Recovery of biomassHarvesting of biomass requires one or more solid–liquid separation steps. Biomass can be harvested by centrifugation, filtration or in some cases, gravity sedimentation. These processes may be preceded by a flocculation step. Recovery of biomass can be a significant problem because of the small size (3–30 μm diameter) of the algal cells. Culture broths are generally relatively dilute (<0.5 kg m−3 dry biomass in some commercial production systems) and hence large volumes need to be handled to recover the biomass. No single harvest method may be suited to every case. Recovery of the biomass from the broth has been claimed to contribute 20–30% to the total cost of producing the biomass (Gudin and Therpenier, 1986).Any suitable harvest method must be able to process the large volumes typical of algal biomass production processes. Filtrative recovery may be unsatisfactory because filtration can be relatively slow. For extremely low value products, gravity sedimentation, possibly enhanced by flocculation, may be the method of choice. Sedimentation tanks or settling ponds are generally used in biomass recovery from sewage-based processes (Venkataraman, 1978). Flocculation–flotation are also used (Shelef, 1978). Centrifugal recovery of the biomass is feasible for high-value products. Centrifuges can process large volumes relatively rapidly and the biomass can remain fully contained during recovery. A further consideration in selecting a suitable harvest method is the acceptable level of moisture in the product. Gravity sedimented sludge is generally more dilute than centrifugally recovered biomass. Too much moisture in the harvested biomass can substantially influence the economics of product recovery further downstream (Mohn, 1978), if dehydration of the biomass is required after harvest. Because thermal drying is more expensive than mechanical dewatering, thermal drying should be preceded by a mechanical dewatering step such as filtration or centrifugation. Some of the specific harvest methods are discussed next.
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