Factors in mass cultivation of microalgae for biodiesel

• Published in: Chinese journal of catalysis 2013-01, Vol.34 (1), p.80-100
• Main Authors: ZHU, Junying, RONG, Junfeng, ZONG, Baoning
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biofuel; Lipid content; Mass cultivation; Microalgae; Photobioreactor
• ISSN: 1872-2067; 0253-9837; 1872-2067
• DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(11)60497-X

Biofuel from microalgae is a long term strategy to solve the energy crisis. It is a new area of biological engineering and process engineering that consists of the isolation and characterization of microalgae species, mass cultivation of microalgae, harvesting and post-processing. The successful mass cultivation of microalgae is one of its main challenges. Several factors influencing the mass cultivation of microalgae are discussed, such as microalgae species, metabolic mechanism, culture conditions and the photobioreactor. This paper will help the development of biofuels from microalgae and its photobioreactor. 针对废弃油脂品质差, 酸值高, 难于采用传统的碱催化酯交换技术加工生产生物柴油, 中国石化石油化工科学研究院开展了超/近临界甲醇介质中油脂溶解和反应的基础研究, 相继解决了甲醇与油脂的互溶、降低反应条件, 三脂肪酸甘油酯和游离脂肪酸的深度转化, 以及产品质量等问题, 成功开发了近临界醇解生物柴油技术 (以下简称 SRCA), 于 2009 年建成了 6 万吨/年工业化示范装置, 以酸化油和餐厨废油为原料, 生产连续稳定, 产品收率高且满足国家生物柴油质量标准 (GB/T 20828-2007). This review presents the factors that influence the mass cultivation of microalgae for biofuels, such as microalgae species/strains, metabolic mechanism, culture conditions and the photobioreactor.