Abstract:
Liquid combustible fossil fuel empowers global society, yet is a non-renewable
entity with time-constrained limits to supply. Advanced generation biofuel derived
from microalgae could feasibly yield more than conventional biofuel crops, utilise
non-agricultural land or the sea and remediate atmospheric carbon dioxide and
anthropogenic waste. However, technical and economical limits have so far
prevented the successful implementation of microalgae biofuels.
This thesis exemplifies how apparently disconnected technologies are able to
become united in their provision for the growth and processing of microalgae. In
so doing, it employs unique experimental methodology which unites inter-
disciplinary themes with the proposition to cultivate and process microalgae
biomass in a manner which has never been done before. The novelty of this
endeavour presents a unique set of challenges, reasoning and results with
implications for future creative research and investigation. The philosophical
approach to conception and achievement of the laboratory work intercedes with
entirely new methodology. Selected examples of such methodology follow. In
chapter 3, a newly developed bio-composite gel disk was processed aligning a
new design of apparatus for a geotextile puncture resistance test. In chapter 3, a
novel formulation for harvesting microalgae is described. In chapter 5, a modified
methodology of the preceding chapter is used to investigate seawater ion
remediation via ionic and density phase separation. Chapter 6 integrates waste
components from 5 different industries, namely dairy farming, anaerobic
digestion, brewing, steel slag aggregates and coal power combustion with no
previously known unification of such technologies in scientific literature. Chapter
7 assesses the lipid quality of biomass harvested by the novel formulation of
chapter 3, before and after exposure to hydrothermal liquefaction. Chapter 8
extrapolates findings from the thesis to define an economic appraisal and suggest
a cost saving process.
