| Title |
A Comparative Study on Microalgae Recovery Rates in Response to Different Low Cost Bio-flocculant Applications |
| DOI |
https://doi.org/10.15681/KSWE.2015.31.6.625 |
| Keywords |
Cationic starch; Chitosan; Flocculation; Harvesting; Microalgae; Mg-sericite |
| Abstract |
In this study, low cost bio-flocculants, chitosan, cationic starch and Mg-sericite, were used as a flocculant to harvest freshwater microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris. Chitosan, cationic starch and Mg-sericite separated successfully >98% of C. vulgaris at following optimal parameters: 90 mg/L chitosan at pH 6-7, 70 mg/L cationic starch at pH 9-10 and 50 mg/L Mg-sericite at pH 4-5. A relatively high correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.9993 for chitosan, 0.9971 for catonic starch and 0.9924 for Mg-sericite was obtained. The investigated flocculants amount increased linearly with increasing the microalgae amount. The biopolymer, Mg-sericite, was more effective than that of other investigated flocculants. These results indicated that a bio-flocculants, chitosan, cationic starch and Mg-sericite, could prove to be an effective flocculant for economical production of microalgae biomass. In addition, Mg-sericite was more effective comparing to the other investigated flocculants. |