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

人们对生产可再生化学品的兴趣与日俱增，这是因为认识到与石油为原料有关的人为二氧化碳的不利影响以及化石燃料储备的枯竭。微藻作为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(生物燃料前体)以及营养食品。目前，微藻的商业应用仅限于精选的高价值产品。低的光合作用产量导致培养系统中的生物量浓度低，进而导致能源密集型的收获过程，这对微藻生物产品的商业化提出了挑战。拟议研究计划的愿景是通过实施两个创新战略来解决微藻生物制品商业化面临的现有技术障碍。第一个战略依赖于设计栽培战略(例如，介质优化)，以最大限度地提高产品的细胞含量，并为衍生多种可再生化学品制定强有力的回收过程，以最大限度地利用生物质。将对一种被证明能够同时积累多种增值化学品的精选微藻物种进行研究。*第二种战略是将工业有机废物消化液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。已证明在有机废物消化液上生长良好并能够积累具有商业价值的产品(如类胡萝卜素和糖)的强健物种是本阶段研究的重点。*有益于研究领域*拟议的研究计划可能通过设计创新的生物工艺和开发化学回收技术，拓宽微藻生物技术的应用领域。这项研究试图进一步探索微藻-生物产品领域的一个重要的开放领域：从生物质和过程集成方法衍生多种产品是否能够提高过程经济学，使微藻生物产品与其石油或农业类似物相比具有商业复杂性。*对加拿大的好处*可再生化学品的商业成功取决于原料的可持续生产和强大且具有成本效益的产品回收过程的发展。这项研究将理想地通过对生物过程设计和提取过程的创新，开发基于微藻的新化学品。*此外，将微藻生物质生产与厌氧消化系统修复相结合，控制了工业废物对环境的不利影响，并消除了微藻生物质和生物制品生产所需的化学合成肥料的使用。**

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.****Benefit to the Research Field****The proposed research program will likely broaden the applied field of microalgal biotechnology by designing innovative bioprocesses and development of chemical recovery technologies. This research attempts to explore an important open area in the field of microalgae-bioproducts: whether derivation of multiple products from biomass and process integration approaches will be able to enhance the process economics to make microalgal bioproducts commercially completive compared to their petroleum or agricultural-based analogues.***Benefit to Canada****The commercial success of a renewable chemical depends on the sustainable production of feedstock and development of a robust and cost-effective product recovery process. This research will ideally result in development of new microalgae-based chemicals by innovation in bioprocess design and extraction processes.*Moreover, coupling microalgal biomass production with anaerobic digestate remediation controls the adverse environmental impact of industrial wastes and eliminates the usage of chemically synthesized fertilizers required for microalgal biomass and bioproduct production.**