Carles Torras

High-temperature dilute-acid hydrolysis of olive stones for furfural production

Abstract We studied the production of furfural by acid hydrolysis of olive stones, which in Spain are an abundant lignocellulosic residue derived from the production of olive oil. We focused on the hydrolysis in dilute sulfuric acid (0.05 to 0.250 mol l −1 ), at high temperature (220–240°C), and short reaction times, of a few minutes at the most. The experimental study was performed in a tubing-bomb reactor system that approximately reproduces the temperature profiles obtained in a continuous tubular reactor. We obtained maximum furfural yields ranging from 50% to 65% of the potential depending on acid concentration and temperature.

Antifouling microfiltration strategies to harvest microalgae for biofuel.

Microalgae are microorganisms that can fix CO(2) by using the energy from the sun and transforming it into organic molecules such as lipids (i.e. feedstock for biodiesel production). Microfiltration is a promising method to be considered in the harvesting step. In this study, two antifouling methods were tested in order to minimize permeability decrease over time, at low trans-membrane pressure filtration. Preliminary experiments were performed to find optimum conditions of transmembrane pressure, rotational speed and membrane pore size. Pilot experiments were carried out in the optimal conditions using microalgae obtained from the culture step and from a previous concentration process based on sedimentation. Fouling was significantly minimized, and the permeability plateau increased up to 600 L/h/m(2)/bar. Three microalgae species were tested: Phaeodactylum tricornutum (Pht), Nannochloropsis gaditana (Nng) and Chaetoceros calcitrans (Chc). An economic assessment was also performed, which demonstrated that dynamic filtration is economically more efficient than tangential cross-flow filtration.

Microalgae-based biodiesel: A multicriteria analysis of the production process using realistic scenarios

Microalgae-based biodiesel has several benefits over other resources such as less land use, potential cultivation in non-fertile locations, faster growth and especially a high lipid-to-biodiesel yield. Nevertheless, the environmental and economic behavior for high scale production depends on several variables that must be addressed in the scale-up procedure. In this sense, rigorous modeling and multicriteria evaluation are performed in order to achieve optimal topology for third generation biodiesel production. Different scenarios and the most promising technologies tested at pilot scale are assessed. Besides, the sensitivity analysis allows the detection of key operating variables and assumptions that have a direct effect on the lipid content. The deviation of these variables may lead to an erroneous estimation of the scale-up performance of the technology reviewed in the microalgae-based biodiesel process. The modeling and evaluation of different scenarios of the harvesting, oil extraction and transesterification help to identify greener and cheaper alternatives.

Lipid extraction methods from microalgal biomass harvested by two different paths: Screening studies toward biodiesel production

Microalgae can grow rapidly and capture CO2 from the atmosphere to convert it into complex organic molecules such as lipids (biodiesel feedstock). High scale economically feasible microalgae based oil depends on optimizing the entire process production. This process can be divided in three very different but directly related steps (production, concentration, lipid extraction and transesterification). The aim of this study is to identify the best method of lipid extraction to undergo the potentiality of some microalgal biomass obtained from two different harvesting paths. The first path used all physicals concentration steps, and the second path was a combination of chemical and physical concentration steps. Three microalgae species were tested: Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Nannochloropsis gaditana, and Chaetoceros calcitrans One step lipid extraction-transesterification reached the same fatty acid methyl ester yield as the Bligh and Dyer and soxhlet extraction with n-hexane methods with the corresponding time, cost and solvent saving.

Vibrating membrane filtration as improved technology for microalgae dewatering.

The effect of shear-enhanced filtration by vibratory process in microalgae dewatering is presented in this paper. The aim of this research was to investigate the technical performance and improvement of vibrating membrane filtration compared with conventional tangential cross-flow filtration in microalgae concentration. An industrial-scale available commercial set-up was used. Several membrane materials as polyethersulfone, polyacrylonitrile, etc., and mean pore sizes (from 7000Da to 0.2μm) were tested and compared in both filtration set-ups. Experiments were carried-out with Nannochloropsis gaditana and Phaeodactylum tricornutum microalgae. It has been demonstrated that, even if the choice of the membrane depends on its cut-off, its material and the type of microalgae filtrated, dynamic filtration is always the best technology over a conventional one. If with conventional filtration permeability values were in the vicinity of 10L/h/m(2)/bar in steady state phase, with dynamic filtration these values increased to 30L/h/m(2)/bar or more.

