Development of an integrated chemical plant for sustainable production of chemicals from microalgae

由于认识到与石油基原料相关的人为二氧化碳的不利影响以及化石燃料储量的枯竭，对可再生化学品生产的兴趣日益增长。微藻作为一种非食品原料受到越来越多的关注，因为它们能够将二氧化碳和阳光转化为糖和脂质（生物燃料前体）以及营养品。目前，微藻的商业应用仅限于选定的高价值产品。低光合产量导致培养系统中的低生物质浓度，进而导致能量密集型收获过程，这对微藻生物产品的商业化提出了挑战。拟议的研究计划的愿景是通过实施两项创新战略来解决微藻生物产品商业化面临的现有技术障碍。第一种策略依赖于设计栽培策略（例如，培养基优化）以最大化产品的细胞含量，并开发用于衍生多种化学品的稳健的回收工艺以最大化生物质的使用。第二个策略是将工业有机废物的代谢产物整合到微藻生物质生产系统中，为微藻生长提供营养，同时修复工业废物。已经证明在有机废物中生长良好的健壮物种，能够积累具有商业价值的产品，如类胡萝卜素和糖，是这一阶段研究的重点。

The growing interest in production of renewable chemicals is driven due to the realization of the adverse effects of anthropogenic carbon dioxide associated with petroleum-based feedstock as well as depletion of fossil fuel reserves. Microalgae have received increased attention as a non-food feedstock due to their capability to convert carbon dioxide and sunlight into sugars and lipids (biofuel precursors) as well as nutraceuticals. Currently, commercial application of microalgae is limited to selected high-value products. Low photosynthetic yield, which leads to a low biomass concentration in cultivation systems and in turn an energy intensive harvesting process, challenges the commercialization of bioproducts from microalgae. The vision of the proposed research program is to address the existing technical roadblocks facing the microalgae-bioproduct commercialization by implementing two innovative strategies. The first strategy relies on designing cultivation strategies (e.g., media optimization) to maximize the cellular content of products and develop robust recovery processes for derivation of multiple chemicals to maximize the use of the biomass. A selected microalgae species shown to be capable of simultaneous accumulation of multiple value-added chemicals will be investigated.The second strategy is integrating industrial organic waste digestates into microalgal biomass production systems to provide nutrients for microalgal growth and remediate the industrial wastes, simultaneously. Robust species that have shown to grow well on organic waste digestates and are capable of accumulating products of commercial value such as carotenoids and sugars are the focus of this phase of the research.