EAPSI: Energy Efficient Harvesting of Algal Biomass

Montelya Felly R, Las Cruces NM

Investigators

Abstract

Algal biofuels have been recognized as one of the preferred alternatives to fossil fuels. However, algal biofuels are not yet economically viable due to the high costs of cultivation and downstream processing to yield the finished product. One of the barriers in the algal biofuel pathway is the harvesting step. In this study, it is hypothesized that algal biofuel cultivation can be engineered to utilize DNA as a flocculant for energy-efficient harvesting of the biomass. During flocculation, the dispersed microalgal cells aggregate and form larger particles with higher sedimentation rate. The concept of utilizing DNA as a flocculant in micro algae must be verified and validated for variety of species. Initial experiments will be conducted to verify this hypothesis at Dr. Ji-Won Yang's laboratory at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, South Korea. Current algal biofuels research is focusing on optimizing cultivation and downstream processing. Hardly any research is addressing the issue of biomass harvesting which remains a major challenge because it entails separating microalgae from a medium of nearly identical specific gravity. The validation that DNA-based flocculation could aid in harvesting of algal biomass and the quantitative data to be generated in the proposed study can advance knowledge and understanding as no previous studies have reported on it as a means to improve the harvesting step in the algal cultivation-to-biofuel process chain. This research is expected to contribute to efforts to demonstrate the practical feasibility of algal-based systems for energy production. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the National Research Foundation of Korea.