Systems and methods for contaminant removal from a microalgae culture
AssigneeHeliae Development, LLC
InventorsJason Licamele, Anna Lee Y. Tonkovich, Alexander Sitek, Scott Kuhlman
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Abstract
Systems and methods for the removal of contaminants from a liquid culture microalgae and/or cyanobacteria comprise an inlet tube, a pump, a gas injector, a vertical chamber, and/or a collection container that promotes the production of foam in the microalgae culture, wherein the foam contains the contaminants.
Claims18
A method of increasing the growth rate of a liquid algae culture in a vessel, wherein the liquid algae culture comprises microalgae cells and contaminants, comprising:
- coupling a contaminant removal system to the vessel containing the liquid algae culture, wherein the growth rate of the microalgae cells is progressively slowing;
- processing the liquid algae culture in the vessel through the contaminant removal system, wherein at least a portion of the contaminants are removed during processing;
- and
- returning at least a portion of the processed liquid algae culture comprising at least a portion of the contaminants and at least a portion of the initial live population of the at least one of the microalgae and the cyanobacteria to the vessel at least 10 times in a 24 hour period, wherein the portion of the liquid algae culture returned to the vessel exhibits an increase in growth rate of the microalgae cells of at least 5% higher than the first growth rate.
A method of improving the viability of a liquid algae culture in a vessel, wherein the liquid algae culture comprises microalgae cells and contaminants, comprising:
- coupling a contaminant removal system to the vessel containing the liquid algae culture, wherein the growth rate of the microalgae cells is progressively slowing;
- processing the liquid algae culture in the vessel through the contaminant removal system, wherein at least a portion of the contaminants are removed during processing;
- and
- returning at least a portion of the processed liquid algae culture comprising at least a portion of the contaminants and at least a portion of the microalgae to the vessel at least 10 times in a 24 hour period, wherein the portion of the liquid algae culture returned to the vessel exhibits an increase in the lifetime of liquid algae culture of at least 5 days as compared to the lifetime of the liquid algae culture without processing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.