SBIR Phase I: Magnetic technologies for improved microalgal biofuels production

该SBIR一期项目将开发一种从生长介质和藻类细胞破坏中进行磁分离的系统，以提高用于生物燃料生产的藻类收获效率。磁性技术的使用有可能提高从生长介质中去除藻类的能源效率。磁分离技术的使用引入了一种高效节能的方法，通过这种方法，藻类可以在综合生物精炼厂中脱水并转化为生物燃料。使用经过修饰的藻类菌株过量产生铁蛋白（一种易受磁影响的生物颗粒），也可以从污染生物质中去除藻类。该项目更广泛的商业影响将是对藻类产品的磁收集和脱水，这可能会提高石油生产的效率。这将使利用微藻生产生物燃料的低成本开放池塘养殖系统成为可能。开发利用磁反应藻类（直接或通过与磁反应颗粒相结合）将其与生长介质和污染物分离或诱导细胞裂解和辅助石油开采的技术。该项目针对藻油生产中两个成本最高的因素，即脱水和提取。因此，这两个领域的进步可以推动藻类生物燃料技术与石油资源竞争。

This SBIR Phase I project will develop a system for magnetic separation from growth media and cell disruption of algae to improve the efficiency of harvesting algae for bio-fuels production. The use of magnetic technologies has the potential to improve the energy efficiency of removing algae from growth media. The use of a magnetic separation technology introduces an energy efficient means by which algae can be dewatered and converted into bio-fuels in an integrated bio-refinery. Using algal strains modified to overproduce ferritin (a magnetically susceptible bio-particle) enables the removal of algae from contaminating biomass as well.The broader/commercial impact of the project will be magnetic harvesting and dewatering of algal product which could lead to higher efficiencies of oil production. This will enable the use of low cost open pond culturing systems for the production of biofuels using microalgae. The development of technologies using magnetically responsive algae (eitherdirect, or through association with magnetically responsive particles) to either separate them from growth media and contaminants or to induce cell lysis and aide in oil extraction. The project targets the two highest cost factors in algal oil production, namely dewatering and extraction. As such, advances in these two areas can drive algal based biofuels technology to becost competitive with petroleum sources.