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 - Funding Information:
The authors express their gratitude to Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, for the support given to this project from the University Vice-Chancellor's office and the College of Agriculture and Marine Sciences Dean's office and the Agriculture Experiment Station, Dr. Kazuhiro Tada of Geosphere Environmental Technology Corporation, for his valuable advice on the statistical analysis of meteorological conditions and water temperature, the Civil Aviation Authority Directorate General of Meteorology, Oman, for the provision of meteorological data from Muscat International Airport, and the Japan Cooperation Center for the Middle East.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
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
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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
JO - Bioresource Technology
JF - Bioresource Technology
M1 - 126036
ER -