A validated thermal and biological model for predicting algal productivity in large scale outdoor cultivation systems

Geographically-resolved evaluation of the economic and environmental services from renewable diesel derived from attached algae flow-ways across the United States

“…Regional weather data was obtain from the Typical Meteorological Year (TMY3) data set [47]. Using a similar methodology employed by Greene et al (2021) and Beattie et al (2021), annual average global horizontal irradiance (GHI) data were mapped to each HUC8 [48,51]. The GHI at individual HUC8 subbasins were found by finding the minimum distance of the HUC8 centroid to the nearest TMY3 monitoring station.…”

“…A process model of algae production based on an attached algae flow-way and subsequent biofuel conversion through HTL was created from the design considerations from recent studies [15,24,32,[39][40][41]. Water quality data, weather data and operational days data served as inputs to the process model that enabled geographic resolution at the Hydrologic Unit Code 8-Digit (HUC8) scale [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. Excel spreadsheets aided in the development of material and energy balance simulations for the unit operations contained within the system boundary.…”

Regionalized Life-Cycle Water Impacts of Microalgal-Based Biofuels in the United States

“…Given the open nature of these systems, ORPs are subjected to the changing conditions of the environment; therefore, models with hourly timescales are required to accurately simulate pond conditions. Thermal conditions in the ORP system were calculated using the model validated by Quiroz et al, 11 while growth rates were simulated using the dynamic growth model validated by Greene et al 21 Temporally and spatially resolved outputs for a 400-hectare facility cultivating the strain UTEX 393 were generated following the framework in previous modeling work with results presented in the Supporting Information. 11 The foundational model from Quiroz et al 11 was modified to include precipitation data for modeling realistic pond operations.…”

Thermotolerant microalgae : bioprospecting followed by adaptive laboratory evolution for strain selection and improvement

“…The highest areal biomass productivities can be reached in regions with long periods of high solar irradiance levels. However, due to high solar irradiance, the microalgal photobioreactor cultures heat to temperatures above 45°C [5]. Such high temperatures affect microalgal productivity and can lead to culture collapse.…”

“…Common targets for phototrophic microalgal ALE experiments are strain characteristics related to a tolerance to a specific compound or culture conditions. Examples of such characteristics are: (1) tolerance to flue gas, (2) tolerance to high or low temperatures, (3) tolerance to high CO2 levels, (4) tolerance to high salinity levels, (5) tolerance to high or low pH, tolerance to high light, (7) tolerance to toxic compounds such as herbicides, and (8) specific growth rate [23][24][25].…”