کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
5520565 | 1544903 | 2017 | 11 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
- The mechanism for microalgae/fungal co-pelletization was explored.
- The surface charge of fungal and microalgae cells was tested
- The degree of repulsion and dispersion between microalgae/fungi cells is low.
Microalgae harvesting is a difficult and costly unit operation, hampering commercial microalgae based processes. Various innovative approaches have been under research investigations. Algae harvesting using microalgae/fungi co-pelletization where microalgae cells are attracted to filamentous fungus and form co-pellets during their co-culture has been proved to be an innovative approach that might be both cost effective and sustainable. Yet, the mechanism behind the co-pelletization based algae harvesting is still not known. Understanding its mechanism will significantly facilitate future developments to decrease the processing cost for generating biofuel and other microalgae based bio-products. Considering that the ionic conditions greatly affect the flocculation performance of microalgae cells, studies were conducted to compare the co-pelletization performance at different pH values and ionic strengths in order to evaluate the surface charge changes at the different conditions tested. Zeta-potential measurements indicated that (1) both microalgae and fungi have low negative zeta-potentials regardless of the pH of the bulk solution (<â10Â mV) (2) fungi can have a positive electric charge at low pH (pH=3). The results suggest that it might be possible that the degree of repulsion and dispersion between these organisms is low at certain conditions, for instance, at higher concentrations of Ca2+ (>0.1Â g/L) the surface charge of fungal and microalgae cells were less negative (>â5Â mV for fungal hyphae and >â12Â mV for microalgae) at higher concentrations of magnesium (0.5Â g/L), which might have facilitated the attraction between them.
Journal: Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology - Volume 9, January 2017, Pages 145-155