Microalgal-based Production of Biofuels and High Energy Combustion Materials

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。智力优势：本提案将研究导致微藻和蓝藻中Botryococcus， Nannochloropsis， Synechocystis和Nostoc属的高能量脂质和生物聚合物最佳生产的因素。该项目的总体目标是开发一种技术和经济上可行的方法，通过环境友好的工艺从微藻中获取和提取高储能产品。大规模实验将使用液压集成串联浊化藻反应器（HISTAR）进行。HISTAR在一系列反应器中结合了接种体生成、生物质生产和收获，允许高局部稀释率以减少污染物的引入，低系统稀释率以提高生产率。该系统的设计已显示出更高的产量，并减少了封闭生物反应器中常见的问题，如壁面生长、热量积累和气体交换不良。该目标将通过测试以下假设来实现：1)实验规模的微藻或蓝藻培养结果可以在HISTAR内扩展到商业水平；2)脂质和PHA可以在某些蓝藻物种中共同产生；3) C:N比对藻细胞脂质和PHA含量有影响；4)脂质和PHA的提取效率（以及成本）会因提取方法的不同而不同；5)纳米结构金属的使用可以提高提取过程；6)微藻产量模型可以充分预测密集、连续培养微藻的脂质和PHA产量。这些目标将在四个阶段进行测试：1)在批处理系统中生产生物质、脂质和PHA；2)在HISTAR系统中培养一种微藻和一种蓝藻；3)评价脂质和PHA的提取方法，并量化所产生物质的总能量含量；4)通过建模对各工艺途径进行成本效益分析。这项工作的结果将为决定生物燃料微藻培养成功的过程提供更好的科学理解，并为培养具有更高能量含量（PHA）和/或脂质（油脂提取）的微藻的商业方法奠定基础。更广泛的影响：该提案主题适合于一些正式/非正式的教育活动，其中一些将通过路易斯安那州海洋拨款学院项目（海洋骚动），凯恩科学、技术、工程和数学素养中心（教师预备），工程多样性项目办公室（REHAMS和XCITE）和美国化学学会（超级科学星期六）传播。这项工作的结果将通过技术会议、期刊论文和基于网络的文件传播。预计该项目的社会效益是增加基于生物质的高能量产品的产量，减少基于石油的燃料和聚合物的消耗，从而减少对外国石油的依赖。

0853483RuschThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Summary Intellectual Merit: This proposal will investigate the factors that result in optimal production of high energy lipids and biopolymers in the microalgal and cyanobacteria species of the genera Botryococcus, Nannochloropsis, Synechocystis, and Nostoc. The overall goal of this project is to develop a technical and economically feasible method to obtain and extract high energy storage products from microalgae through environmentally friendly processes. The large scale experimentation will be performed using the Hydraulically Integrated Serial Turbidostat Algal Reactor (HISTAR). HISTAR incorporates inoculums generation, biomass production and harvesting in a series of reactors, allowing for a high local dilution rate to mitigate contaminant introduction and low system dilution rate to increase productivity. The design of the system has shown to have higher yields and reduced problems commonly observed in closed bioreactors such as wall growth, heat accumulation and poor gas exchange. The goal will be achieved by testing the following hypothesis: 1) bench scale microalgae or cyanobacteria culture results can be scaled to commercial levels within HISTAR; 2) lipids and PHA can be co-produced in certain cyanobacteria species; 3) C:N ratio will impact the lipid and PHA content of the algal cells; 4) lipid and PHA extraction efficiency (and thus cost) will vary with the extraction method used; 5) the use of nanostructured metals can enhance the extraction processes; and 6) a microalgal productivity model can adequately predict lipid and PHA yields from intensive, continuous microalgal cultures. These objectives will be tested in four phases: 1) production of biomass, lipid and PHA in batch systems; 2) culture of one microalgae and one cyanobacteria species in the HISTAR system; 3) evaluation of extraction methods for the lipids and PHA, as well as quantification of the total energy content of the biomass produced, and 4) cost:benefit analysis of each process pathway via modeling. The outcomes from this work will provide a better scientific understanding of the processes dictating successful microalgal culture for biofuels and foundation for a commercial approach to cultivating microalgae with increased energy content (PHA) and/or lipids (oil extraction). Broader impact: This proposal topic lends itself to several formal/informal educational activities, several of which will be disseminated through the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program (Ocean Commotion), Cain Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Literacy (Teacher Prep), Office of Diversity Programs in Engineering (REHAMS and XCITE) and American Chemical Society (Super Science Saturday). The results of this work will be disseminated through technical meetings, journal papers and through web based documents. Society benefits expected from this project is the increase of production of biomass based high energy products to reduce the consumption of oil based fuels and polymers and thus reduces the dependency on foreign oil.