Abstract
The potential success of microalgal biofuels greatly depends on the sustainability of the chosen pathway to produce them. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising route to convert wet algal biomass into biocrude. Recycling the resulting HTL aqueous phase (AP) aims not only to recover nutrients from this effluent but also to use it as a substrate to close the photosynthetic loop and produce algal biomass again and process this biomass again into new biocrude. With that purpose, the response to AP recycling of five Chlorellaceae strains was monitored over five cultivation cycles. After four successive cycles of dynamic growth under nutrient-replete conditions, the microalgae were cultivated for a prolonged fifth cycle of 18 days in order to assess the impact of the AP on lipid and biomass accumulation under nutrient-limited conditions. Using AP as a substrate reduced the demand for external sources of N, S, and P while producing a significant amount of biomass (2.95–4.27 g/L) among the strains, with a lipid content ranging from 16 to 36%. However, the presence of the AP resulted in biomass with suboptimal properties, as it slowed down the accumulation of lipids and thus reduced the overall energy content of the biomass in all strains. Although Chlorella vulgaris NIES 227 did not have the best growth on AP, it did maintain the best lipid productivity of all the tested strains. Understanding the impact of AP on microalgal cultivation is essential for further optimizing biofuel production via the HTL process.
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Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to Alexandra Dimitriades and Gatien Fleury for their contributions and assistance in the development of the analytical methods utilized in this study.
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The funding for this project has been provided by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) under the French project RAFBIOALG, with the funding number ANR 18-CE43-0009–04.
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Adriana Ramírez-Romero contributed to conceptualization, methodology, validation, data curation, and writing of the original draft as well as reviewing and editing the manuscript. Bruno da Costa Magalhães contributed to methodology and reviewing and editing of the manuscript. Lucie Matricon contributed to methodology. Jean-François Sassi contributed to funding acquisition and reviewing and editing of the manuscript. Jean-Philippe Steyer contributed to validation and reviewing and editing of the manuscript. Florian Delrue contributed to funding, conceptualization, methodology, validation, and reviewing and editing of the manuscript. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Adriana Ramírez-Romero, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Ramírez-Romero, A., da Costa Magalhães, B., Matricon, L. et al. Aqueous phase recycling: impact on microalgal lipid accumulation and biomass quality. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32701-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32701-7