• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.285-290
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• 2013

Recently a novel bio refinery process with using nonedible biomass, especially microalgae, has been developed in order to directly reduce $CO_2$ concentration from flue gas and simultaneously produce renewable bio fuel. Micro algae-to-biofuel processes are composed of microalgae cultivation, harvesting, lipid extraction, and bio fuel conversion. So, there are concerns about the energy efficiencies of bio refinery processes. In this study, the net energy ratio of microalgae processes were calculated for the microalgae produced from a pilot photobioreacto using $CO_2$ released from coal combustion. In this study, trans-esterification and pyrolysis processes were used to analyze the net energy efficiencies. Micro algae-to-biofuel processes might produce bio fuels with the higher energy than that of the total consumed energy for cultivation, harvesting, extraction and conversion. If the lipid content of microalgae was higher, the trans-esterification conversion process was more effective than that of pyrolysis process.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.153-158
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• 2018

In this study, effects of nutrient and inorganic carbon on single cell emergence during the cultivation of microalgae were observed using colonial green algae, Pediastrum duplex. The concentration of inorganic carbon had significant effect on single cell emergence and its growth, but nitrogen and phosphorus concentration showed minor effects. According to P. duplex cultivation experiment, single cell started to be emerged around 500~750 mg-C/L of inorganic carbon concentration and it was bloomed dramatically at the higher values. And growth of P. duplex was started to be surpressed at the single cell formation concentration. From the results, it could be said that when we operate the microalgae systems for cultivation/harvesting or wastewater treatment, in order to avoid single cell formation, inorganic carbon should be maintained to the proper level.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1434-1443
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• 2019

Although chemical oxygen demand (COD) is an important issue for wastewater treatment, COD reduction with microalgae has been less studied compared to nitrogen or phosphorus removal. COD removal is not efficient in conventional wastewater treatment using microalgae, because the algae release organic compounds, thereby finally increasing the COD level. This study focused on enhancing COD removal and meeting the effluent standard for discharge by optimizing sludge inoculation timing, which was an important factor in forming a desirable algae/bacteria consortium for more efficient COD removal and higher biomass productivity. Activated sludge has been added to reduce COD in many studies, but its inoculation was done at the start of cultivation. However, when the sludge was added after 3 days of cultivation, at which point the COD concentration started to increase again, the algal growth and biomass productivity were higher than those of the initial sludge inoculation and control (without sludge). Algal and bacterial cell numbers measured by qPCR were also higher with sludge inoculation at 3 days later. In a semi-continuous cultivation system, a hydraulic retention time of 5 days with sludge inoculation resulted in the highest biomass productivity and N/P removal. This study achieved a further improved COD removal than the conventional microalgal wastewater treatment, by introducing bacteria in activated sludge at optimized timing.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.487-496
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• 2021

Microalgae is one of the promising biodiesel feedstock with high growth rates compared to those of terrestrial oil crops. Despite its numerous advantages, biodiesel production from microalgae needs to reduce energy demand and material costs further to go to commercialization. During solvent extraction of microalgal lipids, lipid-extracted algae (LEA) cell residue is generated as an organic solid waste, about 80-85% of original algal biomass, and requires an appropriate recycling or economic disposal. The resulting LEA still contains significant amount of carbohydrates, proteins, N, P, and other micronutrients. This review will focus on recent advancement in the utilization of LEA as: (i) utilization as nutrients or carbon sources for microalgae and other organisms, (ii) anaerobic digestion to produce biogas or co-fermentation to produce CH₄ and H₂, and (iii) conversion to other forms of biofuel through thermochemical degradation processes. Possible mutual benefits in the integration of microalgae cultivation-biodiesel production-resulting LEA with anaerobic digestion and thermochemical conversion are also discussed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.145-150
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• 2022

Microalgae are attracting attention as a resource for the production of biofuels, food nutrients, biochemicals, and bioplastics. Among a wide range of sources of the biomass, microalgae have been highlighted due to relatively easy cultivation, ability to eliminate carbon dioxide, and low culturing cost. Despite the great potential of microalgal biomass as a biological material, the complexity and relatively expensive downstream processes have inhibited the commercial use of microalgae. In this study, we reviewed recent techniques for microalgal drying for the production of microalgal based products. As drying processes comprise the largest portion of microalgae processing cost, an efficient drying technique is key to the utilization of microalgal biomass.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.1566-1573
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• 2014

