title: Harvesting economics and strategies using centrifugation for cost effective separation of microalgae cells for biodiesel applications.
abstract: Inefficient or energy-intensive microalgal harvesting strategies for biodiesel production have been a major setback in the microalgae industry. Harvesting by centrifugation is generally characterized by high capture efficiency (>90%) under low flow rates and high energy consumption. However, results from the present study demonstrated that by increasing the flow rates (>1L/min), the lower capture efficiencies (<90%) can be offset by the larger volumes of culture water processed through the centrifuge, resulting in net lower energy consumption. Energy consumption was reduced by 82% when only 28.5% of the incoming algal biomass was harvested at a rate of 18 L/min by centrifugation. Harvesting algal species with a high lipid content and high culture density could see harvesting costs of $0.864/L oil using the low efficiency/high flow rate centrifugation strategy as opposed to $4.52/L oil using numbers provided by the Department of Energy for centrifugation harvesting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Louisiana State University, 161 EB Doran Bldg, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
authors.forename: Adam J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Dassey
authors.forename: Chandra S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Theegala
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels / Q000191:economics* / Q000382:microbiology*; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000191:economics* / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002498:Centrifugation / Q000191:economics* / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D058086:Microalgae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels