Harvesting of microalgae within a biorefinery approach: A review of the developments and case studies from pilot-plants

Abstract:

Microalgae are a promising renewable feedstock for a diverse number of products such as fuels, fine chemicals, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics. The extraction and processing of biochemicals from microalgae require the handling of large volumes of feedstock, largely due to the small biomass to liquid ratio, typically < 0.1% solids. This work reviews the developments in microalgae harvesting and details the underlying phenomena of each technology in relation to key physical parameters such as: size, morphology, surface charge, and density. A critical appraisal of each method is given in relation to biomass concentration, biomass recovery, energy consumption and integration into a biorefinery approach. Finally, we detail four microalgae harvesting case studies from pilot-plants across Northwest Europe. The case studies are: (1) membrane filtration of Scenedesmus sp. used for protein, carbohydrate and lipid …

Año de publicación:

2015

Keywords:

Fuente:

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