Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Oct;23(5):849-855.
doi: 10.1007/s10811-010-9591-x. Epub 2010 Sep 28.

Harvesting of microalgae by bio-flocculation

Sina Salim  1 , Rouke Bosma, Marian H Vermuë, René H Wijffels
Affiliations

Harvesting of microalgae by bio-flocculation

Sina Salim et al. J Appl Phycol. 2011 Oct.

Abstract

The high-energy input for harvesting biomass makes current commercial microalgal biodiesel production economically unfeasible. A novel harvesting method is presented as a cost and energy efficient alternative: the bio-flocculation by using one flocculating microalga to concentrate the non-flocculating microalga of interest. Three flocculating microalgae, tested for harvesting of microalgae from different habitats, improved the sedimentation rate of the accompanying microalga and increased the recovery of biomass. The advantages of this method are that no addition of chemical flocculants is required and that similar cultivation conditions can be used for the flocculating microalgae as for the microalgae of interest that accumulate lipids. This method is as easy and effective as chemical flocculation which is applied at industrial scale, however in contrast it is sustainable and cost-effective as no costs are involved for pre-treatment of the biomass for oil extraction and for pre-treatment of the medium before it can be re-used.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Recovery of microalgal biomass and sedimentation kinetics calculation. a Schematic overview of the microalgal sedimentation test in time. b Recovery (%) of the microalgae from the suspension in time
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Microscopic picture of individual and flocculated microalgal cells. The non-flocculating microalgae (a and b C. vulgaris and c N. oleoabundans), the flocculating microalgae (d A. falcatus, e S. obliquus and f T. suecica) and the flocs of the non-flocculating microalgae after the addition of accompanying flocculating microalga (g C. vulgaris with A. falcatus, h C. vulgaris with S. obliquus and i N. oleoabundans with T. suecica). For more details on the morphological analysis and sample preparation see “Materials and methods”
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Recovery efficiency percentage of different flocculating microalgae at two different concentrations. filled square high concentration T. suecica, empty square low concentration T. suecica, filled diamond high concentration S. obliquus, empty diamond low concentration S. obliquus, filled upright triangle high concentration A. falcatus, empty upright triangle low concentration A. falcatus. The standard deviation in measured values for sedimentation rate and recovery percentage for all the tested samples was less than 3.5%. Details for calculation of these recovery efficiency percentages can be found in Materials and methods
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Schematic view of possible mechanisms involved in polymer-induced flocculation; bridging and patching
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Schematic view of the proposed mechanism involved in bio-flocculation using A. falcatus as the flocculating microalga
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Benemann JR. Feasibility analysis of photobiological hydrogen production. Int J Hydrogen Energy. 1997;22:979–987. doi: 10.1016/S0360-3199(96)00189-9. - DOI
    1. Benemann JR, Oswald WJ (1996) Systems and economic analysis of microalgae ponds for conversion of carbon dioxide to biomass. 4th Quarterly Technical Progress Report, Department of Energy, Pittsburgh Energy Technology Centre, Report CONF-9409207-2: 105–109
    1. Benemann JR, Weissman JC, Koopman BL, Oswald WJ. Energy production by microbial photosynthesis. Nature. 1977;268:19–23. doi: 10.1038/268019a0. - DOI
    1. Buelna G, Bhattarai KK, de la Noue J, Taiganides EP. Evaluation of various flocculants for the recovery of algal biomass growth on pig-waste. Bio Wastes. 1990;31:211–222. doi: 10.1016/0269-7483(90)90160-T. - DOI
    1. De la Nouë J, Laliberte G, Proulx D. Algae and waste water. J Appl Phycol. 1992;4:247–254. doi: 10.1007/BF02161210. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources