Monday, May 4, 2009
9-46
Microalgae production of lipids and starches for bio-fuel production
Bill B. Elmore and Jen Liu. Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, Mississippi State University, 323 President's Circle, Dave C. Swalm Chemical Engineering Building, Mississippi State, MS 39762
Microalgae, fast-growing, efficient converters of carbon dioxide and solar energy offer strong potential for biofuels production at high levels of biomass per unit land area in comparison to other plant materials. As part of an integrated process for converting municipal and industrial wastewater sources to bio-oil and fermentable sugars, current results are presented here from a study of microalgae species used for converting residual nutrients in wastewater. This aspect of the project is focused on determining the feasibility of photosynthetic sugar production by microalgae species in comparison to lipids production as a means of both CO2 consumption and the coupling of this step with an oleaginous microbial consortium capable of producing triglycerides from these sugars. Results from batch and fed-batch reactors will be presented for raw microalgae isolates and compared with results from Botryococcus sudeticus (UTEX 2629).