A natural algal polyculture outperforms an assembled polyculture in wastewater-based open pond biofuel production

Thomas, Patrick K.; Dunn, Gary P.; Good, Alison R.; Callahan, Michael P.; Coats, Erik R.; Newby, Deborah T.; Feris, Kevin P.

doi:10.1016/j.algal.2019.101488

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…It must be also considered that under outdoor conditions, indigenous microalgae tend to dominate the culture since they are better adapted to such conditions, obtaining higher performance than pure cultures (Thomas et al, 2019). Indigenous microalgae coexist with other microorganisms present in wastewater, such as heterotrophic and nitrifying bacteria, protozoa, rotifers, etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of ambient temperature variations on an indigenous microalgae-nitrifying bacteria culture dominated by Chlorella

González-Camejo

Aparicio

Ruano

et al. 2019

Bioresource Technology

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Two outdoor photobioreactors were operated to evaluate the effect of variable ambient temperature on an indigenous microalgae-nitrifying bacteria culture dominated by Chlorella. Four experiments were carried out in different seasons, maintaining the temperature-controlled PBR at around 25 ºC (by either heating or cooling), while the temperature in the non-temperature-controlled PBR was allowed to vary with the ambient conditions. Temperatures in the range of 15-30 ºC had no significant effect on the microalgae cultivation performance. However, when the temperature rose to 30-35 ºC microalgae viability was significantly reduced. Sudden temperature rises triggered AOB growth in the indigenous microalgae culture, which worsened microalgae performance, especially when AOB activity made the system ammonium-limited. Microalgae activity could be recovered after a short temperature peak over 30 ºC once the temperature dropped, but stopped when the temperature was maintained around 28-30 ºC for several days.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of ambient temperature variations on an indigenous microalgae-nitrifying bacteria culture dominated by Chlorella

González-Camejo

Aparicio

Ruano

et al. 2019

Bioresource Technology

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“…Differences became even more pronounced under grazing and resource stress conditions. [81] Natural algal polyculture HRAPs with and without primarily treated water.…”

Section: Polyculture Of Microalgae Isolatedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Effluent quality of HRAP system compared with conventional wastewater treatment ponds in New Zealand (Integrated Tables 1 and 2 in Craggs et al [18]). The polyculture of native algal communities has been used for algae biomass production and wastewater treatment in open ponds and bioreactors (Table 3) [14,[16][17][18][19][26][27][28][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83]. However, there is little information on the compositional dynamics of the native algal community in polyculture.…”

Section: Polyculture Of Microalgae Isolatedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the study of Demura et al [14], the deep water-depth polyculture of mixotrophic algae was composed of native mixotrophic algae population. Thomas et al [81] provided evidence that the native polyculture maintained higher diversity than the synthetic polyculture, enhancing the biomass productivity and nutrient removal. The differences became more pronounced under the grazing and resource stress conditions.…”

Section: Future Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

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Biocrude Oil Production by Integrating Microalgae Polyculture and Wastewater Treatment: Novel Proposal on the Use of Deep Water-Depth Polyculture of Mixotrophic Microalgae

Watanabe

Isdepsky

2021

Energies

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Microalgae have attracted significant attention worldwide as one of the most promising feedstock fossil fuel alternatives. However, there are a few challenges for algal fuels to compete with fossil fuels that need to be addressed. Therefore, this study reviews the R&D status of microalgae-based polyculture and biocrude oil production, along with wastewater treatment. Mixotrophic algae are free to some extent from light restrictions using organic matter and have the ability to grow well even in deep water-depth cultivation. It is proposed that integrating the mixotrophic microalgae polyculture and wastewater treatment process is the most promising and harmonizing means to simultaneously increase capacities of microalgae biomass production and wastewater treatment with a low land footprint and high robustness to perturbations. A large amount of mixotrophic algae biomass is harvested, concentrated, and dewatered by combining highly efficient sedimentation through flocculation and energy efficient filtration, which reduce the carbon footprint for algae fuel production and coincide with the subsequent hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) conversion. HTL products are obtained with a relatively low carbon footprint and separated into biocrude oil, solid, aqueous, and gas fractions. Algae biomass feedstock-based HTL conversion has a high biocrude oil yield and quality available for existing oil refineries; it also has a bioavailability of the recycled nitrogen and phosphorus from the aqueous phase of algae community HTL. The HTL biocrude oil represents higher sustainability than conventional liquid fuels and other biofuels for the combination of greenhouse gas (GHG) and energy return on investment (EROI). Deep water-depth polyculture of mixotrophic microalgae using sewage has a high potential to produce sustainable biocrude oil within the land area of existing sewage treatment plants in Japan to fulfill imported crude oil.

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“…During the entire operating period of the 10-cm MPBR plant, the culture was dominated by the indigenous Chlorella genus (> 99% of TEC). Chlorella has been reported to have a strong resistance to protozoa, especially when they are adapted to the region in which they are cultivated (Thomas et al, 2019). It is surprising that the longest HRT that accomplished legal requirements (i.e.…”

Section: Optimisation Of Operating Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving membrane photobioreactor performance by reducing light path: operating conditions and key performance indicators

et al. 2020

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Microalgae cultivation has been receiving increasing interest in wastewater remediation due to their ability to assimilate nutrients present in wastewater streams. In this respect, cultivating microalgae in membrane photobioreactors (MPBRs) allows decoupling the solid retention time (SRT) from the hydraulic retention time (HRT), which enables to increase the nutrient load to the photobioreactors (PBRs) while avoiding the wash out of the microalgae biomass. The reduction of the PBR light path from 25 to 10 cm increased the nitrogen and phosphorus recovery rates, microalgae biomass productivity and photosynthetic efficiency by 150, 103, 194 and 67%, respectively. The areal biomass productivity (aBP) also increased when the light path was reduced, reflecting the better use of light in the 10-cm MPBR plant. The capital and operating operational expenditures (CAPEX and OPEX) of the 10-cm MPBR plant were also reduced by 27 and 49%, respectively. Discharge limits were met when the 10-cm MPBR plant was operated at SRTs of 3-4.5 d and HRTs of 1.25-1.5 d. At these SRT/HRT ranges, the 2 process could be operated without a high fouling propensity with gross permeate flux (J20) of 15 LMH and specific gas demand (SGDp) between 16 and 20 Nm 3 airꞏm-3 permeate, which highlights the potential of membrane filtration in MPBRs. When the continuous operation of the MPBR plant was evaluated, an optical density of 680 nm (OD680) and soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) were found to be good indicators of microalgae cell and algal organic matter (AOM) concentrations, while dissolved oxygen appeared to be directly related to MPBR performance. Nitrite and nitrate (NOx) concentration and the soluble chemical oxygen demand:volatile suspended solids ratio (sCOD:VSS) were used as indicators of nitrifying bacteria activity and the stress on the culture, respectively. These parameters were inversely related to nitrogen recovery rates and biomass productivity and could thus help to prevent possible culture deterioration.

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A natural algal polyculture outperforms an assembled polyculture in wastewater-based open pond biofuel production

Cited by 15 publications

References 37 publications

Effect of ambient temperature variations on an indigenous microalgae-nitrifying bacteria culture dominated by Chlorella

Effect of ambient temperature variations on an indigenous microalgae-nitrifying bacteria culture dominated by Chlorella

Biocrude Oil Production by Integrating Microalgae Polyculture and Wastewater Treatment: Novel Proposal on the Use of Deep Water-Depth Polyculture of Mixotrophic Microalgae

Improving membrane photobioreactor performance by reducing light path: operating conditions and key performance indicators

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