Although most algae cultivation systems are operated in suspended culture, an attached growth system can offer several advantages over suspended systems. Algal cultivation becomes light-limited as the microalgal concentration increases in the suspended system; on the other hand, sunlight penetrates deeper and stronger in attached systems owing to the more transparent water. Such higher availability of sunlight makes it possible to operate a raceway pond deeper than usual, resulting in a higher areal productivity. The attached system achieved 2.8-times higher biomass productivity and total lipid productivity of $9.1g\;m^{-2}day^{-1}$ and $1.9g\;m^{-2}day^{-1}$, respectively, than the suspended system. Biomass productivity can be further increased by optimization of the culture conditions. Moreover, algal biomass harvesting and dewatering were made simpler and cheaper in attached systems, because mesh-type substrates with attached microalgae were easily removed from the culture and the remaining treated wastewater could be discharged directly. When the algal biomass was dewatered using natural sunlight, the palmitic acid (C16:0) content increased by 16% compared with the freeze-drying method. There was no great difference in other fatty acid composition. Therefore, the attached system for algal cultivation is a promising cultivation system for mass biodiesel production.

• ALGAE
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.91-106
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• 2020

Incorporating renewable fuel into practice, especially from algae, is a promising approach in reducing fossil fuel dependency. Algae are an exceptional feedstock since they produce abundant biomass and oils in short timeframes. Algae also produce high-valued lipid products suitable for human nutrition and supplement. Achieving goals of producing algae fuels and high-valued lipids at competitive prices involves further improvement of technology, especially better control over cultivation. Manipulating microalgae cultivation conditions to prevent contamination is essential in addition to promoting optimal growth and lipid yields. Contamination of algal cultures is a major impediment to algae cultivation that can however be mitigated by choosing extremophile microalgae. This work describes the isolation of alkali-tolerant / alkaliphilic microalgae native to South Florida with ideal characteristics for cultivation. For that purpose, water samples from Lake Okeechobee were inoculated into Zarrouk's medium (pH 9-12) and incubated for 35 days. Selection resulted in isolation of three strains that were screened for biomass and lipid accumulation. Two alkali-tolerant algae Chloroidium sp. 154-1 and Chlorella sp. 154-2 were poor lipid accumulators. One of the isolates, the diatom Fistulifera sp. 154-3, was identified as a lipid accumulating, alkaliphilic organism capable of producing 0.233 g L^-1 d^-1 dry biomass and a lipid content of 20-30% dry weight. Lipid analysis indicated the most abundant fatty acid within Fistulifera sp. was palmitoleic acid (52%), or omega-7, followed by palmitic acid (17%), and then eicosapentanoic acid (15%). 18S rRNA phylogenetic analysis formed a well-supported clade with Fistulifera species.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.81-91
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• 1992

The cultivation of marine microalgae as a live feed is essential for the seedling production of marine animals. It has some technical problems. Of these, the isolation and maintenance of the pure strains of microalgae from the nature are difficult for general mariculturists and researchers. To meet these problems, it needs to establish the culture collection of the microalgae in order to supply the strains to the demanders. In this research, 80 strains of microalgae were isolated from the coastal water of Korea by the methods of capillary pipette, plating on agar and dillution. A culture collection was established in the Department of Aquaculture, National Fisheries University of Pusan. The 117 strains of the microalgae maintained in the culture collection will be supplied to the demanders without any difficulties.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.319-323
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• 2015

This study investigated the effects of the light conditions on the productivity of scenedesmus dimorphus in the continuous mass cultivation system. To compare the algal productivity according to the light conditions, S. dimorphus was cultivated continuously under the wide range of light intensity(200-600 PPFD) and various light wavelength(white light and red-blue mixed light). After 100 days of cultivation under the different light intensity, the productivity of S. dimorphus increased as light intensity decreased. So, the productivity was maximized as 100 mg/L/d when light intensity was 200 PPFD. In case of light wavelength, the productivity of S. dimorphus was enhanced about 20% with the white light compared to that of the red-blue mixed light. Consequently, the optimal light conditions for the continuous mass cultivation of S. dimorphus were 200 PPFD as light intensity and white light as light wavelength.