Review of the algal biology program within the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts

In 2010,when the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB) consortiumbegan, littlewas known about themolecular basis of algal biomass or oil production. Very fewalgal genome sequenceswere available and efforts to identify the best-producing wild species through bioprospecting approaches had largely stalled after the U.S. Department of Energy\u27s Aquatic Species Program. This lack of knowledge included how reduced carbon was partitioned into storage products like triglycerides or starch and the role played bymetabolite remodeling in the accumulation of energy-dense storage products. Furthermore, genetic transformation and metabolic engineering approaches to improve algal biomass and oil yields were in their infancy. Genome sequencing and transcriptional profiling were becoming less expensive, however; and the tools to annotate gene expression profiles under various growth and engineered conditions were just starting to be developed for algae. It was in this context that an integrated algal biology program was introduced in the NAABB to address the greatest constraints limiting algal biomass yield. This review describes the NAABB algal biology program, including hypotheses, research objectives, and strategies to move algal biology research into the twenty-first century and to realize the greatest potential of algae biomass systems to produce biofuels

Quantitative Characterization of Aqueous Byproducts from Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Municipal Wastes, Food Industry Wastes, and Biomass Grown on Waste

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a viable thermochemical process for converting wet solid wastes into biocrude that can be hydroprocessed to liquid transportation fuel blendstocks and specialty chemicals. The aqueous byproduct from HTL contains significant amounts (20–50%) of the biogenic feed carbon, which must be valorized to enhance economic sustainability of the process on an industrial scale. In this study, aqueous fractions produced from HTL of food industry wastes, municipal wastes, and biomass cultivated on wastewater were characterized using a wide variety of analytical approaches. Organic species present in these aqueous fractions were identified using two-dimensional gas chromatography equipped with time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Identified compounds include organic acids, nitrogen compounds, alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones. Conventional gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization detection and liquid chromatography utilizing refractive index detection were employed to quantify the identified compounds. Inorganic species in the aqueous streams were also were quantified using ion chromatography and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. The concentrations of organic compounds and inorganic species are reported, and the significance of these results are discussed in detail