Abstract
As a potential source of biofuel, the green colonial microalga Botryococcus braunii produces large amounts of hydrocarbons that are accumulated in the extracellular matrix. Generally, pretreatment such as drying or heating of wet algae is needed for sufficient recoveries of hydrocarbons from B. braunii using organic solvents. In this study, the Showa strain of B. braunii was cultured in media derived from the modified Chu13 medium by supplying artificial seawater, natural seawater, or NaCl. After a certain period of culture in the media with an osmotic pressure corresponding to 1/4-seawater, hydrocarbon recovery rates exceeding 90% were obtained by simply mixing intact wet algae with n-hexane without any pretreatments and the results using the present culture conditions indicate the potential for hydrocarbon milking.HighlightsSeawater was used for efficient hydrocarbon extraction from Botryococcus braunii. The alga was cultured in media prepared with seawater or NaCl. Hydrocarbon recovery rate exceeding 90% was obtained without any pretreatment.
Highlights
Biomass energy has recently attracted considerable attention as a renewable energy source to address global warming, air pollution and depletion of fossil fuels
Pretreatment such as drying or heating of wet algae is needed for B. braunii to achieve a hydrocarbon recovery rate of over 90% using organic solvents [10], [11]
We examined what concentration of ASWM is effective to make living B. braunii susceptible to such easy hydrocarbon extraction
Summary
Droplets of hydrocarbons extruded from the extracellular matrix can be seen under a microscope as far as algal colonies are placed on a slide glass in a single layer and are mechanically compressed with a cover glass It is, difficult to recover hydrocarbons from wet B. braunii cells by simple compression or solvent extraction. Pretreatment such as drying or heating of wet algae is needed for B. braunii to achieve a hydrocarbon recovery rate of over 90% using organic solvents [10], [11] This discrepancy between the location of hydrocarbons at outside of cells and the difficulty in hydrocarbon recovery from wet algal colonies might be caused by the unique structure of colonies of B. braunii. The pretreatment such as drying or heating may change structure or property of the extracellular matrix in the algal colonies, and let extrusion of hydrocarbons from the colonies easier as the result
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