Development of An Extractive Membrane System to Harvest Secreted Fuel Precursors From Algae

摘要

Microalgae are often cited as a sustainable source of energy and specialty products due to their ability to fix CO2 as biomass through photosynthesis. At present, however, the large material and energy inputs required to grow and process the cells using conventional methods make these processes infeasible from both an economic and environmental perspective. In recent years, algal "milking" has been investigated as a more sustainable method to produce fuels and high-value products. Rather than dewater and then break open the cells, these processes continuously harvest secreted products from the cell culture. This approach has the potential to reduce the inputs for nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, solvents, and energy to lyse the cells, which are major components of the material and energy inputs to conventional systems.