• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.400-407
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• 2016

A unicellular green alga, Chlorella vulgaris KNUA027, was isolated from the roots of Panax ginseng seedlings and its biotechnological potential was investigated. The results of GC/MS analysis showed that C. vulgaris KNUA027 was rich in nutritionally important polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such as alpha-linolenic acid (C_18:3 ω3, 45.8%, 50.8 mg/g) and hexadecatrienoic acid (C_16:3 ω3, 11.8%, 13.1 mg/g). Therefore, this Korean indigenous microalga may have potential as a source of omega-3 PUFAs. It was also found that the saturated palmitic acid (C_16:0, 37.1%, 41.2 mg/g), which is suitable for biodiesel production, was one of the major fatty acids produced by strain KNUA027. The proximate analysis showed that the volatile matter content was 88.5%, and the ultimate analysis indicated that the higher heating value was 19.8 MJ/kg. Therefore, the results from this research with C. vulgaris KNUA027 may provide the basis for the production of microalgae-based biofuels and biomass feedstock.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.77-82
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• 2013

The growth and removal capacity of nitrogen and phosphorus of Chlorella vulgaris were evaluated in artificial wastewater with different nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations as element growing components for microalgae growth. The nitrogen concentration was varied in 9, 15, 30 and 60 mg-N/L with fixed phosphorus concentration of 3 mg-P/L. The growth and phosphorus removal capacity of C. vulgaris were high at initial nitrogen concentration of 15 and 30 mg-N/L, and the corresponding N/P ratios calculated were 5 and 10. In the case of varying in 1.5, 3, 6 and 10 mg-P/L of phosphorus concentration with fixed nitrogen concentration of 30 mg-N/L, the growth and removal capacity of nitrogen and phosphorus were excellent with phosphorus concentration of 3 and 6 mg-P/L. The corresponding N/P ratios were shown as 10 and 5. Therefore, the appropriate N/P ratio was concluded between 5 and 10 for wastewater treatment using C. vulgaris.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.441-445
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• 2017

This study aimed to investigate growth rate and nutrient consumption of Chlorella vulgaris according to different light irradiation interval. Applied light irradiation intervals were 12 hr, 4 hr, 1 hr, and 1 min. The light source was flexible LED(Blue:Red=1:1), light intensity was 200 PPFD and Light/Dark cycle was 1:1. As a result, growth rate and nutrient removal efficiencies showed no significant differences depending on the light irradiation interval. Considering the reproduction characteristics of applied microalgae cultures of this study, this is thought to be one of the possible reasons of above results. Because Chlorella vulgaris performs an asexual reproduction and it is known that there is no significant relationship between light irradiation interval and growth rate, including nutrient consumption in case of asexual reproduction.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.357-362
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• 2017

Acetate, propionate, butyrate are the major soluble volatile fatty acids metabolites of fermented food waste leachates. This work investigate the effects of volatile fatty acid on the growth rate and $NH_4-N$, $PO_4-P$ removal efficiency of mixotrophic microalgae Chlorella vulgaris to treat digested food waste leachates. The results showed that acetate, propionate and butyrate were efficiently utilized by Chlorella vulgaris and microalgae growth was higher than control condition. Similar trends were observed upon $NH_4-N$ and $PO_4-P$ consumption. Volatile fatty acids promoted Chlorella vulgaris growth, and nutrient removal efficiencies were highest when acetate was used, and butyrate and propionate showed second and third. From this work it could be said that using mixotrophic microalgae, in this work Chlorella vulgaris, fermented food waste leachates can be treated with high efficiencies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.715-723
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• 2016

This study investigated the effect of high concentration of free ammonia on microalgal growth and substrate removal by applying real wastewater nitrogen ratio. To test of this, the conditions of free ammonia 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 mg-N/L are compared. After 3 days of incubation, algal growth of Chlorella vulgaris and carbon removal rate are respectively lower in the reactors of FA 12, 15 mg-N/L compared to the others. This indicates that the high concentration of free ammonia, in this case, above 12 mg-N/L, has negative effect on algal growth and metabolic activity. Also, high concentration of free ammonia causes the proton imbalance, ammonium accumulation in algae and has toxicity for these reasons. So, we have to consider free ammonia in applying the microalgae to wastewater treatment system by the way of diluting wastewater or controlling pH and temperature.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.109-117
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• 2024

