• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• 제56권5호
• /
• pp.773-778
• /
• 2018

In-situ transesterification of microalgae lipids using microwave irradiation has potential to simplify and accelerate biodiesel production, as it minimizes production cost and reaction time by direct transesterification of microalgae into biodiesel with microwave as a heating source. This study was conducted to research the effect of microwave irradiation with in-situ transesterification of microalgae under base catalyst condition. The process variables (reaction time, solvent ratio, microwave power) were studied using 2% of catalyst concentration. The maximum yield of FAME was obtained at about 32.18% at the reaction time of 30 min with biomass-methanol ratio 1:12 (w/v) and microwave power of 450 W. The GC MS analysis obtained that the main component of FAME from microalgal oils (or lipids) was palmitic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid. The results show that microwaves can be used as a heating source to synthesize biodiesel from microalgae in terms of major components resulting.

• 한국미생물·생명공학회지
• /
• 제49권2호
• /
• pp.167-173
• /
• 2021

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) disrupt the cellular redox balance, exert cytotoxic effects, and consequently promote the development of various diseases in humans. Previous studies have reported that antioxidants counteract the adverse effects of ROS. Several studies examine the whitening effects of various agents based on their ability to inhibit tyrosinase activity. Tyrosinase is a critical enzyme involved in the synthesis of melanin, which protects the skin against radiation. Various agents exhibiting antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitory activities have been synthesized. However, these synthetic drugs are associated with toxicity, decreased safety, and poor skin penetration in vivo, which has limited the clinical application of synthetic drugs. This study examined the antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of some microalgae. The methanol, dichloromethane, and ethyl acetate extracts of four microalgal species (Tetraselmis tetrathele, Dunaliella tertiolecta, Platymonas sp., and Chaetoceros simplex) were prepared. The physiological and whitening effects of microalgal extracts were investigated by measuring the antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitory activities. The ethyl acetate extract of D. tertiolecta exhibited the highest antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitory activities. Future studies must focus on examining the whitening effects of microalgae on cell lines to facilitate the development of microalga-based therapeutics for skin diseases, functional health foods, and whitening agents. Thus, microalgae have potential applications in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• 제32권7호
• /
• pp.862-868
• /
• 2022

Microalgae are photosynthetic cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microorganisms, mainly living in the water. In agriculture, numerous studies have been conducted to utilize microalgae as a biostimulant resource. Scenedesmus has been known to be one such microalga that can promote plant growth by secretion of auxin or cytokinin hormone analogs. However, no research has been performed on the effect of microalgae treatment on plant microbiota communities. This study was conducted to investigate the mode of action of microalgae as biostimulants in a plant microbiota perspective by using Scenedesmus sp. CHK0059 (also known as species Chlorella fusca), which has been well documented as a biostimulant for strawberries. The strawberry cultivar Keumsil was bred with Seolhyang and Maehyang as the parent cultivars. Using these three cultivars, microbiota communities were evaluated for changes in structural composition according to the CHK0059 treatment. CHK0059-treated Seolhyang, and CHK0059-untreated Maehyang were similar in microbial diversity in the endosphere. From a microbiota community perspective, the diversity change showed that CHK0059 was affected by the characteristics of the host. Conversely, when CHK0059 treatment was applied, populations of Streptomyces and Actinospica were observed in the crown endosphere.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• 제32권11호
• /
• pp.1357-1372
• /
• 2022

Heavy reliance on fossil fuels has been associated with increased climate disasters. As an alternative, microalgae have been proposed as an effective agent for biomass production. Several advantages of microalgae include faster growth, usage of non-arable land, recovery of nutrients from wastewater, efficient CO₂ capture, and high amount of biomolecules that are valuable for humans. Microalgae Chlorella spp. are a large group of eukaryotic, photosynthetic, unicellular microorganisms with high adaptability to environmental variations. Over the past decades, Chlorella has been used for the large-scale production of biomass. In addition, Chlorella has been actively used in various food industries for improving human health because of its antioxidant, antidiabetic, and immunomodulatory functions. However, the major restrictions in microalgal biofuel technology are the cost-consuming cultivation, processing, and lipid extraction processes. Therefore, various trials have been performed to enhance the biomass productivity and the lipid contents of Chlorella cells. This study provides a comprehensive review of lipid enhancement strategies mainly published in the last five years and aimed at regulating carbon sources, nutrients, stresses, and expression of exogenous genes to improve biomass production and lipid synthesis.

