Microalgal biorefinery:Biofilm photo-reactor and extraction methods

微藻技术被用作将（太阳）光转化为液体燃料的一种方法，与传统作物相比，它有几个优点：每单位作物面积可以产生多达100倍的生物质；这种生物质的脂质含量可达70%（干基）；翻倍的时间可以在几天左右；它们可以在恶劣的环境中生长，包括盐水甚至碱性水。尽管有这些优点，但利用目前的微藻培养和加工技术生产生物柴油并不经济。大部分成本与各种分离和提取步骤有关，这些步骤尚未得到解决。此外，微藻加工的“生物精炼”（多产品）方法可以显著提高整个过程的经济性。为了解决这些问题，我们建议使用微藻生物膜技术，微藻将在带有纤维基质（大面积体积比）的光反应器中生长。通过对反应器进料的简单改变，我们计划评估各种水萃取技术，从强碱性乳液（旨在破坏细胞壁并提取所有生物质）到温和无毒

Microalgal technologies, used as a method of conversion of (sun)light to liquid fuels, hold several advantages over conventional crops: they can produce up to 100 times more biomass per unit of crop area; the lipid content of this biomass can be up to 70% (dry basis); the doubling time can be in the order of few days; and they can grow in aggressive environments, including saline or even alkaline waters. Despite all these advantages, biodiesel produced using current microalgal cultivation and processing technology is not economic. Most of the costs are associated with various separation and extraction steps that have not been addressed. Furthermore, a "biorefinery" (multi-product) approach to microalgae processing could significantly improve the overall process economics. To address these issues we propose the use of a microalgal biofilm technology whereby microalgae will grow in photoreactors packed with a fibrous substrate (large area to volume ratios). By simple changes in the feed to the reactor we plan to evaluate various aqueous extraction techniques, ranging from aggressive alkaline emulsions (designed to break the cell walls and extract all the biomass) to mild non-toxic