Harvesting of Chlorella sp. by Co-cultivation with Some Filamentous Fungi

Abstract

Algae are play a major role as straight producers of biofuels, so expansion of a new. harvestingtechnologyis important to achieve economic feasibility of biofuel production from algae.. Fungalpelletization-assisted.. Microalgal harvesting has Emerged as new research area for decreasing theharvesting cost and energy inputs in the algae-to-biofuel method. The present study tried to optimizeprocess circumstances as (substrate inputs, process time and pH). Through choice of a robustfungal strain. Four fungal strains (Aspergillus terreus, Trichoderma sp., Mucor sp. and Rhizopussp.) were screened for their pelletizing efficiency in fresh/supplemented chu-10 with selectedmedia nutrient (glucose, nitrogen and phosphorous). Results showed that Aspergillus terreuswas the most efficient strain for pelletizing in the nutrient supplemented chu-10 with its neutralpH (7) and acidic pH (5). Stimulatingly, A. terreus was capable to harvest nearly 100 % of theClorella sp. cells (1×106 spore/ml at optical density (OD) approximately 2.5 initial working algalconcentration) within only 24 h. at supplementation of (10 g/l glucose, 2.5 mg/l aNH4NO3 and 0.5mg/l mK2HPO4) also performed well at lower glucose level (5 g/l) can also results in similar harvestingbut its need relatively higher incubation time. The procedure kinetics in term of harvestingindex (H. I) as well as the variation of residual glucose and pH with time was also studied. Themechanism of harvesting process was studied through microscopic, examination. A. terreus straininvestigated in this study could emerge as an efficient, sustainable and economically viable tool inmicroalgae harvesting for biofuel production and time conservation.