Integration of biofuels intermediates production and nutrients recycling in the processing of a marine algae

The cost‐effective production of liquid biofuels from microalgae is limited by several factors such as recovery of the lipid fractions as well as nutrients management. Flash hydrolysis, a rapid hydrothermal process, has been successfully applied to fractionate the microalgal biomass into solid biofuels intermediates while recovering a large amount of the nutrients in the aqueous phase (hydrolyzate) in a continuous flow reactor. The aim of the work is to enhance the quality of a high‐ash containing marine algae Nannochloropsis gaditana as biofuel feedstock while recycling nutrients directly for algae cultivation. Characterization of products demonstrated an increase in extractable lipids from 33.5 to 65.5 wt % (dry basis) while retaining the same fatty acid methyl ester profile, in addition to diminution of more than 70 wt % of ash compared to raw microalgae. Moreover, the hydrolyzate was directly used to grow a microalga of the same genus. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 63: 1494–1502, 2017