title: Evaluation of operating conditions for sustainable harvesting of microalgal biomass applying electrochemical method using non sacrificial electrodes.
abstract: The efficient harvesting of microalgae is considered to be one of the challenging steps of algal biofuel production and a key factor limiting the commercial use of microalgae. To overcome the limitation of metallic electrodes depletion, the application of non-sacrificial electrode was investigated for the electrochemical harvesting (ECH) of microalgae. The effect of applied current, addition of electrolyte and initial pH were parameters investigated. The highest recovery efficiency of 83% was obtained for Scenedesmus obliquus at 1.5A, initial pH 9 and 6gL(-)(1) NaCl with power consumption of 3.84kWhkg(-)(1). Recovery efficiency of ECH process was comparable to literature reported centrifugation, filtration and chemical flocculation techniques but with a much lower power consumption. The ECH process with addition of electrolyte enhanced the lipid extraction by 22% without any adverse effects. The ECH process with non sacrificial carbon electrodes could be a possible harvesting step at commercial scale microalgal biomass production.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology, Durban University of Technology, P.O. Box 1334, Durban 4000, South Africa.
authors.forename: Rohit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Misra
authors.affiliation: Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology, Durban University of Technology, P.O. Box 1334, Durban 4000, South Africa.
authors.forename: Abhishek
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guldhe
authors.affiliation: Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology, Durban University of Technology, P.O. Box 1334, Durban 4000, South Africa.
authors.forename: Poonam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology, Durban University of Technology, P.O. Box 1334, Durban 4000, South Africa.
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rawat
authors.affiliation: Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology, Durban University of Technology, P.O. Box 1334, Durban 4000, South Africa.
authors.forename: Thor Axel
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Stenström
authors.affiliation: Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology, Durban University of Technology, P.O. Box 1334, Durban 4000, South Africa. Electronic address: faizalb@dut.ac.za.
authors.forename: Faizal
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bux
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D056804:Biofuels; D018533:Biomass; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004566:Electrodes; D004573:Electrolytes / Q000737:chemistry; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008055:Lipids / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D058086:Microalgae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000254:growth & development*; D044444:Scenedesmus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000254:growth & development*
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D004573:Electrolytes; D008055:Lipids
keywords: Biodiesel; Electrochemical harvesting; Lipid; Microalgae; Non-sacrificial carbon electrode