Integration of Nutrient and Water Recycling for Sustainable Algal Biorefineries (Final Report)
- Univ. of Toledo, OH (United States)
- Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States)
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
This project was performed primarily as a partnership between three Universities – The University of Toledo, Montana State University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – and the industrial collaborator Clearas Water LLC. The University of Minnesota also contributed in the last year of the project. The project addressed constraints/barriers throughout the process of production of biofuels from microalgae – cultivation, harvesting and conversion processes for fuels and value-added chemicals. The most important outcomes of this project were related to (1) developing a microalgae cultivation strategy in alkaline environments to improve culture stability, decrease reliance on concentrated CO2 sources and high biofuel precursor yields; (2) fundamental understanding of microbial communities in algal/phototrophic environments to allow development of strategies for management of productive algal cultures; (3) low-cost and low-energy harvesting via temperature-sensitive hydrogels for recycling of water and unused nutrients and other media components; (4) development of conversion methods that generate high-value co-products, in addition to fuels, and also provide means for nutrient recycling; and (5) expanding the scope of current LCA/TEA models to inform potential investment in algal biorefineries.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Toledo, OH (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0005993
- OSTI ID:
- 1518556
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UTOLEDO-0005993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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