High-density biofuels production from holistic conversion of microalgal strains through energy-saving integrated approach

Abstract

The commercial feasibility regarding conversion of the high-solid-loading microalgal suspensions for high-titer biofuels production is questionable owing to incomplete utilization and high processing costs. In this study, the production of multiple highly concentrated biofuels (bioethanol, higher alcohols, and biodiesel) was achieved through cost-effective integrated approach (pretreatment, serial fermentation of carbohydrate/protein, and transesterification of lipid) from highly concentrated (100 g/L) microalgal suspensions (Chlamydomonas mexicana and Chlamydomonas pitschmannii). This integrated approach attained unprecedented total conversion efficiency (48–63%) and maximum total biomass utilization (77–86%) for both the microalgal strains with high yields of bioethanol (0.48 g-ethanol/g-carbohydrate), higher alcohols (0.44 g-higher alcohols/g-protein), and biodiesel (0.82–0.89 g-biodiesel/g-lipid) at suspensions of 100 g/L. Transmission electron microscopy was employed to visualize the changes in the intercellular morphologies before and after serial fermentations. Thus, this study demonstrates a cost-effective and energy-saving integrated approach for the holistic conversion of high-solid-loading microalgal biomass to produce high-density biofuels with minimum waste generation.