Algal Research
Algal Research
5 years ago

Application of a new ceramic hydrophobic membrane for providing CO2 in algal photobioreactor during cultivation of Arthrospira sp.

Application of a new ceramic hydrophobic membrane for providing CO2 in algal photobioreactor during cultivation of Arthrospira sp.
Biological sequestration of CO2 using microalgal route emerges as a promising option due to its cleaner approach which can be used to produce various forms of bioenergy. The current study reports on development of a new ceramic hydrophobic membrane and its application in an algal photobioreactor towards an efficient dissolution of CO2 during cultivation of Arthrospira sp. Clay-alumina based ceramic capillary support elements were coated with bentonite clay and surface modified using polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) to impart hydrophobicity. The prepared membrane indicated pore size of 5.0nm with around 35.3% porosity and contact angle of 147°. A two-element membrane module having 150mm length, 3.16 outer diameter and 2.16mm inner diameter was used as a nano bubble sparger to provide CO2 in 1L of the culture medium and an enhanced overall mass transfer coefficient of about 38×10−4 m/s was obtained using 19.5% CO2 gas mixture and 0.23m/s gas velocity. The membrane was efficient in removal of dissolved oxygen produced during photosynthesis, resulting in higher algal growth and higher CO2 sequestration. Algal growth of about 178.2g(dwt)/m3/day were obtained at 24h interval of CO2 supply in the photobioreactor and subsequent CO2 sequestration obtained was 13.99g/m3/h. Under optimized growth conditions the produced biomass yielded biodiesel content of about 5.82% of dry weight of algae. Application of the ceramic hydrophobic membrane thus enables enhanced mass transfer coefficient and dissolved oxygen removal efficiency making it suitable in photobioreactor application towards algal bio-sequestration of CO2 and subsequent biomass and biofuel production.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S2211926416307512

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