Microalgae-based biodiesel: economic analysis of downstream process realistic scenarios.

Microalgae oil has been identified as a reliable resource for biodiesel production due to its high lipid productivity and potential cultivation in non-fertile locations. However, high scale production of microalgae based biodiesel depends on the optimization of the entire process to be economically feasible. The selected strain, medium, harvesting methods, etc., sorely affects the ash content in the dry biomass which have a direct effect in the lipid content. Moreover, the suitable lipids for biodiesel production, some of the neutral/saponifiable, are only a fraction of the total ones (around 30% dry base biomass in the best case). The present work uses computational tools for the modeling of different scenarios of the harvesting, oil extraction and transesterification. This rigorous modeling approach detects process bottlenecks that could have led to an overestimation of the potentiality of the microalgae lipids as a resource for the biodiesel production.

Biorefinery concept in a microalgae pilot plant. Culturing, dynamic filtration and steam explosion fractionation.

A 53 m(3) microalgae pilot plant with semi-closed photobioreactors has been operated in batch mode at Tarragona, where proper climatic conditions exist. Operations carried-out were microalgae culturing, concentration, cell disruption and lipid extraction. Culturing was performed with and without CO2 fertilization. pH was used to control CO2 dosing. With CO2 fertilization best microalgae concentrations were obtained. Productivities up to 19.9 g/m(2)/day were reached. Although sedimentation and centrifugation was performed, studies focused on dynamic membrane filtration as improved technique compared with conventional one. Significant fouling reduction was obtained by using a vibrational membrane setup. Cell disruption including product pre-extraction was performed by using steam explosion at moderate conditions, as novel technique for this application. Lipid extraction was performed by using conventional techniques with and without exploded material. The amount of lipids obtained from exploded material was higher than with non-exploded material, which shows that steam explosion provides a clear enhancement.

Microalgae fractionation using steam explosion, dynamic and tangential cross-flow membrane filtration

In this study, the microalga Nannochloropsis gaditana was subjected to acid catalysed steam explosion treatment and the resulting exploded material was subsequently fractionated to separate the different fractions (lipids, sugars and solids). Conventional and vibrational membrane setups were used with several polymeric commercial membranes. Two different routes were followed: 1) filtration+lipid solvent extraction and 2) lipid solvent extraction+filtration. Route 1 revealed to be much better since the used membrane for filtration was able to permeate the sugar aqueous phase and retained the fraction containing lipids; after this, an extraction required a much lower amount of solvent and a better recovering yield. Filtration allowed complete lipid rejection. Dynamic filtration improved permeability compared to the tangential cross-flow filtration. Best membrane performance was achieved using a 5000Da membrane with the dynamic system, obtaining a permeability of 6L/h/m2/bar.

Effect of Pectinase Immobilization in a Polymeric Membrane on Ultrafiltration of Fluid Foods

The aim of this research was to obtain an enzymatic membrane reactor for use to clarify a model system and apple juice with a 12% soluble solid content and 1 mg/mL of pectin by water-soluble pectinolytic enzymes which were immobilized on polysulfone membranes. These membranes were synthesized in the laboratory by immersion precipitation (phase inversion) from polysulfone with and without active carbon. To ensure the cut-off separation of the membrane in the ultrafiltration process a commercial flat membrane with an 8-kDa molecular weight cut-off was used. The influence of different parameters (viscosity, density, reducing sugars, color, pH, and presence of pectin) on the initial sample and the volumetric permeate flux was also evaluated. The obtained membranes were characterized physically using a scanning electron microscopy SEM and analyses were performed with IFME® software. The results indicated that immobilization of the enzyme in the membrane allowed an interaction between the recirculating sample and the membrane, the one obtained with activated carbon and immobilized enzymes showed higher degradation of pectin, improving the performance of the volumetric permeate flux.