Renjie Tu

Biofuel production from microalgae as feedstock: current status and potential

Abstract Algal biofuel has become an attractive alternative of petroleum-based fuels in the past decade. Microalgae have been proposed as a feedstock to produce biodiesel, since they are capable of mitigating CO2 emission and accumulating lipids with high productivity. This article is an overview of the updated status of biofuels, especially biodiesel production from microalgae including fundamental research, culture selection and engineering process development; it summarizes research on mathematical and life cycle modeling on algae growth and biomass production; and it updates global efforts of research and development and commercialization attempts. The major challenges are also discussed.

Effect of static magnetic field on the oxygen production of Scenedesmus obliquus cultivated in municipal wastewater.

Algal-bacterial symbiotic system, with biological synergism of physiological functions of both algae and bacteria, has been proposed for cultivation of microalgae in municipal wastewater for biomass production and wastewater treatment. The algal-bacterial symbiotic system can enhance dissolved oxygen production which enhances bacterial growth and catabolism of pollutants in wastewater. Therefore, the oxygen production efficiency of microalgae in algal-bacterial systems is considered as the key factor influencing the wastewater treatment efficiency. In the present study, we have proposed a novel approach which uses static magnetic field to enhance algal growth and oxygen production rate with low operational cost and non-toxic secondary pollution. The performance of oxygen production with the magnetic field was evaluated using Scenedesmus obliquus grown in municipal wastewater and was calculated based on the change in dissolved oxygen concentration. Results indicated that magnetic treatment stimulates both algal growth and oxygen production. Application of 1000 GS of magnetic field once at logarithmic growth phase for 0.5 h increased the chlorophyll-a content by 11.5% over the control after 6 days of growth. In addition, magnetization enhanced the oxygen production rate by 24.6% over the control. Results of the study confirmed that application of a proper magnetic field could reduce the energy consumption required for aeration during the degradation of organic matter in municipal wastewater in algal-bacterial symbiotic systems.

Improving of lipid productivity of the oleaginous microalgae Chlorella pyrenoidosa via atmospheric and room temperature plasma (ARTP)

In this study, an efficient screening program was established with ARTP. Five strains from oleaginous microalgae Chlorella pyrenoidosa were screened from mutant library after mutagenizing by ARTP. Among them, the optimal mutant strain was named as II-H6. In the BG11 medium, the OD680 of II-H6 in stationary phase were increased by 32.08% than the original strain. Meanwhile, compared with the original strain, the dry weight and lipid productivity of II-H6 were increased by 22.07% and 16.85%, respectively. II-H6 showed a good genetic stability in BG11 medium and the optimum growth temperature and pH were 33°C and 9.0. 18S gene fragment length of II-H6 strain were 1886bp. Analysis of the gene fragment showed that the II-H6 strain had a close relationship to the original strain, and it belonged to the mutation within the genus Chlorella.

Enhancing dewaterability of waste activated sludge by combined oxidative conditioning process with zero-valent iron and peroxymonosulfate

The enhancement of sludge dewaterability is of great importance for facilitating the sludge disposal during the operation of wastewater treatment plants. In this study, a novel oxidative conditioning approach was applied to enhance the dewaterability of waste activated sludge by the combination of zero-valent iron (ZVI) and peroxymonosulfate (PMS). It was found that the dewaterability of sludge was significantly improved after the addition of ZVI (0-4 g/g TSS) (TSS: total suspended solids) and PMS (0-1 g/g TSS). The optimal addition amount of ZVI and PMS was 0.25 g/g TSS and 0.1 g/g TSS, respectively, under which the capillary suction time of the sludge was reduced by approximately 50%. The decomposition of sludge flocs could contribute to the improved sludge dewaterability. Economic analysis demonstrated that the proposed conditioning process with ZVI and PMS was more economical than the ZVI + peroxydisulfate and the traditional Fenton conditioning processes.

Effects of particle size of zero-valent iron (ZVI) on peroxydisulfate-ZVI enhanced sludge dewaterability

The advanced oxidization process has proven to be an effective conditioning technique for the improvement of sludge dewaterability. Zero-valent iron (ZVI) is often used as the catalyst of the oxidization process. This study applied ZVI with different particle sizes to the ZVI- peroxydisulfate reactions, and investigated their effects on the improvement of sludge dewaterability. It was found that ZVI particles with smaller sizes (100 and 400 meshes) led to slightly higher enhancement of sludge dewaterability (69.1%–72%) than the larger size particles (20–40 meshes) with the reduction rate of CST by 64%. However, after the treatment, the recycle rate of larger size ZVI particles was obviously higher than the small sizes ZVI particles: 98.3% vs. 87.6–89.7%. Different surface areas of the ZVI particles with different sizes might contribute to the phenomenon. For the small ZVI particles with the sizes of 100 and 400 meshes, no obvious differences of oxidization effects and the improvements of sludge dewaterability were found between them, which might be because an oxide layer could have been formed on the surface of fine ZVI particles and led to agglomeration. According to the economical analysis, the small particles (100 and 400 meshes) of ZVI were more economically favorable for the oxidative conditioning process with ZVI-peroxydisulfate than large ZVI particles (20–40 meshes).