Preventing biofouling in microalgal photobioreactors.

Autor: Soriano-Jerez Y; Department of Chemical Engineering and Research Centre CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería, 04120, Almería, Spain., Gallardo-Rodríguez JJ; Department of Chemical Engineering and Research Centre CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería, 04120, Almería, Spain., López-Rosales L; Department of Chemical Engineering and Research Centre CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería, 04120, Almería, Spain., García-Camacho F; Department of Chemical Engineering and Research Centre CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería, 04120, Almería, Spain., Bressy C; Université de Toulon, MAPIEM, Toulon, France., Molina-Grima E; Department of Chemical Engineering and Research Centre CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería, 04120, Almería, Spain. Electronic address: emolina@ual.es., Cerón-García MC; Department of Chemical Engineering and Research Centre CIAIMBITAL, University of Almería, 04120, Almería, Spain.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Bioresource technology [Bioresour Technol] 2024 Sep; Vol. 407, pp. 131125. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jul 17.
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2024.131125
Abstrakt: Photobioreactors (PBRs) are used to grow the light-requiring microalgae in diverse commercial processes. Often, they are operated as continuous culture over months period. However, with time, biofouling layer develops on the inner surfaces of their walls. The fouling layer formation deteriorates the PBR performance as foulants reduce light penetration in it. Light is essential for photosynthetic cultures, and a deterioration in lighting adversely impacts algae growth and biomass productivity. Fouling requires a frequent shutdown to clean the PBR and add to the environmental impact of the operation by generating many wastewaters contaminated with the cleaning chemicals. Antibiofouling coatings could be used to modify the surfaces of existing and future PBRs. Therefore, transparent and non-toxic fouling-release coatings, produced using hydrogel technology, could transform the existing PBRs into efficient and enduring microalgae culture systems, requiring only the application of the coating to the inner walls, without additional investments in new PBRs.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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