Advances in Microalgal Harvesting

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water, Agriculture and Aquaculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 8241

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Energy Technology, University of Vaasa, Finland
Interests: Biomass Production; Algal Biofuels; Wastewater Treatment; Waste recycling; Sustainable development
1 Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), China
2 Hubei Provincial Engineering Research Center of Systematic Water Pollution Control, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
Interests: Algae-laden water coagulation; Biorefinery; Harvested microalgae dehydration
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Microalgae are promising feedstock for biofuel production. However, large-scale production of biofuels from microalgae is not yet economically viable, since high energy inputs are required for microalgae harvesting. Since the biomass density of culture broths is low (usually below 0.5 kg/m3) in the microalgal production systems, huge volumes of microalgae suspension need to be handled before the downstream biofuel production processes. In fact, 20–30% of the cost of the total biodiesel production is involved in the biomass harvesting process. Therefore, to develop cost-effective harvesting methods is a limiting key factor for the commercial use of microalgae, and presents as one of the most challenging areas during the microalgae biofuel production.

To facilitate downstream process, microalgal biomass harvesting aims to achieve high concentrated slurry that contains minimum 2–7% of total solid matters. In general, the commonly applied harvesting methods in practice include flotation, filtration, sedimentation, centrifugation, flocculation and an integration of flocculation and flotation. In addition, magnetophoretic harvesting has also been developed, as shown in literature. In an effort to shorten the high costs during microalgal harvesting, much progress in advancing the above-mentioned methods has been made and some vital breakthroughs achieved. This special issue is going to serve a platform for researchers worldwide to discuss the recent advances in microalgal harvesting.

We would like to see articles that address vital current developments in microalgal harvesting. We solicit high-quality, original research papers or review papers in the fields of microalgal harvesting by a wide range of methods.

Dr. Liandong Zhu
Dr. Cheng Yan
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • microalgae
  • harvesting
  • flotation
  • filtration
  • sedimentation
  • centrifugation
  • flocculation
  • magnetophoretic harvesting

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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10 pages, 1015 KiB  
Article
Magnetophoretic Harvesting of Nannochloropsis oculata Using Iron Oxide Immobilized Beads
by Feng-Jen Chu, Terng-Jou Wan, His Chen, Chih-Hung Wu and Po-Min Kao
Water 2020, 12(1), 236; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12010236 - 15 Jan 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2973
Abstract
In this work, the harvesting of Nannochloropsis oculata microalgae through the use of nanosized Fe3O4 immobilized in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/sodium alginate (SA) as a flocculant (Fe3O4/PS) is investigated. Using the Fe3O4/PS immobilized [...] Read more.
In this work, the harvesting of Nannochloropsis oculata microalgae through the use of nanosized Fe3O4 immobilized in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/sodium alginate (SA) as a flocculant (Fe3O4/PS) is investigated. Using the Fe3O4/PS immobilized beads could reduce the amount of soluble ferrous ions (Fe2+) released from naked Fe3O4 in acid treatment, leading to easy recovery. The characterization was performed under different dosages and pH values of Fe3O4/PS. The results show that the Fe3O4/PS, when applied to the algae culture (500 mg dry cell weight/L), achieves a 96% harvesting efficiency under conditions of a pH of 4 with 200 mT magnetic field intensity. Fe3O4/PS can be directly reused without adjusting the pH value. The recycled Fe3O4/PS shows stability in terms of its surface properties, maintaining more than 80% harvesting efficiency after five recycles. Magnetophoretic harvesting, using immobilized magnetic iron oxide as a particle-based flocculant, is a potential method to reduce challenges related to the cost-effective microalgae-harvesting method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Microalgal Harvesting)
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Review

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10 pages, 506 KiB  
Review
Self-Flocculation as an Efficient Method to Harvest Microalgae: A Mini-Review
by Tianrui Li, Jiangjun Hu and Liandong Zhu
Water 2021, 13(18), 2585; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13182585 - 18 Sep 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4504
Abstract
The development of clean and renewable biofuels has been of wide concern on the topic of energy and environmental issues. As a kind of biomass energy with great application prospects, microalgae have many advantages and are used in the fields of environmental protection [...] Read more.
The development of clean and renewable biofuels has been of wide concern on the topic of energy and environmental issues. As a kind of biomass energy with great application prospects, microalgae have many advantages and are used in the fields of environmental protection and biofuels as well as food or feed production for humans and animals. However, the high cost of microalgae harvesting is the main bottleneck of industrial production on a large scale. Self-flocculation is a cost-efficient and promising method for harvesting microalgal biomass. This article briefly describes the current commonly used technology for microalgae harvesting, focusing on the research progress of self-flocculation. This article explores the relative mechanisms and influencing factors of self-flocculation and discusses a proposal for the integration of algae cultivation and harvesting as well as the co-cultivation of algae and bacteria in an effort to provide a reference for microalgae harvesting with high efficiency and low cost. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Microalgal Harvesting)
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