LAUSR

The cost-effective production of liquid biofuels from microalgae is limited by several factors such as recovery of the lipid fractions as well as nutrients management. Flash hydrolysis (FH), a rapid hydrothermal process, has been successfully applied to fractionate the microalgal biomass into solid biofuels intermediates while recovering a large amount of the nutrients in the aqueous phase (hydrolyzate) in a continuous flow reactor. The aim of the work is to enhance the quality of a high-ash containing marine algae Nannochloropsis gaditana as biofuel feedstock while recycling nutrients directly for algae cultivation. Characterization of products demonstrated an increase in extractable lipids from 33.5 to 65.5 wt% (dry basis) while retaining the same FAME profile, in addition to diminution of more than 70 wt% of ash compared to raw microalgae. Moreover, the hydrolyzate was directly used to grow a microalga of the same genus. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.