Implementation of flocculation and sand filtration in medium recirculation in a closed microalgae production system

摘要: Abstract Recycling growth medium is a necessity to reduce production cost and ecological foot print of large scale microalgae systems. To prevent contamination and/or enrichment with particulate matter, recycling requires pre-treatment the centrifuge supernatant (centrate), prior replenishment re-use. In this study, we investigated applicability high pH induced flocculation sand filtration interface an existing microfiltration setup in order prepare recycled for mass cultivation marine microalgae. Sand partly alleviated burden on subsequent microfiltration, but proved be particularly useful remove flocs from centrate. Combination both techniques resulted removal 78 ± 18% particles, resulting improvement ‘modified fouling indices’ by 75 ± 19%. Despite partial complete remaining nutrients such as phosphate, calcium magnesium during treatment, saving 72% compared scenario fresh can achieved.