Electroporation of Chlorella vulgaris to enhance biomethane production

This research investigated the feasibility of using electroporation (EP) as a pretreatment method for algal biomass used as feedstock for anaerobic digestion. The results showed that pretreating algal biomass with EP significantly improved the soluble COD (SCOD), increasing it to more than 830% at 28 kWh/m(3) treatment intensity (TI). Besides TI, culture conditions also affected the performance of the EP process. On the basis of SCOD, a sample pH of 7.0 and cell concentration of 13.2g/L were found to be optimal for the EP process. Despite a direct relationship between TI and ionic strength (IS), SCOD decreased with increasing IS. At 35 kWh/m(3) TI, bio-CH4 production increased by as high as 110%. It was also observed that lower TI levels resulted in high rates of gain per energy input compared to higher degrees of treatment.