Harvesting economics and strategies using centrifugation for cost effective separation of microalgae cells for biodiesel applications.

Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Louisiana State University, 161 EB Doran Bldg, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.

Bioresource technology 2013 Jan

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Inefficient or energy-intensive microalgal harvesting strategies for biodiesel production have been a major setback in the microalgae industry. Harvesting by centrifugation is generally characterized by high capture efficiency (>90%) under low flow rates and high energy consumption. However, results from the present study demonstrated that by increasing the flow rates (>1L/min), the lower capture efficiencies (<90%) can be offset by the larger volumes of culture water processed through the centrifuge, resulting in net lower energy consumption. Energy consumption was reduced by 82% when only 28.5% of the incoming algal biomass was harvested at a rate of 18 L/min by centrifugation. Harvesting algal species with a high lipid content and high culture density could see harvesting costs of $0.864/L oil using the low efficiency/high flow rate centrifugation strategy as opposed to $4.52/L oil using numbers provided by the Department of Energy for centrifugation harvesting. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Adam J Dassey, Chandra S Theegala. Harvesting economics and strategies using centrifugation for cost effective separation of microalgae cells for biodiesel applications. Bioresource technology. 2013 Jan;128:241-5