Bioethanol production from microalgae biomass at high-solids loadings

Billriz E Condor; Mark Daniel G de Luna; Yu-Han Chang; Jih-Heng Chen; Yoong Kit Leong; Po-Ting Chen; Chun-Yen Chen; Duu-Jong Lee; Jo-Shu Chang

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128002

Bioethanol production from microalgae biomass at high-solids loadings

Bioresour Technol. 2022 Nov:363:128002. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128002. Epub 2022 Sep 22.

Authors

Billriz E Condor¹, Mark Daniel G de Luna², Yu-Han Chang³, Jih-Heng Chen⁴, Yoong Kit Leong⁵, Po-Ting Chen⁶, Chun-Yen Chen⁷, Duu-Jong Lee⁸, Jo-Shu Chang⁹

Affiliations

¹ Energy Engineering Program, National Graduate School of Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines.
² Energy Engineering Program, National Graduate School of Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines; Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan.
⁴ Research Center for Smart Sustainable Circular Economy, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Tainan 71005, Taiwan.
⁷ University Center for Bioscience and Biotechnology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tang, Hong Kong.
⁹ Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan; Research Center for Smart Sustainable Circular Economy, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Yuan Ze University, Chung-Li 32003, Taiwan. Electronic address: changjs@mail.ncku.edu.tw.

PMID: 36155816
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128002

Abstract

Industrial adoption of microalgae biofuel technology has always been hindered by its economic viability. To increase the feasibility of bioethanol production from microalgae, fermentation was applied to Chlorella vulgaris FSP-E biomass at high-solids loading conditions. First, Chlorella vulgaris FSP-E was cultivated to produce microalgae biomass with high carbohydrate content. Next, different ethanol-producing microorganisms were screened. Saccharomyces cerevisiae FAY-1 showed no inhibition when fermenting high initial glucose concentrations and was selected for the fermentation experiments at high-solids loadings. Optimization of acid hydrolysis at high biomass loading was also performed. The fermentation of microalgal biomass hydrolysate produced a final ethanol concentration and yield higher than most reported literature using microalgae feedstock. In addition, the kinetics of bioethanol fermentation of microalgae hydrolysate under high-solids loading were evaluated. These results showed the potential of fermenting microalgae biomass at high-solids loading in improving the viability of microalgae bioethanol production.

Keywords: Bioethanol; Biofuel; Fermentation; High-solids loading; Microalgae.

MeSH terms

Biofuels
Biomass
Carbohydrates
Chlorella vulgaris*
Ethanol
Fermentation
Glucose
Hydrolysis
Microalgae*
Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Substances

Biofuels
Carbohydrates
Ethanol
Glucose