Algal bioproducts derived from suspended solids in intensive land-based aquaculture

Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Castine, Sarah A.;Paul, Nicholas A.;Magnusson, Marie;Bird, Michael I.;de Nys, Rocky
Abstract

Land-based aquaculture produces suspended solids in culture pond and settlement pond waters that could be harvested as a bioresource. Suspended solids were quantified, characterised and harvested from these two sources to assess their suitability for conversion to bioproducts. The suspended solids of settlement ponds were less concentrated (87.6 ± 24.7 mg L⁻¹) than those of culture ponds (131.8 ± 8.8 mg L⁻¹), but had a higher concentration of microalgae (27.5 ± 4.0%) and consequently higher particulate organic carbon (24.8 ± 4.7%) and particulate nitrogen (4.0 ± 0.8%). The microalgal community also differed between sources with a higher concentration of fatty acids in the biomass from settlement ponds. Consequently, biochar produced from biomass harvested from settlement ponds was higher in organic carbon and nitrogen, with a lower cation exchange capacity. In conclusion, we characterised a renewable and potentially valuable bioresource for algal bioproducts derived from suspended solids in intensive land-based aquaculture.

Journal

Bioresource Technology

Publication Name

N/A

Volume

131

ISBN/ISSN

1873-2976

Edition

N/A

Issue

N/A

Pages Count

8

Location

N/A

Publisher

Elsevier

Publisher Url

N/A

Publisher Location

N/A

Publish Date

N/A

Url

N/A

Date

N/A

EISSN

N/A

DOI

10.1016/j.biortech.2012.12.094