on the input costs associated with energy and material flows not being prohibitively expensive.…”

Section: Industrial Microalgae Biofuel Efficiency Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybrid microalgal biofuel, desalination, and solution mining systems: increased industrial waste energy, carbon, and water use efficiencies

McHenry

2012

Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change

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McHenry, M.P. (2013) Hybrid microalgal biofuel, desalination AbstractThis work reviews retrofitting new waste energy, carbon and water intensive technologies into existing industrial facilities (including electricity generators) to increase net energy, carbon, and water use efficiencies. The three applications reviewed are microalgal ponds consuming flue gasses and providing thermal power station cooling services, thermally driven membrane distillation desalination, and hydrometallurgical solution mining processes to indirectly remove water contaminants, and additional power station cooling. The aim of this work is to explore the unique challenge of site-specificity of retrofitting any or all of the reviewed technologies within existing facilities for commercial operations. The theoretical basis behind higher aggregated efficiencies is essentially vertical integration of infrastructure, energy, and material flows, reducing total costs, net waste, and associated potential environmental contamination. Whilst solution mining and some thermal desalination technologies are not necessarily new in isolation, new technical developments enable these technologies to use waste heat and waste water by operating in parallel with industrial facilities, and effectively subsidise microalgae biofuel water pumping and dewatering. This research determines three fundamental developments are required to enable wide-scale industrial co-located vertical integration efficiencies: (1) fundamental engineering, (2) monitoring system innovation, and (3) technology/knowledge transfer.

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Section: Industrial Microalgae Biofuel Efficiency Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybrid microalgal biofuel, desalination, and solution mining systems: increased industrial waste energy, carbon, and water use efficiencies

McHenry

2012

Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change

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“…Chlorella is the most cultivated eukaryotic green microalga, as it is widely used as a health food and feed supplement, as well as in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries (Rosenberg et al 2008;Sharma et al 2011). In recent years, some oleaginous species are also found to be promising in the field of biofuels (Xiong et al 2010a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although several methods are available for the release and regeneration of protoplasts from Chlorella, in view of the diversity of Chlorella species, as well as the variations in the cell wall composition, no single method is universally applicable (Braun and Aach 1975;Berliner 1977;Aach et al 1978;Rosen et al 1985;Hatano et al 1992;Urano and Fujii 2000). As for the species Chlorella protothecoides, due to its oil-producing capability, it is receiving increasing attention in recent years (Rosenberg et al 2008;Xiong et al 2010b). However, to our knowledge, no protoplast systems have ever been developed for it.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparation of protoplasts from Chlorella protothecoides

Kong

2011

World J Microbiol Biotechnol

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This paper describes an enzymatic method for yielding protoplasts from the microalga Chlorella protothecoides. Four kinds of commercially available enzymes were tested. The enzymatic digestion was optimal with 2% cellulase R-10 and 1% snailase prepared in 25 mM Tris buffer (pH 6.0) containing 0.6 M D-mannitol, and the protoplast density could reach the peak after treatment at 30°C for 16 h. Nearly all liberated protoplasts were green in the presence of 0.01% phenosafranin, indicating their high viability. The regeneration rate was about 70% when 0.6 M D-mannitol was used as an osmotic stabilizer in the regeneration medium. This protocol will find useful applications in genetic studies of this algal species.

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“…4 The production of renewable diesel from algal oil that is secreted into the growth medium is a relatively new approach. *In this process, the algal culture often consists of genetically modified organisms [68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76] Fig . 3 The production of renewable diesel by thermochemical conversion of algal biomass contains several production steps, and many thermochemical conversion processes exist.…”

Section: Production Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Framework to Report the Production of Renewable Diesel from Algae

et al. 2010

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Recently, algae have received significant interest as a potential feedstock for renewable diesel (such as biodiesel), and many researchers have attempted to quantify this potential. Some of these attempts are less useful because they have not incorporated specific values of algal lipid content, have not included processing inefficiencies, or omitted processing steps required for renewable diesel production. Furthermore, the associated energy, materials, and costs requirements are sometimes omitted. The accuracy and applicability of these estimates can be improved by using data that are more specific, including all relevant information for renewable diesel production, and by presenting information with more relevant metrics. To determine whether algae are a viable source for renewable diesel, three questions that must be answered are (1) how much renewable diesel can be produced from algae, (2) what is the financial cost of production, and (3) what is the energy ratio of production? To help accurately answer these questions, we propose an analytical framework and associated nomenclature system for characterizing renewable diesel production from algae. The three production pathways discussed in this study are the transesterification of extracted algal lipids, thermochemical conversion of algal biomass, and conversion of secreted algal oils. The nomenclature system is initially presented from a top-level perspective that is applicable to all production pathways for renewable diesel from algae. Then, the nomenclature is expanded to characterize the production of renewable diesel (specifically, biodiesel) from extracted algal lipids in detail (cf. Appendix 2). The analytical framework uses the presented nomenclature system and includes three main principles: using appropriate reporting metrics, using symbolic notation to represent unknown values, and presenting results that are specific to algal species, growth conditions, and product composition.

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A green light for engineered algae: redirecting metabolism to fuel a biotechnology revolution

Cited by 532 publications

References 54 publications

Hybrid microalgal biofuel, desalination, and solution mining systems: increased industrial waste energy, carbon, and water use efficiencies

Hybrid microalgal biofuel, desalination, and solution mining systems: increased industrial waste energy, carbon, and water use efficiencies

Preparation of protoplasts from Chlorella protothecoides

A Framework to Report the Production of Renewable Diesel from Algae

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