Acid-Catalyzed Algal Biomass Pretreatment for Integrated Lipid and Carbohydrate-Based Biofuels Production
One of the major challenges associated with algal biofuels production in a biorefinery-type setting is improving biomass utilization in its entirety, increasing the process energetic yields and providing economically viable and scalable co-product concepts. We demonstrate the effectiveness of a novel, integrated technology based on moderate temperatures and low pH to convert the carbohydrates in wet algal biomass to soluble sugars for fermentation, while making lipids more accessible for downstream extraction and leaving a protein-enriched fraction behind. We studied the effect of harvest timing on the conversion yields, using two algal strains; Chlorella and Scenedesmus, generating biomass with distinctive compositional ratios of protein, carbohydrate, and lipids. We found that the late harvest Scenedesmus biomass had the maximum theoretical biofuel potential at 143 gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) combined fuel yield per dry ton biomass, followed by late harvest Chlorella at 128 GGE per ton. Our experimental data show a clear difference between the two strains, as Scenedesmus was more successfully converted in this process with a demonstrated 97 GGE per ton. Our measurements indicated a release of >90% of the available glucose in the hydrolysate liquors and an extraction and recovery of up to 97% of the fatty acids from wetmore »
- Authors:
-
[1]
; [1]
; [1]
; [1]
; [1]
; [1]
; [1]
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5100-62000
Journal ID: ISSN 1463-9262
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Green Chemistry
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 17; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1463-9262
- Publisher:
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Research Org:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Bioenergy Technologies Office (EE-3B)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 09 BIOMASS FUELS; Algae; biorefinery; fractionation; lipids; carbohydrates; bioethanol; renewable diesel; process economics; TEA
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1220598
Laurens, L. M. L., Nagle, N., Davis, R., Sweeney, N., Van Wychen, S., Lowell, A., and Pienkos, P. T.. Acid-Catalyzed Algal Biomass Pretreatment for Integrated Lipid and Carbohydrate-Based Biofuels Production. United States: N. p.,
Web. doi:10.1039/C4GC01612B.
Laurens, L. M. L., Nagle, N., Davis, R., Sweeney, N., Van Wychen, S., Lowell, A., & Pienkos, P. T.. Acid-Catalyzed Algal Biomass Pretreatment for Integrated Lipid and Carbohydrate-Based Biofuels Production. United States. doi:10.1039/C4GC01612B.
Laurens, L. M. L., Nagle, N., Davis, R., Sweeney, N., Van Wychen, S., Lowell, A., and Pienkos, P. T.. 2014.
"Acid-Catalyzed Algal Biomass Pretreatment for Integrated Lipid and Carbohydrate-Based Biofuels Production". United States.
doi:10.1039/C4GC01612B. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1220598.
@article{osti_1220598,
title = {Acid-Catalyzed Algal Biomass Pretreatment for Integrated Lipid and Carbohydrate-Based Biofuels Production},
author = {Laurens, L. M. L. and Nagle, N. and Davis, R. and Sweeney, N. and Van Wychen, S. and Lowell, A. and Pienkos, P. T.},
abstractNote = {One of the major challenges associated with algal biofuels production in a biorefinery-type setting is improving biomass utilization in its entirety, increasing the process energetic yields and providing economically viable and scalable co-product concepts. We demonstrate the effectiveness of a novel, integrated technology based on moderate temperatures and low pH to convert the carbohydrates in wet algal biomass to soluble sugars for fermentation, while making lipids more accessible for downstream extraction and leaving a protein-enriched fraction behind. We studied the effect of harvest timing on the conversion yields, using two algal strains; Chlorella and Scenedesmus, generating biomass with distinctive compositional ratios of protein, carbohydrate, and lipids. We found that the late harvest Scenedesmus biomass had the maximum theoretical biofuel potential at 143 gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) combined fuel yield per dry ton biomass, followed by late harvest Chlorella at 128 GGE per ton. Our experimental data show a clear difference between the two strains, as Scenedesmus was more successfully converted in this process with a demonstrated 97 GGE per ton. Our measurements indicated a release of >90% of the available glucose in the hydrolysate liquors and an extraction and recovery of up to 97% of the fatty acids from wet biomass. Techno-economic analysis for the combined product yields indicates that this process exhibits the potential to improve per-gallon fuel costs by up to 33% compared to a lipids-only process for one strain, Scenedesmus, grown to the mid-point harvest condition.},
doi = {10.1039/C4GC01612B},
journal = {Green Chemistry},
number = 2,
volume = 17,
place = {United States},
year = {2014},
month = {11}
}
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript (DOE)
- Publisher's Version of Record
- https://doi.org/10.1039/C4GC01612B
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