Abstract
Algal blooms have become a worldwide environmental concern due to water eutrophication. Dianchi Lake in Yunnan Province, China is suffering from severe eutrophication and is listed in the Three Important Lakes Restoration Act of China. Hydrothermal liquefaction allows a promising and direct conversion of algal biomass into biocrude oil. In this study, algal samples were collected from Dianchi Lake after a separation procedure including dissolved air flotation with polyalu- minum chloride and centrifugation during four months, April, June, August and October. The algal biochemical components varied over the period; lipids from 0.7% to 2.1% ash-free dry weight (afdw), protein from 20.9% to 33.4% afdw and ash from 36.6% to 45.2% dry weight. The algae in June had the highest lipid and protein concentra- tions, leading to a maximum biocrude oil yield of 24.3% afdw. Biodiversity analysis using pyrosequencing revealed different distributions of microbial communities, specifi- cally Microcystis in April (89.0%), June (63.7%) and August (84.0%), and Synechococcus in April (2.2%), June (12.0%) and August (1.0%). This study demonstrated remarkable temporal changes in the biochemical composi- tion and biodiversity of algae harvested from Dianchi Lake and changes in biocrude oil production potential.
Highlights
Eutrophication and the resulting algal blooms in waterways has received increasing attention worldwide[1]
Algal samples were collected during four representative months: August, 2012; October, 2012; April, 2013; June, 2013, in order to study the influence of temporal changes on algal properties and Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) conversion
The highest biocrude oil conversion was from the June sample, due to its highest content of lipids (2.1% afdw) and proteins (33.4% afdw). These results reveal that biochemical components of algal samples change with time, leading to different HTL biocrude oil yields
Summary
Eutrophication and the resulting algal blooms in waterways has received increasing attention worldwide[1]. Mitigating the algal blooms in Dianchi Lake is a crucial challenge for the sustainable development of the local area, but is significant for understanding eutrophication of lakes at high altitude. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is considered to be a potential alternative for algae biofuel production. In this process, wet algae are directly converted into biocrude oil regardless of the lipid content and drying process of the feedstock[4]. Algae biofuels have received increasing interest as generation biofuels[5]
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