Chlorella vulgaris broth harvesting via standalone forward osmosis using seawater draw solution

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.

Effect of Membrane Materials and Operational Parameters on Performance and Energy Consumption of Oil/Water Emulsion Filtration

Membrane technology is one of reliable options for treatment of oil/water emulsion. It is highly attractive because of its effectiveness in separating fine oil droplets of <2 µm sizes, which is highly challenging for other processes. However, the progress for its widespread implementations is still highly restricted by membrane fouling. Most of the earlier studies have demonstrated the promise of achieving more sustained filtration via membrane material developments. This study addresses issues beyond membrane development by assessing the impact of membrane material (blend of polysulfone, PSF and polyethylene glycol, PEG), operational pressure, and crude oil concentration on the filtration performance of oil/water emulsion. The filtration data were then used to project the pumping energy for a full-scale system. Results show that fouling resistant membrane offered high oil/water emulsion permeability, which translated into a low energy consumption. The oil/water emulsion permeability was improved by three-fold from 45 ± 0 to 139 ± 1 L/(m² h bar) for PSF/PEG-0 membrane in comparison to the most optimum one of PSF/PEG-60. It corresponded to an energy saving of up to ~66%. The pumping energy could further be reduced from 27.0 to 7.6 Wh/m³ by operation under ultra-low pressure from 0.2 to 0.05 bar. Sustainable permeability could be achieved when treating 1000 ppm oil/water emulsion, but severe membrane fouling was observed when treating emulsion containing crude oils of >3000 ppm to a point of no flux.

Development of Hybrid and Templated Silica-P123 Membranes for Brackish Water Desalination

Water scarcity is still a pressing issue in many regions. The application of membrane technology through water desalination to convert brackish to potable water is a promising technology to solve this issue. This study compared the performance of templated TEOS-P123 and ES40-P123 hybrid membranes for brackish water desalination. The membranes were prepared by the sol–gel method by employing tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) for the carbon-templated silica (soft template) and ethyl silicate (ES40) for the hybrid organo-silica. Both sols were templated by adding 35 wt.% of pluronic triblock copolymer (P123) as the carbon source. The silica-templated sols were dip-coated onto alumina support (four layers) and were calcined by using the RTP (rapid thermal processing) method. The prepared membranes were tested using pervaporation set up at room temperature (~25 °C) using brackish water (0.3 and 1 wt.%) as the feed. It was found that the hybrid membrane exhibited the highest specific surface area (6.72 m²·g⁻¹), pore size (3.67 nm), and pore volume (0.45 cm³·g⁻¹). The hybrid ES40-P123 was twice thicker (2 μm) than TEOS-P123-templated membranes (1 μm). Lastly, the hybrid ES40-P123 displayed highest water flux of 6.2 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹. Both membranes showed excellent robustness and salt rejections of >99%.

Porous Venturi-Orifice Microbubble Generator for Oxygen Dissolution in Water

Microbubbles with slow rising speed, higher specific area and greater oxygen dissolution are desired to enhance gas/liquid mass transfer rate. Such attributes are very important to tackle challenges on the low efficiency of gas/liquid mass transfer that occurs in aerobic wastewater treatment systems or in the aquaculture industries. Many reports focus on the formation mechanisms of the microbubbles, but with less emphasis on the system optimization and assessment of the aeration efficiency. This work assesses the performance and evaluates the aeration efficiency of a porous venturi-orifice microbubble generator (MBG). The increment of stream velocity along the venturi pathway and orifice ring leads to a pressure drop (Patm > Pabs) and subsequently to increased cavitation. The experiments were run under three conditions: various liquid velocity (QL) of 2.35–2.60 m/s at fixed gas velocity (Qg) of 3 L/min; various Qg of 1–5 L/min at fixed QL of 2.46 m/s; and free flowing air at variable QLs. Results show that increasing liquid velocities from 2.35 to 2.60 m/s imposes higher vacuum pressure of 0.84 to 2.27 kPa. They correspond to free-flowing air at rates of 3.2–5.6 L/min. When the system was tested at constant air velocity of 3 L/min and under variable liquid velocities, the oxygen dissolution rate peaks at liquid velocity of 2.46 m/s, which also provides the highest volumetric mass transfer coefficient (KLa) of 0.041 min−1 and the highest aeration efficiency of 0.287 kgO2/kWh. Under free-flowing air, the impact of QL is significant at a range of 2.35 to 2.46 m/s until reaching a plateau KLa value of 0.0416 min−1. The pattern of the KLa trend is mirrored by the aeration efficiency that reached the maximum value of 0.424 kgO2/kWh. The findings on the aeration efficiency reveals that the venturi-orifice MBG can be further optimized by focusing on the trade-off between air bubble size and the air volumetric velocity to balance between the amount of available oxygen to be transferred and the rate of the oxygen transfer.

The Water Flux Dynamic in a Hybrid Forward Osmosis-Membrane Distillation for Produced Water Treatment

Standalone membrane distillation (MD) and forward osmosis (FO) have been considered as promising technologies for produced water treatment. However, standalone MD is still vulnerable to membrane-wetting and scaling problems, while the standalone FO is energy-intensive, since it requires the recovery of the draw solution (DS). Thus, the idea of coupling FO and MD is proposed as a promising combination in which the MD facilitate DS recovery for FO-and FO acts as pretreatment to enhance fouling and wetting-resistance of the MD. This study was therefore conducted to investigate the effect of DS temperature on the dynamic of water flux of a hybrid FO-MD. First, the effect of the DS temperature on the standalone FO and MD was evaluated. Later, the flux dynamics of both units were evaluated when the FO and DS recovery (via MD) was run simultaneously. Results show that an increase in the temperature difference (from 20 to 60 °C) resulted in an increase of the FO and MD fluxes from 11.17 ± 3.85 to 30.17 ± 5.51 L m-2 h-1, and from 0.5 ± 0.75 to 16.08 L m-2 h-1, respectively. For the hybrid FO-MD, either MD or FO could act as the limiting process that dictates the equilibrium flux. Both the concentration and the temperature of DS affected the flux dynamic. When the FO flux was higher than MD flux, DS was diluted, and its temperature decreased; both then lowered the FO flux until reaching an equilibrium (equal FO and MD flux). When FO flux was lower than MD flux, the DS was concentrated which increased the FO flux until reaching the equilibrium. The overall results suggest the importance of temperature and concentration of solutes in the DS in affecting the water flux dynamic hybrid process.