Comparative Evaluation of Drying Characteristics of Microalgae Using Different Drying Methods
2014
Kiruthika, R. | Kāmarāj, Es.
Microalgae are the most promising and renewable non-food-crop-based alternative to produce a wide range of bioproducts and biofuels. Drying is a critical step in algal biomass production. This article investigated drying characteristics of a microalgal biomass grown in an open raceway pond. An experimental drying setup was used to analyze the drying characteristics of Tetradesmus sp. using the open sun, solar dryer and hot air oven drying methods and to fit the experimental data obtained to describe drying behavior of the algal biomass. The hot air oven drying was carried by drying the samples at 40°C, 60°C and 90°C temperatures. Observations on physiological loss in weight in each sample were recorded at the particular interval of 1 hour in each treatment. Each experiment startedat 9:00 am and continued till 5:00 pm. Differences in final weight were observed with the samples dried under different methods of drying. The final weight achieved were, 78 g under solar drying, 80.5 gm in open sun drying. Similarly final weight recorded with different levels of oven temperature under hot air drying were 79.4 g, 74.9 g and 69 g at the temperature of 40°C, 60°C and 90°C respectively.
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