03.08.2015   Microbes and biochemistry of gas fermentation

Oils rich biomaterial

It comes from existing food crops like rapeseed (aka Canola), sunflower, corn, and others, af­ter it has been used for other purposes, i. e food preparation ("waste vegetable oil", or WVO), or even in first use form ("straight vegetable oil", or SVO). Not susceptible to micro­bial degradation, high availability, re-used material. It is used in the creation of biodiesel fuel for automobiles, home heating, and experimentally as a pure fuel itself. At present, WVO or SVO is not recognized as a mainstream fuel for automobiles. Also, WVO and SVO are susceptible to low temperatures, making them unusable in colder climates.

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Figure 2. Dense algal growth in four pilot-scale tank bioreactors fed by treated wastewater from the Lawrence, Kan­sas (USA) wastewater treatment plant (photo by B. Sturm). Each fiberglass bioreactor has an operating volume of ten cubic meters of water, and is operated as an air-mixed, flow-through vessel. Nutrientrich wastewater inflows are pumped in through the clear plastic hose (blue clamp), and water outflow occurs through the white plastic pipe shown at the waterline. These bioreactors are intended to be operated year-round, as the temperature of the inflow­ing wastewater is consistently ca. 10 — 8°C.