Dynamic microfiltration with a perforated disk for effective harvesting of microalgae

The Effect of the Rotating Disk Geometry on the Flow and Flux Enhancement in a Dynamic Filtration System

A numerical study was conducted to investigate the effect of rotating patterned disks on the flow and permeate flux in a dynamic filtration (DF) system. The DF system consists of a rotating patterned disk and a stationary housing with a circular flat membrane. The feed flow is driven by the rotating disk with the angular velocity ranging from 200 to 1000 rpm and the applied pressure difference between inlet and outlet ports. Wheel-shaped patterns are engraved on the disk surfaces to add perturbation to the flow field and improve the permeate flux in the filtration system. Five disks with varying numbers of patterns were used in numerical simulations to examine the effects of the number of patterns and the angular velocity of the disk on the flow and permeate flux in the DF system. The flow characteristics are studied using the velocity profiles, the cross-sectional velocity vectors, the vortex structures, and the shear stress distribution. The wheel-shaped patterns shift the central core layer in the circumferential velocity profile towards the membrane, leading to higher shear stresses at the membrane and higher flux compared to a plain disk. When the number of patterns on the disk exceeded eight at a fixed Reynolds number, there were significant increases in wall shear stress and permeate flux compared to a plain disk filtration system with no pattern.

Membrane-Based Harvesting Processes for Microalgae and Their Valuable-Related Molecules: A Review

The interest in microalgae production deals with its role as the third generation of feedstock to recover renewable energy. Today, there is a need to analyze the ultimate research and advances in recovering the microalgae biomass from the culture medium. Therefore, this review brings the current research developments (over the last three years) in the field of harvesting microalgae using membrane-based technologies (including microfiltration, ultrafiltration and forward osmosis). Initially, the principles of membrane technologies are given to outline the main parameters influencing their operation. The main strategies adopted by the research community for the harvesting of microalgae using membranes are subsequently addressed, paying particular attention to the novel achievements made for improving filtration performance and alleviating fouling. Moreover, this contribution also gives an overview of the advantages of applying membrane technologies for the efficient extraction of the high added-value compounds in microalgae cells, such as lipids, proteins and carbohydrates, which together with the production of renewable biofuels could boost the development of more sustainable and cost-effective microalgae biorefineries.

Chemical-free recovery of crude protein from livestock manure digestate solid by thermal hydrolysis

Protein is becoming an increasingly important resource for a variety of commercial applications. Yet, a large volume of protein is being wasted. Notably, livestock manure solids have a significant content of protein which is not only underutilized, but prone to runoff and eventual breakdown to reactive nitrogen compounds, contributing to eutrophication. It would be desirable to remove protein before it causes environmental hazards and then convert it to value-added commercial applications. We have developed a novel thermal hydrolysis process (THP) to extract crude protein from livestock manure solid, or manure digestate solid (MDS) in particular, without the use of any chemical. We demonstrate the versatility of our new process to control the molecular weight (MW) distribution of the extracted protein hydrolysate (PH). The antioxidant activity of the crude protein hydrolysate (CPH) has been examined through Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity Assay. The results have shown that our CPH had its antioxidant capacity against the peroxyl radical similar to that of vitamin E and exhibited almost 7 times as strong inhibition against the hydroxyl radical as vitamin E. We also evaluated the nutritional value of our PH by analyzing its amino acid composition and the MW distribution through amino acid analysis, SDS-PAGE, and MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopy. The characterizations have revealed that the PH recovered from MDS had 2.5 times as much essential amino acids as soybean meal on dry matter basis, with the MW distribution ranging from over a 100 Da to 100 KDa. Finally, the protein powder was prepared from the extracted CPH solution and its composition was analyzed.

Olive Tree in Circular Economy as a Source of Secondary Metabolites Active for Human and Animal Health Beyond Oxidative Stress and Inflammation

Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) contains many bioactive compounds with multiple biological activities that make it one of the most important functional foods. Both the constituents of the lipid fraction and that of the unsaponifiable fraction show a clear action in reducing oxidative stress by acting on various body components, at concentrations established by the European Food Safety Authority's claims. In addition to the main product obtained by the mechanical pressing of the fruit, i.e., the EVOO, the residual by-products of the process also contain significant amounts of antioxidant molecules, thus potentially making the Olea europea L. an excellent example of the circular economy. In fact, the olive mill wastewaters, the leaves, the pomace, and the pits discharged from the EVOO production process are partially recycled in the nutraceutical and cosmeceutical fields also because of their antioxidant effect. This work presents an overview of the biological activities of these by-products, as shown by in vitro and in vivo assays, and also from clinical trials, as well as their main formulations currently available on the market.

A novel thermal hydrolysis process for extraction of keratin from hog hair for commercial applications

We have developed a novel thermal hydrolysis process (THP) to extract and hydrolyze keratin from keratinous animal body wastes without using any chemicals. Our process consists of two heating steps: one is to swell and denature the keratin protein network in the intermediate filaments, while the other is to cleavage the disulfide bonds that connect the tight keratinous fibrils together. Using hog hair as an example, the two-step process achieved a nearly 70% keratin recovery yield, with respect to the original keratin in the hog hair, which is comparable to one of the best recovery yields by conventional chemical processes. The extracted keratin hydrolysate by THP was filtered by the shear wave-induced membrane ultrafiltation for characterization. The molecular weight (MW) analysis using SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopy has demonstrated that our keratin hydrolysis obtained by our two-step THP has a wide range of MW distribution, similar to those already in the hair-care product market. The amino acid composition analysis has shown that our keratin hydrolysate by THP had twice as much essential amino acids as soybean meals on a dry mattter basis. As to the cysteine residue content, we have shown that it can be controlled by adjusting the 2nd heating temperature.

