Adaptive Evolution of Bacteria Improves Growth on Aqueous Co-Products from Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Microalgae Nannochloropsis oculata

摘要

Hydrothermal liquefaction is a promising method for producing bio-oil from whole, wet algae biomass. This “bio-crude” has a high energy content and with minimal upgrading may be a viable replacement for crude petroleum. However, the Aqueous Algae co-product (AqAl) generated in the reaction can contain up to half of the algae feedstocks carbon and the majority of the nitrogen and phosphorus. Recycling these nutrients within the process is key to the economic feasibility of the system, yet feeding AqAl directly back to algae growth operations has presented difficulties in many applications due to apparent toxicity and lack of bio-available compounds.