TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of large-scale microalgae production in the Middle East
AU - Hirayama, Akihiko
AU - Sueyoshi, Mark N.
AU - Nakano, Takashi
AU - Ota, Yuki
AU - Kurita, Hiroyuki
AU - Tasaki, Masaharu
AU - Kuroiwa, Yoichi
AU - Kato, Takahiro
AU - Serizawa, Sadayoshi
AU - Kojima, Keisuke
AU - Al-Maamari, Rashid S.
AU - Hasegawa, Takeshi
AU - Thomas-Hall, Skye R.
AU - Schenk, Peer M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - Microalgae in the Middle East can theoretically address food security without competing for arable land, but concerns exist around scalability and durability of production systems under the extreme heat. Large-scale Chlorella sorokiniana production was developed in outdoor raceway ponds in Oman and monitored for 2 years to gather data for commercial production. Biological and technical challenges included construction, indoor/outdoor preculturing, upscaling, relating productivity to water temperature and meteorological conditions, harvesting, drying, and quality control. Small cultivation systems required cooling for initial scale-up, but, despite maximum temperatures of 49.7 °C, water temperatures were at acceptable levels by evaporative cooling in larger raceway ponds. Contamination with Vampirovibrio chlorellavorus was identified by 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing and addressed by culture replacement. Productivities ranged from 8 to 30 g-dry weight m-2d-1, with estimated annual productivity of 16 g-dry weight m-2d-1 as functions of solar intensity and water temperature, confirming that the region is suitable for commercial microalgae production.
AB - Microalgae in the Middle East can theoretically address food security without competing for arable land, but concerns exist around scalability and durability of production systems under the extreme heat. Large-scale Chlorella sorokiniana production was developed in outdoor raceway ponds in Oman and monitored for 2 years to gather data for commercial production. Biological and technical challenges included construction, indoor/outdoor preculturing, upscaling, relating productivity to water temperature and meteorological conditions, harvesting, drying, and quality control. Small cultivation systems required cooling for initial scale-up, but, despite maximum temperatures of 49.7 °C, water temperatures were at acceptable levels by evaporative cooling in larger raceway ponds. Contamination with Vampirovibrio chlorellavorus was identified by 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing and addressed by culture replacement. Productivities ranged from 8 to 30 g-dry weight m-2d-1, with estimated annual productivity of 16 g-dry weight m-2d-1 as functions of solar intensity and water temperature, confirming that the region is suitable for commercial microalgae production.
KW - Chlorella sorokiniana
KW - Large-scale microalgae production
KW - Outdoor raceway ponds
KW - Photobioreactor
KW - Water temperature control
KW - Chlorella
KW - Ponds
KW - Bacteria
KW - Microalgae
KW - Biomass
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117736130&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85117736130&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biortech.2021.126036
DO - 10.1016/j.biortech.2021.126036
M3 - Article
C2 - 34626761
AN - SCOPUS:85117736130
SN - 0960-8524
VL - 343
SP - 126036
JO - Bioresource Technology
JF - Bioresource Technology
M1 - 126036
ER -