期刊名称：International Journal of Development and Sustainability
印刷版ISSN：2186-8662
出版年度：2013
卷号：2
期号：1
页码：1-11
出版社：International Society for Development and Sustainability (ISDS)
摘要：Microalgae harvesting is known to be a major problem in the water industry. This is attributed to the minute nature of the algae cells and the often low concentration of the species in water and wastewater. While various chemical and mechanical harvesting techniques have been developed for algae harvesting, their application have been limited by prohibitive costs. There is also the disadvantage of not utilising the harvested microalgae as feedstock when it has accumulated significant amounts of chemicals (coagulants) employed during the harvesting operation. This work investigates the low cost harvesting of microalgae biomass from water using physical (non-chemical) method. Four fabric filters: stretch-cotton, polyester-linen, satin-polyester and silk were investigated to determine their microalgaeharvesting efficiencies using filtration method on three algae communities with cell size of 2-20 μm. For the three algae communitiesinvestigated, stretch-cotton filter showed a harvesting efficiency of 66-93%, followed by polyester-linen (54-90%), while satin-polyester and silk fabrics achieved harvesting efficiencies of 43-71% and 27-75% respectively. The research revealed that for wastewater generation of 1500m3/day and algae concentration of 200mg/l, microalgae harvesting cost per sq. meter per kg of algae per cubic meter would be ≤ ￡0.15 using stretch cotton filter.
