The algal cell immobilization is a commonly used technique for treatment of waste water, production of useful metabolites and management of stock culture. However, control over the size of immobilized droplets, the population of microbes, and production rate in current techniques need to be improved. Here, we use drop-on-demand inkjet printing to immobilize spores of the alga
Ecklonia cava
within alginate microparticles for the first time. Microparticles with immobilized spores were generated by printing alginate-spore suspensions into a calcium chloride solution. We demonstrate that the inkjet technique can control the number of spores in an ejected droplet in the range of 0.23 to 1.87 by varying spore densities in bioink. After the printing-based spore encapsulation, we observe initial sprouting and continuous growth of thallus until 45 days of culture. Our study suggest that inkjet printing has a great potential to immobilize algae, and that the ability to control the number of encapsulated spores and their microenvironments can facilitate research into microscopic interactions of encapsulated spores.
Anaerobic treatment of wastewater from a selected seafood processing plant was conducted at organic loading rates (OLR) ranging from 0.3 to 1.8 kg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/m(3).day and hydraulic retention times (HRT) ranging from 36 to 6 days. COD reduction decreased with increasing OLR. More than 75% COD reduction could be maintained up to an OLR of about 1 kg COD/m(3).day with an HRT of 11 days. An OLR of 1.3 kg COD/m(3).day corresponding to an HRT of 6.6 days gave maximal biogas productivity of 1.5 m(3)/m(3).day or 1.3 m(3) biogas/kg COD with a 65% COD reduction. If the HRT was kept constant at 11 days, an OLR of 1.3 kg COD/m(3).day achieved maximal biogas productivity (1.1 m(3)/m(3).day) and yield (0.75 m(3)/kg COD) and a 60% COD reduction for treatment of tuna condensate.
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