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

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

Bioresource Technology

Volume

131

ISBN/ISSN

1873-2976

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Publisher

Elsevier

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DOI

10.1016/j.biortech.2012.12.094