Biological wastewater treatment: Comparison of heterotrophs (BFT) with autotrophs (ABFT) in aquaculture systems

The present study was conducted to compare wastewater purification capacities between heterotrophs (BFT) and autotrophs (ABFT) and to evaluate the effects on the growth of fish (Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus) in aquaculture systems. The wastewater treatment capacity of heterotrophs is far superior to that of autotrophs, but the BFT system requires more energy for aquaculture than does the ABFT system. Regardless, both systems effected positive influences on fish growth performance, showing excellent water-purification capacities compared with the control group (CON). No significant differences were found between CON and ABFT or between ABFT and BFT, but there were significant differences between CON and BFT. Both systems BFT and ABFT were revealed to be cost effective in relation to CON, having reduced water replacement by 82%. Therefore, the BFT and ABFT systems could be economical aquaculture systems if due advantage is taken of what both have to offer.

Dynamic filtration with a perforated disk for dewatering of Tetraselmis suecica

Dynamic filtration equipped with a perforated disk was adopted for the first time to dewater and concentrate Tetraselmis suecica, from a typical solution of 2-100 g/L of dense biomass suited for the downstream process. An ultrafiltration membrane, polyethersulfone 150 kDa, was found to best perform in terms of high biomass retention and filtration rate. At 1600 rpm, the highest rotation speed of the disk we tested, plateau permeate flux increased up to 20.2 times higher than those with no rotation; this improvement was attributed to fouling reduction (up to 98%) via distinctively high-shear stress on the membrane surface. Even at a high biomass concentration (100 g/L) where fouling formation was very serious, the heightened shear stress caused high flux to be maintained and fouling resistance to be reduced in an effective way. When trans-membrane pressure was increased in a stepwise manner, flux continuously rose at high rotation speed; at low speed, on the other hand, the limiting flux was observed. The dynamic filtration with the perforated disk, which was an effective high-shear stress generator, was proven to be a promising dewatering means of T. suecica, and especially so for the production of highly concentrated biomass.

Cake properties in ultrafiltration of TiO2 fine particles combined with HA: in situ measurement of cake thickness by fluid dynamic gauging and CFD calculation of imposed shear stress for cake controlling

In this study, the cake buildup of TiO2 fine particles in the presence of humid acid (HA) and cake layer controlling during ultrafiltration (UF) were investigated. Specifically, we measured the cake thickness using fluid dynamic gauging (FDG) method under various solution conditions, including TiO2 concentration (0.1-0.5 g/L), HA concentration (0-5 mg/L, total organic carbon (TOC)), and pH values (e.g., 4, 6 and 10), and calculated the shear stress distribution induced by stirring using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to analyze the cake layer controlling conditions, including the operation flux (50-200 L m(-2) h(-1)) and TiO2 concentration (0.1-0.5 g/L). It was found that lower TiO2/HA concentration ratio could lead to exceedingly severe membrane fouling because of the formation of a relatively denser cake layer by filling the voids of cake layer with HA, and pH was essential for cake layer formation owing to the net repulsion between particles. Additionally, it was observed that shear stress was rewarding for mitigating cake growth under lower operation flux as a result of sufficient back-transport forces, and exhibited an excellent performance on cake layer controlling in lower TiO2 concentrations due to slight interaction forces on the vicinity of membrane.

Evaluation of various harvesting methods for high-density microalgae, Aurantiochytrium sp. KRS101

Five technologies, coagulation, electro-flotation (EF), electro-coagulation-flotation (ECF), centrifugation, and membrane filtration, were systematically assessed for their adequacy of harvesting Aurantiochytrium sp. KRS101, a heterotrophic microalgal species that has much higher biomass concentration than photoautotrophic species. Coagulation, EF, and ECF were found to have limited efficiency. Centrifugation was overly powerful to susceptible cells like Aurantiochytrium sp. KRS101, inducing cell rupture and consequently biomass loss of over 13%. Membrane filtration, in particular equipped with an anti-fouling turbulence generator, turned out to be best suited: nearly 100% of harvesting efficiency and low water content in harvested biomass were achieved. With rotation rate increased, high permeate fluxes could be attained even with extremely concentrated biomass: e.g., 219.0 and 135.0 L/m(2)/h at 150.0 and 203.0 g/L, respectively. Dynamic filtration appears to be indeed a suitable means especially to obtain highly concentrated biomass that have no need of dewatering and can be directly processed.

Dramatic improvement of membrane performance for microalgae harvesting with a simple bubble-generator plate

To overcome fouling issue in membrane-based algae harvesting and thus make an otherwise promising harvesting option more competitive, a bubble-generator plate was developed. According to computational fluid dynamics analysis, the plate generated substantial hydrodynamic power in terms of high pressure, velocity, and shear stress. When installed in a membrane filtration system with membranes of different surface and structural characteristics (one prepared by the phase inversion method, and a commercial one) the bubble-generator was indeed effective in reducing fouling. Without the plate, the much cheaper homemade membrane had the similar performance as the commercial one. Use of the bubble-generator considerably improved the performance of both membranes, and revealed a valuable synergy with the asymmetrical structure of the homemade membrane. This result clearly showed that the ever-problematic fouling could be mitigated in a rather easy manner, and in so doing, that membrane technology could indeed become a practical option for algae harvesting.