Valorisation of biodiesel production wastes: Anaerobic digestion of residual Tetraselmis suecica biomass and co-digestion with glycerol.
One of the principal opportunity areas in the development of the microalgal biodiesel industry is the energy recovery from the solid microalgal biomass residues to optimise the fuel production. This work reports the cumulative methane yields reached from the anaerobic digestion of the solid microalgal biomass residues using different types of inocula, reporting also the improvement of biogas production using the co-digestion of microalgal biomass with glycerol. Results demonstrate that the solid microalgal biomass residues showed better biogas production using a mesophilic inoculum, reaching almost two-fold higher methane production than under thermophilic conditions. Furthermore, the solid microalgal biomass residues methane production rate showed an increase from 173.78 ± 9.57 to 438.46 ± 40.50 mL of methane per gram of volatile solids, when the co-digestion with glycerol was performed. These results are crucial to improve the energy balance of the biodiesel production from Tetraselmis suecica, as well as proposing an alternative way to treat the wastes derived from the microalgae biodiesel production.
Programa Regional de Posgrado en Biotecnología, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Culiacán, México.
David U
DU
Santos-Ballardo
Department of Chemical Engineering, Escola d'Enginyeria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Xavier
X
Font-Segura
Department of Chemical Engineering, Escola d'Enginyeria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Antoni Sánchez
AS
Ferrer
Department of Chemical Engineering, Escola d'Enginyeria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Raquel
R
Barrena
Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain Unidad de sistemas Arrecifales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México.
Sergio
S
Rossi
Programa Regional de Posgrado en Biotecnología, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Culiacán, México angelvaldezortiz@yahoo.com.mx.
Angel
A
Valdez-Ortiz
D000693:Anaerobiosis; D056804:Biofuels / Q000032:analysis*; D018533:Biomass; D019149:Bioreactors; D000460:Chlorophyta / Q000378:metabolism*; D005990:Glycerol / Q000378:metabolism*; D058086:Microalgae / Q000378:metabolism; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis*
D056804:Biofuels; D014866:Waste Products; D005990:Glycerol
Anaerobic digestion; Tetraselmis suecica; biodiesel; biogas production; microalgae; solid microalgal biomass residues