Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Napoleon Ballroom C-D, 3rd fl (Sheraton New Orleans)
In the race for a clean renewable energy source, marine biomass has begun to collect global focus. Both microalgae and macroalgae are thought to have little competition with food supply and require comparatively little land compared to terrestrial biomass sources. Macroalgae is particularly interesting as a source of biomass for biofuel conversion due to the fact that it is already being commercially collected for multiple years in weights of kilotonnes in China, Australia, Chile, Europe, United States, and there are large areas of shorelines that have potential growing locations for different species of algae. Brown Algae, Laminaria saccharina has shown potential for production of ethanol, however the process has not yet been optimized. Further due to regional growth and seasonal differences even within the same strain, it is important to characterize the compositional profile of the macroalgae to best optimize sugar production for use in biofuel catalysis. In this study we have characterized different seasonal harvests of Laminaria saccharina and evaluate methods to increase the saccharification yields.