title: Flotation: A promising microalgae harvesting and dewatering technology for biofuels production.
abstract: Microalgal biomass as renewable energy source is believed to be of great potential for reliable and sustainable biofuels production. However, microalgal biomass production is pinned by harvesting and dewatering stage thus hindering the developing and growing microalgae biotechnology industries. Flotation technology applied in mineral industry could be potentially applied in microalgae harvesting and dewatering, however substantial knowledge on different flotation units is essential. This paper presents an overview on different flotation units as promising cost-effective technologies for microalgae harvesting thus bestowing for further research in development and commercialization of microalgae based biofuels. Dispersed air flotation was found to be less energy consuming. Moreover, Jameson cell flotation and dispersed ozone flotation are believed to be energy efficient microalgae flotation approaches. Microalgae harvesting and dewatering by flotation is still at embryonic stage, therefore extended studies with the focus on life cycle assessment, sustainability of the flotation unit, optimization of the operating parameters using different algal species is imperative. Though there are a number of challenges in microalgae harvesting and dewatering, with well designed and developed cultivation, harvesting/dewatering, extraction and conversion technologies, progressively, microalgae technology will be of great potential for biological carbon sequestration, biofuels and biochemicals production.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Theoneste
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ndikubwimana
authors.affiliation: College of Energy, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Jingyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Zongyuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
authors.forename: Wenyao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: College of Energy, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China. xianhai.zeng@xmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xianhai
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: I-Son
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China. ylu@xmu.edu.cn.|The Key Laboratory for Synthetic Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China. ylu@xmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yinghua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels; D018533:Biomass; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D007700:Kinetics; D058086:Microalgae / Q000254:growth & development*; D059205:Renewable Energy
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels
keywords: Biofuels; Flotation; Life cycle assessment; Microalgae dewatering