Advances in Microalgal Harvesting

Dear Colleagues,

Microalgae are promising feedstock for biofuel production. However, large-scale production of biofuels from microalgae is not yet economically viable, since high energy inputs are required for microalgae harvesting. Since the biomass density of culture broths is low (usually below 0.5 kg/m³) in the microalgal production systems, huge volumes of microalgae suspension need to be handled before the downstream biofuel production processes. In fact, 20–30% of the cost of the total biodiesel production is involved in the biomass harvesting process. Therefore, to develop cost-effective harvesting methods is a limiting key factor for the commercial use of microalgae, and presents as one of the most challenging areas during the microalgae biofuel production.

To facilitate downstream process, microalgal biomass harvesting aims to achieve high concentrated slurry that contains minimum 2–7% of total solid matters. In general, the commonly applied harvesting methods in practice include flotation, filtration, sedimentation, centrifugation, flocculation and an integration of flocculation and flotation. In addition, magnetophoretic harvesting has also been developed, as shown in literature. In an effort to shorten the high costs during microalgal harvesting, much progress in advancing the above-mentioned methods has been made and some vital breakthroughs achieved. This special issue is going to serve a platform for researchers worldwide to discuss the recent advances in microalgal harvesting.

We would like to see articles that address vital current developments in microalgal harvesting. We solicit high-quality, original research papers or review papers in the fields of microalgal harvesting by a wide range of methods.

Dr. Liandong Zhu
Dr. Cheng Yan
Guest Editors

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