Water hyacinth (WH) is notorious for causing severe environmental degradation and being an economic burden to manage. However, it offers substantial prospects if exploited, especially by rural communities. High temperatures, eutrophic conditions and other environmental factors promote the proliferation of the plant in regions where it has been introduced. Regarded as among the world’s worst invasive weeds, WH is nearly impossible to control and eradicate without an integrated approach and community participation. The effectiveness of control methods varies, yet sustained community involvement determines the long-term success of these methods. Reproducing rapidly, WH has the resource capacity to support a unique microeconomic ecosystem, incentivising WH control by generating sustainable income. The WH ecology, the socioeconomic impacts of its invasion and its various applications are reviewed, and revenue generation and cost-saving options are highlighted. A circular microeconomic model is proposed by integrating WH valorisation into the general limitations of a rural community. Empowering locals with opportunities and enticing them with potential economic gains can be a nudge towards a pro-environment behavioural change in managing WH. This would aid in upgrading local livelihoods and could foster resilience within the community in tackling both environmental problems and economic setbacks through the management of WH invasions.
Currently, algal fuel research has commenced to shift towards genetically engineered mutants, able to express and excrete desired products directly into the culture. In this study, a mutant strain of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, engineered for bisabolene (alternative biodiesel) excretion, was cultivated at different illumination and temperatures to investigate their effects on cell growth and bisabolene production. Moreover, a kinetic model was constructed to identify the desirable conditions for biofuel synthesis. Three original contributions were concluded. Firstly, this work confirmed that bisabolene was partially synthesised independently of biomass growth, indicating its feasibility for continuous production.Secondly, it was found that whilst bisabolene synthesis was independent of light intensity, it was strongly affected by temperature, resulting in conflicting desirable conditions for cell growth and product synthesis. Finally, through model prediction, optimal operating conditions were identified for mutant growth and bisabolene synthesis. This study therefore paves the way towards chemostat production and process scale-up.
Abstract-In this study, the growth of the microalgae, Isochrysis sp. under different illumination levels of natural sunlight was evaluated. Isochrysis sp. was cultured in f/2 media with five variations of illumination exposures. Each experimental setup was cultured in a 1 L cylindrical column with aeration provided by an air pump. Results showed that the best growth was exhibited when microalgae culture was exposed to 73.6% of illumination exposure with a light-dark cycle of 43.88-28.36s per height of column. Said culture also gave the highest CO 2 fixation rate of 0.541 g CO 2 /day. This proved that optimum illumination exposure is one of the most important factors towards improving microalgae growth rate and enhancing its' carbon fixation ability.
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