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Algal Products and Processes: Moving from Bench Scale to Commercial...
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Algal Products and Processes: Moving from Bench Scale to Commercial Realization through the Biorefinery Concept

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A4: Bio-Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 4284

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alla Silkina

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Algal Research Group, Bioscience Department, College of Science, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
Interests: algal biotechnology; algal bioremediation; mass-scale algal culture production; high-value products; pigments; antifouliong
Prof. Dr. Darren L. Oatley-Radcliffe

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Energy Safety Research Institute (ESRI), College of Engineering, Swansea University Bay campus Fabian Way, Swansea SA1 8EN, Wales, UK
Interests: algal biotechnology; biorefinary, membrane filtration; downstream processing; water technologies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite you to submit your article to this Special Issue focusing on mass-scale algal culture production, the development of algal products, and biorefinery processes.

Th portfolio of bulk and high-value products available from the thousands of macro and micro algal strains found in nature is limitless. However, despite the potential of algae as cell factories and growing consumer demand for sustainable biological feedstocks, algal products and production systems remain a rather fledgling industry despite this huge potential. The commercial algae sector is currently constrained by the limited scale of global biomass production, high production costs, challenges in manipulating biomass composition, and sub-optimal downstream processing technologies, which lead to poor mass and energy efficiency. Required for commercial success are reliable and robsut algal production strategies, delivering an array of sustainable commercial products with a proven business case.

The biorefinery concept represents a key emerging pathway to resolve some of these bottlenecks, i.e., increased mass efficiency through the selective isolation and use of multiple products (e.g., proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, pigments, biopolymers, etc.) of differing values from the crude biomass, such that all fractions and products contribute to the economic viability of the operation. This biorefinery concept will incorporate efficient biomass production and optimal downstream processing for selected microalgal strains, bringing existing and novel products and co-products to the market.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collate research papers that apply this innovative approach to successful algal cultivation and strategies for downstream processing. We particularly seek contibutions that contain the demonstration of such technology at or near commercial-scale operation; examples of algae processes used for recycling within a circular economy; examples of current success stories with realized commercial products; potential for future products and processes; and algal production cost estimation and business cases. We are also interested in receiving articles related to algal best practices and potential methods for the standartization of algal production methodologies to realize the commercial potential in both existing and future markets for algal-derived products.

Dr. Alla Silkina
Prof. Dr. Darren L. Oatley-Radcliffe
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • algal biotechnology
  • algal bioremediation
  • mass-scale algal culture production
  • downstream processing
  • high value products
  • biorefinery

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 842 KiB  
Article
Optimisation of Ultrasound Pretreatment of Microalgal Biomass for Effective Biogas Production through Anaerobic Digestion Process
by Roshni Paul, Alla Silkina, Lynsey Melville, Sri Suhartini and Michael Sulu
Energies 2023, 16(1), 553; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en16010553 - 03 Jan 2023
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2505
Abstract
The anaerobic digestion, AD, process presents a solution for sustainable waste management, greenhouse gas mitigation and energy production for growing population needs and requirements. Adopting a biorefinery approach that utilises different feedstock may enhance energy production and support optimisation of the anaerobic digestion [...] Read more.
The anaerobic digestion, AD, process presents a solution for sustainable waste management, greenhouse gas mitigation and energy production for growing population needs and requirements. Adopting a biorefinery approach that utilises different feedstock may enhance energy production and support optimisation of the anaerobic digestion process. Algae is a promising feedstock that could be used for energy production via the anaerobic digestion process. Microalgal biomass is rich in carbohydrates and lipids; however, many species of algae exhibit tough cell walls that could also be difficult to digest and may influence or inhibit the efficiency of the AD process. This study concentrated on the comparison of AD remediation of two marine algal biomass species, Tetraselmis suecica and Nannochloropsis oceanica. The two species were pre-treated with an ultrasound technique and compared for their methane production using biochemical methane potential tests. For Tetraselmis, a specific methane production of 0.165 LCH4/KgVS was observed; however, for Nannochloropsis, a value of 0.101 LCH4/KgVS was observed for the samples treated with ultrasound. The BMP results from this study show that among the two micro-algae species tested, Tetraselmis suecica is found to be a better substrate for methane production potential. Contrary to increasing the specific methane production, ultrasound cavitation caused a slight decrease in the specific methane production values for both Nannochloropsis oceanica and Tetraselmis suecica biomass residues. The pre-treatment of the biomass using ultrasound techniques provided comparable results and can be recommended for effective bioenergy production. However, further research is required for the optimisation of the pre-treatment of microalgae and for the integration of microalgal biorefineries for circular economy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Algal Products and Processes: Moving from Bench Scale to Commercial Realization through the Biorefinery Concept)
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18 pages, 3626 KiB  
Article
Valorising Nutrient-Rich Digestate as a Waste-Based Media for Microalgal Cultivation: Bench-Scale Filtration Characterisation and Scale-Up for a Commercial Recovery Process
by Yilu Xu, James Russell, Gahtan S. M. Algahtani and Darren L. Oatley-Radcliffe
Energies 2022, 15(16), 5976; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15165976 - 18 Aug 2022
Viewed by 1241
Abstract
Cultivating microalgae requires a nitrogen and phosphorous feed source. Anaerobic digestion waste (digestate) provides a cheap sustainable feedstock for these materials. Previous studies have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of nutrient recovery and subsequent algae growth. There is now a need to fully characterise [...] Read more.
Cultivating microalgae requires a nitrogen and phosphorous feed source. Anaerobic digestion waste (digestate) provides a cheap sustainable feedstock for these materials. Previous studies have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of nutrient recovery and subsequent algae growth. There is now a need to fully characterise digestate filtration to improve our understanding of this process prior to its commercialisation. In this work, digestate filtration is characterised at bench scale using frontal (dead-end) filtration and a 100 kDa MWCO ultrafiltration membrane. Our experiments demonstrated rapid cake formation causing significant flux decline. The steady-state permeate flux for digestate was 2.4 to 4.8 L m−2 h−1, a reduction of ~90% compared to clean water flux. The specific cake resistance was ~1015 m kg−1 and the compressibility index 1.07. A series of four filtration and cleaning cycles showed 90% flux recovery following a clean water wash. Digestate filtration was then evaluated at a commercial scale using crossflow and the KOCH ABCOR® tubular membrane (100 kDa MWCO). The results were similar to those at the bench scale, i.e., rapid initial fouling leading to a period of steady-state flux (approximately 7 L m−2 h−1). The commercial membrane was flushed with water and diluted bleach after each use, and a digestate permeate flux decline of only 4.8% over a 12-month active use period was observed. The present research provides bench scale characterisation and demonstrates the commercial scale operation of anaerobic digestate filtration using ultrafiltration. The overall filtration performance was excellent, and the process can now be scaled to any operational capacity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Algal Products and Processes: Moving from Bench Scale to Commercial Realization through the Biorefinery Concept)
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