Microalgal cell disruption for biofuel development

Ronald Halim, Razif Harun, Michael K. Danquah and Paul A. Webley

Applied Energy, 2012, vol. 91, issue 1, 116-121

Abstract: The production of alternative fuels from microalgae involves lengthy processing steps. Cell disruption is an integral part of the downstream pool of unit operations as it facilitates the release of intracellular products essential for biofuel production. This study investigated the use of high-pressure homogenization, ultrasonication, bead beating, and sulfuric acid treatment as laboratory-scale disruption methods for microalgal cells. The performance of each cell disruption method was evaluated in terms of two key indicators: reduction in the intact cell count and reduction in the average colony diameter. The microalgal strain, Chlorococcum sp., was used throughout the study. The most effective disruption was obtained using high-pressure homogenization (average disruption=73.8% of initial intact cells) followed by sulfuric acid treatment (average disruption=33.2% of initial intact cells) and bead beating (average disruption=17.5% of initial intact cells). Even though ultrasonication failed to disrupt the microalgal cells under the investigated conditions (average disruption=4.5% of initial intact cells), it still managed to disintegrate cellular colonies.

Keywords: Microalgae; Biodiesel; Cell disruption; Homogenization; Ultrasonication; Bead beating (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261911005587
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:91:y:2012:i:1:p:116-121

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.08.048

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().