Abstract
Objectives
To develop a more effective dissolved air flotation process for harvesting microalgae biomass, a co-flocculation/air flotation (CAF) system was developed that uses an ejector followed by a helix tube flocculation reactor (HTFR) as a co-flocculation device to harvest Chlorella sp. 64.01.
Results
The optimal size distribution of micro-bubbles and an air release efficiency of 96 % were obtained when the flow ratio of inlet fluid (raw water) to motive fluid (saturated water) of the ejector was 0.14. With a reaction time of 24 s in the HTFR, microalgae cells and micro-bubbles were well flocculated, and these aerated flocs caused a fast rising velocity (96 m/h) and high harvesting efficiency (94 %).
Conclusions
In a CAF process, micro-bubbles can be encapsulated into microalgae flocs, which makes aerated flocs more stable. CAF is an effective approach to harvesting microalgae.
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Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the Doctor Research Foundation of Southwest University of Science and Technology (14zx7130) and Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation (BK20130181).
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Zhang, H., Lin, Z., Tan, D. et al. A novel method to harvest Chlorella sp. by co-flocculation/air flotation. Biotechnol Lett 39, 79–84 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-016-2219-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-016-2219-8