Preliminary study on using seaweed biomass to harvest microalgae for lipid production

• Main Authors: Manoharan, Lalitaambigei, Lam, Man Kee, Suparmaniam, Uganeeswary, Mahesh, Meyyappan, Ho, Yeek Chia, Lim, Jun Wei, Tan, Inn Shi, Chin, Bridgid Lai Fui, Lau, Sie Yon, Kiew, Peck Loo
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algae; Biofuels; Biomass; Chlorella; Efficiency; Energy consumption; Lipids; Seaweeds
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0194762

Microalgae biomass has been identified as the third-generation feedstock for biofuel production. This is mainly due to their fast growth rate, high photosynthetic efficiency and their tendency to accumulate significant amount of lipid within their cells. Nevertheless, microalgae are small in size in naturally and shares similar density with water, which makes the harvesting process challenging and requires high energy consumption. On the other hand, microalgae exhibit special epiphytic characteristics that enable microalgae to attach on rough surfaces through biofilm formation. In this work, seaweed was integrated in microalgae harvesting process as a potential substratum to initiate attachment of microalgae on their surfaces. Several types of seaweed species were studied to compare the harvesting efficiency of Chlorella vulgaris through the attachment process. From the results, Wakame seaweed showed the highest harvesting efficiency (78.67%) after integrating into microalgae harvesting process for 3 days. Besides, harvested Wakame-Chlorella vulgaris sample also resulted the highest lipid enhancement which indicated successful integration of microalgae on the surfaces of seaweed. Further optimization of the harvesting parameters through this approach could pave a more sustainable and economically way to produce renewable fuel from microalgae and seaweed.