Josh Mayers

Chalmers University of Technology · Department of Biology and Biological Engineering

The cultivation and processing of microalgal biomass is resource- and energy-intensive, negatively affecting the sustainability and profitability of producing bulk commodities, limiting this platform to the manufacture of relatively small quantities of high-value compounds. A biorefinery approach where all fractions of the biomass are valorized mig...

Diatoms are eukaryotic microalgae that contain genes from various sources, including bacteria and the secondary endosymbiotic host. Due to this unique combination of genes, diatoms are taxonomically and functionally distinct from other algae and vascular plants and confer novel metabolic capabilities. Based on the genome annotation, we performed a...

Phosphorus (P) is a critical element for life on Earth. However, readily extractable ores are being exhausted rapidly and a combination of increasing usage, rising costs and numerous geopolitical problems are expected to impact food security and industry sectors within the next few decades. This hence represents another great anthropogenic challeng...

Based on the ability of microalgae to purify industrial processing waters, the overall aim of this study was to evaluate whether currently wasted shrimp processing waters could be used as microalgal growth media to produce new protein-enriched food and feed ingredients. Low molecular weight (LMW) fractions of shrimp boiling water (SBW) which had be...

Saccharina latissima biomass cultivated along the Swedish west coast was subjected to four different scalable preservation methods after harvest; freezing, sun-drying, oven-drying and ensiling. Freeze-drying and freezing at −80 °C were also included to provide dry and wet references. The effects of the different preservation methods on the composit...

Macroalgal biomass has the potential to become an important source of chemicals and commodities in a future biorefinery. Currently, production of macroalgal biomass is expensive and the content of high-value compounds is often low. Therefore, in this study the biochemical composition of Ulva intestinalis along the Swedish west coast and the east co...

Harvesting microalgal cultures is often energetically intensive and costly. To improve efficiencies, a two-step harvesting method utilising alkaline flocculation and sedimentation to pre-concentrate cultures can be used prior to centrifugation. When applied to the microalga Chromochloris zofingiensis, high rates of sedimentation (>90%) were found a...

Hydrothermal liquefaction of macroalgae offers a promising route to advanced biofuel production, though the distinct biochemical compositions of different macroalgae species can lead to widely different product yields and compositions. Based on this, there is an implicit assumption that there exists a universal optimal feedstock species for a bioen...

Microalgal biomass represents a potential third generation feedstock that could be utilised as a source of carbohydrates for fermentative production of a range of platform biochemicals. Identifying microalgal strains with high biomass and carbohydrate productivities while also being amenable to downstream processes is key in improving the feasibili...

Microalgal biotechnology has yielded a range of products for different consumer markets, but large scale production for bulk commodities is limited by the cost and environmental impact of production. Nutrient requirements for large-scale production contribute significantly to the cost and environmental impact of microalgal biomass production and sh...

MATLAB scripts used for model simulation. (ZIP)

Supplementary methods and figures. (DOCX)

Supplementary tables A-O. (XLSX)

Genome-scale metabolic model of P. tricornutum in MAT and SBML format. (ZIP)

This study monitored the biomass composition of Saccharina latissima during a potential harvesting season on the West coast of Sweden, in order to find suitable harvest times for biorefinery purposes. Specimens of S. latissima were sampled at three locations in June, August and October and the biomass was analysed for its macromolecular composition...