• 한국습지학회지
• /
• 제20권4호
• /
• pp.363-369
• /
• 2018

최근 환경 문제로 대두되고 있는 것 중 하나는 대기 중 $CO_2$의 증가로 인한 기후변화이다. 이에 대한 영향으로 생태계가 변화하고 있으며, 다양한 환경문제가 발생되고 있다. 이로 인해 전 세계적으로 $CO_2$ 저감을 위한 다양한 연구들이 수행중이며, 이 중 미세조류를 이용한 $CO_2$ 저감 방안은 환경 친화적인 방법이라 할 수 있다. 그러나 미세조류를 이용한 $CO_2$ 저감 방안은 대부분 단일 종을 대상으로 하고 있으며, 자연 하천을 대상으로 한 미세조류의 $CO_2$ 고정 효율에 대한 연구는 전무한 실정이다. 그러므로 본 연구는 우리나라 하천 내 존재하는 미세조류들을 파악하고, 미세조류의 생장특성을 분석하여 최적의 배양조건을 도출 하였다. 그리고 $CO_2$ 농도와 주입 속도에 따른 미세조류의 biomass와 클로로필 a의 변화를 분석하여 자연 하천 내 존재하는 미세조류의 $CO_2$ 고정효율에 대해 연구하고자 하였다. 섬강 내 존재하는 미세조류를 배양하여 동정한 결과 6종의 우점종(Ankistrodesmus falcatus, Scenedesmus intermedius, Selenodictyum sp., Xanthidium apiculatum var. laeve, Cosmarium pseudoquinarium, Dictyosphaerium pulchellum)이 관찰되었으며, 이 종들은 모두 녹조류에 해당하였다. 한편 이산화탄소 농도 구배(5% $CO_2$, 10% $CO_2$, 15%$CO_2$, 대기조건의 가스 0.038% $CO_2$)와 유속(0.25, 0.5LPM)이 다른 가스를 주입하여 미세조류의 biomass와 클로로필 a의 변화를 살펴본 결과 이산화탄소의 농도가 증가할수록 biomass와 클로로필 a가 증가하였으며, 같은 이산화탄소 농도에서는 유속이 더 빠른 곳에서 미세조류의 biomass와 클로로필 a의 양이 더 증가하였다. 또한 미세조류에 고정화된 이산화탄소의 양은 주입되는 가스의 유속이 빠를수록 고정되는 이산화탄소의 양이 더 높아지는 경향을 보였다. 본 연구는 기존의 단일 종에서 행해지는 연구가 아닌 하천 전체의 미세조류를 대상으로 수행한 연구이며, 하천 내 존재하는 미세조류의 이산화탄소 고정을 위한 최적의 조건을 도출하고, 하천 내 존재하는 미세조류로부터 고정화된 이산화탄소의 양을 정량화하여 향후 이산화탄소 감축을 위한 정책을 위한 기초자료에 이용할 수 있다는 것에 큰 의의가 있다.

• ALGAE
• /
• 제24권4호
• /
• pp.205-212
• /
• 2009

Molecular genetic tools are widely used to learn more about the identical characterization of obscure microalgal strains. At the Korea Marine Microalgae Culture Center (KMMCC), the authors deduced the genetic relationship of 41 strains of the genus Tetraselmis by analysing a small subunit ribosomal DNA (18S rDNA) sequences. Forty-one strains were seperated into five groups, which showed over a 98-99% similarity to Tetraselmis striata or Tetraselmis sp. Tsbre. Also, 13 strains among them had an identical genotype to Tetraselmis striata while 5 strains had with Tetraselmis sp. Tsbre, respectively. The mean size of each strain generally showed the tendency of different variation according to the groups.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• 제24권1호
• /
• pp.9-18
• /
• 1999

This study was performed to investigate the optimum microalgal culture conditions using flask culture and to find the feasibility of using the flue gas of the rice husk incinerator for cultivating the microalgae. The optimum initial pH of media was 4.5 for the microalgae culture, and the intermittently illuminated culture was more effective than the continuous illuminated culture. Thus, the balance between photosynthesis and formative metabolism must be considered thoroughly to cultivate microalgal cells. The optimum CO2 concentrations were in the range of 7 to 10%, and the optimum temperature was about 35$^{\circ}C$ in both the daytime and the nighttime for the culture. When flue gas of the rice husk incinerator was applied to the microalgae culture using stirred photobioreactor, the dry cell weight was 0.026 g dry biomass/hr$.$l. The results obtained in experiments indicated that the flue gas was effective for microalgae culture without any limitations.

• 한국물환경학회지
• /
• 제31권2호
• /
• pp.134-141
• /
• 2015

The focus of this study was to observe the growth of Chlorella vulgaris and Botryococcus braunii under mixotrophic conditions (i.e., added acorn) with the aim of increasing biomass and triacylglycerols (TAGs) content. The result of investigation indicated that the acorn contains a lot of carbonate (87.29%) and glucose (97.99 mg%). A significant growth of biomass was obtained when grown in acorn rich environment comparing to autotrophic conditions. 3 g/L acorn yielded the highest biomass concentration for these strains. Thus, the biomass productivity with 3 g/L acorn was obtained 2.31 times and 2.10 times higher than that of authotrophic conditions for Chlorella vulgaris and Botryococcus braunii, respectively. The maximum amount of TAGs was reached 14.35% and 18.41% for Chlorella vulgaris and Botryococcus braunii, respectively, in the growth medium with 5 g/L acorn. The effect of acorn could enhance the investigated microalgae growth, biomass productivity and TAGs content. This provides a feasible way to reduce the cost of bioenergy production from microalgae.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• 제9권5호
• /
• pp.373-383
• /
• 2018

Fouling by solids and microorganisms is the major obstacle limiting the efficient use of membrane wastewater treatment. In our previous study, two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system was proposed to treat anaerobic digested palm oil mill effluent (AnPOME). This two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system had showed great potential for the treatment of AnPOME with high removal of COD, $NH_3-N$, $PO_4{^{3-}}$, TSS, turbidity, and colour. However, fouling behavior of the membrane in this two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system was still unknown. In this study, empirical models that describe permeate flux decline for dead-end filtration (pore blocking - complete, intermediate, and standard; and cake layer formation) presented by Hermia were used to fit the experimental results in identifying the fouling mechanism under different experimental conditions. Both centrifuged and non-centrifuged samples were taken from the medium with 3 days RT intervals, from day 0 to day 12 to study their influence on fouling mechanisms described by Hermia for ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO) filtration mode. Besides, a more detailed study on the use of resistance-in-series model for deadend filtration was done to investigate the fouling mechanisms involved in membrane filtration of AnPOME collected after microalgae treatment. The results showed that fouling of UF and NF membrane was mainly caused by cake layer formation and it was also supported by the analysis for resistance-in-series model. Whereas, fouling of RO membrane was dominated by concentration polarization.