ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the state-of-the-art in algal production and looks at water and nutrient use, their efficiency and recycling as they influence the sustainability of this promising but immature technology. It identifies advanced algae–water separation technologies and the use of wastewater in algal systems as two high-impact opportunities to enhance the sustainability of algal systems. An opportunity within algal systems that is beneficial to sustainability of both water and nutrient resources is the use of wastewater as the growth medium for algae. Water cost and availability are among the biggest challenges facing widespread adoption of algal systems as a source of biofuels and bioproducts. Centrifugation is a common industrial separation processes that has been studied for the removal of algal biomass from the large quantities of water required for efficient algal production. Dissolved air flotation is a promising technology being studied for algae–water separation.
