• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2003

Microalgae are a diverse group of photosynthetic organisms and abundant in every ecosystem in the biosphere. They are common in aqueous environments including marine, brackish and fresh waters and in some habitats that lack eukaryotic life such as some hot springs and highly alkaline lakes. Microalgal biotechnology that is focused on the microalgae-based production of a variety of useful materials such as pharmaceutical comfounds, health foods, natural pigments, and biofuels is considered as an important discipline with the development of biotechnology. In addition, the mass cultivation of microalgae can also contribute to improving the environmental quality by reducing the concentration of $CO_2$ which is one of major gases lead to global warming. Consequently, it seems that the microalgae can be used as an efficient, renewable, environmentally friendly source of high-value biomaterials such as chemicals, pigments, energy, etc. and the microalgal biotechnology will most likely represent a larger portion of modern biotechnology.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.26-34
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• 2014

Due to the rapid energy consumption and fossil fuel abundance reduction, the world is progressively in need of alternative and renewable energy sources such as biodiesel. Biodiesel from microalgae offers high hopes to the scientific world for its potential as well as its non-competition with arable lands. Taking consideration to reduce the cost of production as well as to attain twin environmental goals of treatment and use of animal waste material the microalgal cultivation using piggery manure has been tested in this study. Unialgal strains such as Chlorella sp. JK2, Scenedesmus sp. JK10, and an indigenous mixed microalgal culture CSS were cultured for 20 days in diluted piggery manure using Small Scale Raceway Pond (SSRP). Biomass production and lipid productivity of CSS were $1.19{\pm}0.09gL^{-1}$, $12.44{\pm}0.38mgL^{-1}day^{-1}$, respectively and almost twice that of unialgal strains. Also, total nitrogen and total phosphorus removal efficiencies of CSS was 93.6% and 98.5% respectively and 30% higher removal efficiency compared to the use of unialgal strains. These results indicate that the piggery manure can provide microalgae necessary nitrogen and phosphorus for growth thereby effectively treating the manure. In addition, overall cost of microalgal cultivation and subsequently biodiesel production would be significantly reduced.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Environmental Biology Conference
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• 2004.12a
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• pp.90-90
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• 2004

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.683-689
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• 2014

Since $CO_2$ concentrations in industrial flue gases are usually 10%-20%, one of the prerequisites for efficient $CO_2$ removal by algae is the level of tolerance of microalgal species to exposure to high concentrations of $CO_2$. A newly isolated microalgal strain, Chlorella sp. MRA-1, could retain growth with high concentrations of $CO_2$ up to 15%. The highest lipid productivity for Chlorella sp. MRA-1 was 0.118 g/l/day with a 5% $CO_2$ concentration. Octadecenoic acid and hexadecanoic acid, the main components of biodiesel, accounted for 70% of the total fatty acids. A lipid content of 52% of dry cell weight was achieved with limited amounts of nitrogen. Chlorella sp. MRA-1 seems to be an ideal candidate for biodiesel production when cultured with high concentrations of $CO_2$.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.306-310
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• 2008

Characteristics of microalgal growth was investigated using anaerobic effluent from two-phase animal waste digestor as substrate. Batch experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of the initial nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations on growth of Microcystis aeruginosa, Chlorella sp. and Euglena gracilis. In 400 times diluted anaerobic effluent (TN 3 mg/L), single cell growth of the Euglena gracilis population increased twice without delay, although Chlorella sp. and Microcystis aerugenos take over 144 hours. Similar appearance with single cell growth was observed in mixed cultures. However, microalgae population did not increase under condition of 10 times diluted influent (TP 3 mg/L) in both pure and mixed cultures, which was affected by high organic and nitrogen concentration. Logistic growth model successfully fitted to determine biokinetic parameters such as ${\lambda}$: lag time, ${\mu}m$: maximal specific growth rate, A: asymptote of growth.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.111-118
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• 2020

Recently, bioenergy research using microalgae, one of the most promising biofuel sources, has attracted much attention. Cell disruption, which can be classified as physical or chemical, is essential to extract functional ingredients from microalgae. In this study, we investigated the cell disruption efficiency of Chlorella sp. using low-frequency non-focused ultrasound (LFNFU). This is a continuously physical method that is superior to chemical methods with respect to environmental friendliness and low processing cost. A flat panel photobioreactor was employed to cultivate Chlorella sp. and its growth curve was fitted both with Logistic and Gompertz models. The temporal change in cell reduction by cell disruption using LFNFU was fitted with a Logistic model. The experimental conditions that were investigated were the initial concentration of microalgal cells, relative amplitude of output ultrasound waves, processing volume of microalgal cells, and initial pH value. The optimal conditions for the most efficient cell disruption were determined through the various tests.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.147-153
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• 2018

This study investigates the role of microbial extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) as bioflocculants to harvest microalgae (water-microalgae separation). The EPS extracted from waste activated sludge (WAS) by heat extraction were fractionated into soluble EPS (S-EPS), loosely-bound EPS (LB-EPS) and tightly-bound EPS (TB-EPS) forms. All the EPSs facilitated the flocculation of microalgal cells from stable growth medium. Of those EPSs, the TB-EPS showed the highest flocculating activity (FA) resulting in the substantial decrease in the amount of EPS added in terms of total organic carbon (TOC) during flocculation. The FA of microalgae was improved with the increase in TB-EPS dose, however, excessive dose of TB-EPS adversely affected it due to destabilization. Both LB- and TB-EPS could be utilized for flocculating microalgae as a sustainable option to the existing chemical-based flocculants. In addition to the conventional assessments, the effectiveness of the two bioflocculants for floc forming was also confirmed using a novel assessment of lens-free shadow imaging technique (LSIT), which was firstly applied for the rapid and quantitative assessment of microalgal flocculation.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.140-145
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• 2018

The most energy-intensive processes in lipids extraction were the disruption of the cell wall of microalgae. Here, we tried to extract lipids through lysis using virus-infecting microalgae, to compare with those by the other two methods using microwave or ultrasonication. The lipids yield using viral infection was not significantly different from those using ultrasonication and microwave oven. This suggests that the same amount of lipids can be obtained with low energy and costs, as well as that microalgal lipids extraction by chlorella virus infection might provide the price competitiveness in biodiesel production even if it will be applied to mass production facilities.

• 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.

• ALGAE
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.131-147
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• 2013

Major progress has been made in the past decade towards understanding of the biosynthesis of red carotenoid astaxanthin and its roles in stress response while exploiting microalgae-based astaxanthin as a potent antioxidant for human health and as a coloring agent for aquaculture applications. In this review, astaxanthin-producing green microalgae are briefly summarized with Haematococcus pluvialis and Chlorella zofingiensis recognized to be the most popular astaxanthin-producers. Two distinct pathways for astaxanthin synthesis along with associated cellular, physiological, and biochemical changes are elucidated using H. pluvialis and C. zofingiensis as the model systems. Interactions between astaxanthin biosynthesis and photosynthesis, fatty acid biosynthesis and enzymatic defense systems are described in the context of multiple lines of defense mechanisms working in concert against photooxidative stress. Major pros and cons of mass cultivation of H. pluvialis and C. zofingiensis in phototrophic, heterotrophic, and mixotrophic culture modes are analyzed. Recent progress in genetic engineering of plants and microalgae for astaxanthin production is presented. Future advancement in microalgal astaxanthin research will depend largely on genome sequencing of H. pluvialis and C. zofingiensis and genetic toolbox development. Continuous effort along the heterotrophic-phototrophic culture mode could lead to major expansion of the microalgal astaxanthin industry.