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Biobased Approaches Towards Treatment and Recycling of Heavy Metals from Wastewater
Published in Gunjan Mukherjee, Sunny Dhiman, Waste Management, 2023
Algae can be harvested easily from nature or mass cultured rapidly because of their short doubling time. Their growth is solar driven and do not require many essential nutrients (Chaumont 1993). The cell walls of algae contain a variety of structures with functional groups, which possess excellent metal binding properties. Algae can be divided into three groups: red algae, brown algae, and green algae. They vary from each other mainly by their cell wall compositions. The cell wall of brown algae consists mostly of cellulose, alginic acid, and sulphated polysaccharides. The presence of carboxyl and sulphate groups are abundant, which are responsible for metal sorption. Red algae contain sulphated polysaccharides made of galactanes, which aid metal sorption. Green algae consist of cellulose, with many proteins bound to polysaccharides. This gives rise to many functional groups such as amino, sulphate, hydroxyl, and carboxyl (Romera et al. 2007). Due to their cell wall composition, algae have been widely researched for the biosorption ability.
Valorization of Algal Spent Biomass into Valuable Biochemicals and Energy Resource
Published in Sanjeet Mehariya, Shashi Kant Bhatia, Obulisamy Parthiba Karthikeyan, Algal Biorefineries and the Circular Bioeconomy, 2022
Saravanan Vasanthakumar, K Greeshma, Muthu Arumugam
Algae are widely recognized as a food supplement due to their significant nutritional content for the food source. It has been investigated that 75% of algal biomass is exploited for producing algal tablets, capsules, and powder for human and animal food. Algal biomass can serve as an alternative protein source for fish and animals (Chisti, 2008). The addition of a minimum amount of algal biomass to animal and fish diet can enhance their growth (Singh et al., 2011). The production of algal biomass for this purpose is not economically feasible; thus, spent algal biomass produced as waste would be a promising option.
Biotechnical Design Criteria
Published in Kyoung Hee Kim, Microalgae Building Enclosures, 2022
Environmental indicator: Microalgae in nature generally indicates high concentrations of nutrients in water bodies, called algal blooms. Anthropogenic activities such as agriculture (e.g., fertilizer), surface run-off from impervious urban settings, storm water management, wastewater treatment, and so on play an important role in preventing algal bloom in a water system. The visual presence of algal blooms can cause drinking water problems, unattractive aesthetics, and economic loss through hindering the recreational use of the water body.3 Algae blooms also produce toxins that are harmful to ecosystems and human health.4
A review on the applications of machine learning and deep learning in agriculture section for the production of crop biomass raw materials
Published in Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 2023
Wei Peng, Omid Karimi Sadaghiani
Algae as aquatic plant consists of a wide range of microalgae, macro-algae (seaweed), and cyanobacteria. Algae can use the solar irradiance energy and nutrients to produce biomass including proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. These main components can be processed into different kinds of biofuels and materials (Han et al. 2017). Growing in various waters (i.e., saline, fresh, or brackish water) from groundwater, surface water, seawater, and even waste water produced in cities, fields, or industries is an individual property of this plant. It should be mentioned that the advantage of macroalgae biomass is its higher density rather than microalgae. On the other hand, the majority of macroalgae is comprised of carbohydrates and the amount of lipid plays a key role in biodiesel production. Therefore, macroalgae cannot be an economically logical source of biodiesel (Erfanmanesh et al. 2019).
Digital supply network design: a Circular Economy 4.0 decision-making system for real-world challenges
Published in Production Planning & Control, 2023
Naoum Tsolakis, Tomás Seosamh Harrington, Jagjit Singh Srai
In addition, the international market for omega-3 oils was valued at US$33 billion in 2016, demonstrating strong growth in recent years with a compound annual growth rate of over 14%, while projections point to a market value of US$57 billion in 2025 (Statista 2017). Algae is a fundamental source of omega-3 fatty acids (e.g., eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids) which constitute major nutritional elements for fish and seafood used to satisfy human dietary and nutritional needs (Stiles et al. 2018). However, these long-chain acids are not available via commercial protein substitutes (e.g., soybeans, pea seeds, corn gluten). The co-production of diverse products is proven to benefit both the sustainability of algae-based platform technologies and the economics of their respective manufacturing supply networks (Soto-Sierra, Stoykova, and Nikolov 2018). Therefore, the transition towards sustainable supply chains may be empowered by the interplay between Circular Economy and Industry 4.0, as demonstrated in Figure 4. The automation hierarchy underpinning the Industry 4.0 application, towards establishing operationally efficient and sustainable value networks, was adopted by Bechtsis et al. (2018).
Exploring the potential of microalgae cell factories for generation of biofuels
Published in Biofuels, 2023
Dixita Chettri, Ashwani Kumar Verma, Anil Kumar Verma
Algae are a diverse group of microorganisms that include cyanobacteria, green algae, and other algae. They are generally classified as belonging to the eukaryotic domain, although some of them belong to the prokaryotic domain. They are ubiquitous in nature and occur under extreme conditions both on land and in water, although they are predominantly found in aquatic ecosystems [1,2]. They can be unicellular or multicellular, do not have a distinct root–shoot system, and vary in size from microscopic to macroscopic and are accordingly referred to as microalgae (0.5 to few cm) and macroalgae (up to 60 m), respectively [3–5]. They are generally autotrophic and possess chlorophyll and a highly efficient photosynthetic system to convert solar energy into biomass. They are the most important producers in the marine ecosystem and contribute 50% of photosynthesis on Earth [6].