Utilization of gaseous emissions from a methanol plant for cultivation of Acutodesmus obliquus

作者：Chen, Lin; Li, Xiaomei; Wang, Mingzi; Huang, Jian; Chen, Bilian^*; Li, Xinglong; Zheng, Xing

来源：Journal of Applied Phycology, 2016, 28(5): 2661-2669.

DOI：10.1007/s10811-016-0818-3

• Gaseous emissions
• Methanol plant
• CO2 mitigation
• Acutodesmus obliquus
• Chlorophyta
• Outdoor tubular photobioreactor

This study aimed to culture the green alga Acutodesmus obliquus utilizing the gaseous emissions containing a high concentration of CO2 (99.13 %) from a methanol plant and study the tolerance of microalgae. The effect of CO2 concentration, aeration rate, inoculum concentration, intermittent sparging, and nitrogen sources on the growth of A. obliquus was examined. Acutodesmus obliquus also was cultivated in a 500-L pilot outdoor tubular photobioreactor (OTP) to advance the laboratory scale system to outdoor scale-up applications. The results showed that A. obliquus could tolerate high CO2 concentrations of 50 %, and a maximum biomass of 0.935 g L-1 (dry weight) was achieved at 20 % CO2. An aeration rate of 500 mL min(-1), inoculum concentration (optical density at 680 nm [OD680] = 0.3), and intermittent sparging of 10 min per 2 h enhanced growth to the optimum and influenced culture pH and photosynthesis. Urea as a nitrogen source was shown to be more beneficial to cell growth. A urea concentration of 0.3 g L-1 and an N/P ratio of 15 led to maximum biomass accumulation thus enhancing the gaseous emission utilization efficiency. In conclusion, this work demonstrated that gaseous emissions containing high concentration of CO2 from a methanol plant could be directly introduced into A. obliquus cultures and that A. obliquus was suitable well for large-scale outdoor cultivation in a tubular photobiorecator.

• 出版日期2016-10
• 单位莆田学院; 福建师范大学