title: Microalgae-mediated simultaneous treatment of toxic thiocyanate and production of biodiesel.
abstract: In this work, a method for simultaneously degrading the toxic pollutant, thiocyanate, and producing microalgal lipids using mixed microbial communities was developed. Aerobic activated sludge was used as the seed culture and thiocyanate was used as the sole nitrogen source. Two cultivation methods were sequentially employed: a lithoautotrophic mode and a photoautotrophic mode. Thiocyanate hydrolysis and a nitrification was found to occur under the first (lithoautotrophic) condition, while the oxidized forms of nitrogen were assimilated by the photoautotrophic consortium and lipids were produced under the second condition. The final culture exhibited good settling efficiency (∼ 70% settling over 10 min), which can benefit downstream processing. The highest CO2 fixation rate and lipid productivity were observed with 2.5% and 5% CO2, respectively. The proposed integrated algal-bacterial system appears to be a feasible and even beneficial option for thiocyanate treatment and production of microbial lipids.
authors.affiliation: Environmental and Energy Program, KAIST, 291 Daehakno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Byung-Gon
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST, 291 Daehakno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jungmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST, 291 Daehakno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Gursong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.affiliation: Corporate Technology Division, POSCO, 892 Daechi 4-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 135-777, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jun-Taek
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST, 291 Daehakno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Woong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, KAIST, 291 Daehakno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jong-In
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST, 291 Daehakno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea; Advanced Biomass R&D Center, KAIST, 291 Daehakno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: jwyang@kaist.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Ji-Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism; D005285:Fermentation; D058086:Microalgae / Q000378:metabolism*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D058433:Photobioreactors; D010860:Pigments, Biological / Q000378:metabolism; D013861:Thiocyanates / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D010860:Pigments, Biological; D013861:Thiocyanates; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D009584:Nitrogen; C031760:thiocyanate
keywords: Activated sludge; Biodiesel; CO(2); Microalgae; Thiocyanate