In this study, various pre-treatment methods were evaluated for microalgae separation. These methods aimed to facilitate safe, rapid, and cost-effective online imaging for real-time observation and cell counting. As pre-treatment techniques, heating, chemical hydrolysis, heating combined with chemical hydrolysis, and sonication were employed. The effectiveness of these methods was evaluated in the context of online imaging quality through experimentation on cultivated microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus quadricauda). The chemical treatment method was found to be inappropriate for improving image acquisition. The heating pre-treatment method exhibited a drawback of prolonged cell dispersion time. Additionally, the heating combined with chemical hydrolysis method was confirmed to have the lowest dispersion effect for Chlorella vulgaris. Conversely, ultrasonication emerged as a promising technique for microalgae separation in terms of repeatability and reproducibility. This study suggests the potential for selecting optimal pre-treatment methods to effectively operate real-time online monitoring devices, paving the way for future research and applications in microalgae cultivation and imaging.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.255-263
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• 2013

Carbon dioxide reduction technologies using photosynthetic microorganism were suggested to overcome environmental destruction caused by $CO_2$ in flue gases from power plant and other industries. However, there are many toxic constituents in flue gas including CO, NOx, SOx. Continuous and Excessive supply of these noxious gases to cells will leads to inhibition of microalgal growth along with partial cell death. In this study, we tested the noxious effect of SOx and NOx on the pH and microalgal growth under photoautotrophic culture in three microalgae of Neochloris oleoabundans, Chlorella vulgaris and Haematococcus pluvialis. As a result, SOx concentration more than 50 ppm led to the rapid reduction of pH, thereby inhibiting of the growth in Neochloris oleoabundans and Chlorella vulgaris. NOx concentration more the 100 ppm reduced the exponential growth of N. oleoabundans and C. vulgaris. And H. pluvialis exhibited low sensitivity to SOx and NOx. Consequently, the three microalgae of N. oleabundas, C. vulagaris and H. pluvialis showed the normal vegetative growth in 25 ppm of NOx and SOx. Above all, H. pluvialis was useful for the $CO_2$ sequestration of the flue gas including high concentrations of NOx and SOx.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.833-840
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• 2012

This study aimed to investigate growth rate and nutrient removal efficiency of Chlorella vulgaris according to nitrogen sources and frequency of pH adjustment. Nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies were evaluated in the three different conditions using $NO_3{^-}$, $NH_4{^+}$ as a sole nitrogen source and mixed condition. Initial nutrient concentrations in artificial wastewater were 30 mg-N/L and 3 mg-P/L similar to secondary wastewater effluent. When nitrogen source was $NO_3{^-}$, there was no inhibition on the growth of C. vulgaris with adjusting pH every 24 hr while growth inhibition occurred with $NH_4{^+}$ caused by pH drop. N, P removal efficiencies were no significant depending on the nitrogen sources. As pH was adjusted to 7 by pH-stat, growth rate and nutrient removal efficiencies were increased compared to adjusting pH every 24 hr, however, growth rate and nutrient removal efficiencies were no significant depending on the nitrogen sources.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.573-579
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• 2014

VFAs like acetate are the major soluble metabolites of food waste leachates after digested. Therefore this study investigates the effect of acetate on growth rate and nutrient removal efficiency of Chlorella vulgaris to treat digested food waste leachates. The initial acetate concentration varied from 0 to 20 mM. As a result, Chlorella vulgaris growth rate was increased as high as the concentrations ranged from 0 to 20 mM. The same trend was observed with $NH_4$-N and $PO_4$-P consumption. The highest growth rate and the highest $NH_4$-N, $PO_4$-P removal rate were observed at acetate concentration of 20 mM. The microalgae growth rate and $NH_4$-N, $PO_4$-P removal rates were 1.5, 1.8, 2.3 times higher than the condition without acetate.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.214-220
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• 2014

The aim of this study is to optimize the efficiency of a photobiorector on the growth rate of Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris) by varying distance of optical panel (OP). The round shaped C. vulgaris (FC-16) having the size of $3-8{\mu}m$ is employed in this study. The cells of C. vulgaris are cultured in the Jaworski's Medium with deionized water at $22^{\circ}C$ for 15 days. The OP is placed at four different distances i.e., at 225 mm distance (Run 1), 150 mm distance (Run 2), 112.5 mm distance (Run 3) and 90 mm distance (Run 4) having a LED (Light Emitting Diode) source. The diffuse rate is achieved to 86%, 90%, 92% and 94% for Run 1, Run 2 Run 3 and Run 4, respectively. A narrower distance of OP caused to effectively to increase the efficiency of diffuse light rate. For mass cultivation of this biomass, medium is changed according to distance of OP after attaining a maximum biomass concentration; Run 1 in 8 days, Run 2 in 6 days, Run 3 in 4 days and Run 4 in 3 days. In addition, the amount of maximum biomass rate for Run 4 was reached 3 times higher than that of Run1. However, growth rate, chlorophyll per cell, cell volume and doubling time are found to be Run 3 and Run 4 higher than that of Run 1 and Run 2 samples. However, Run 3 and Run 4 are having a slight difference in all these measurements. These findings suggest that in terms of economic consideration and efficiency towards simultaneous mass cultivation of biomass, Run 3 was found to be more effective than other samples.