Bioflocculants and production of microalgal biomass

Abstract

With the increase in world population, the demand of fossil fuels has increased rapidly. With the rising concern of limited availability of the fossil fuels, the demand of alternative fuels like biodiesel has attained a considerable attention over a decade. Microalgae have shown to be one of the promising sources for the production of biodiesel, as it can be grown easily on inorganic nutrients and have a tendency to accumulate large amount of fatty acids, which can be converted to biodiesel. However, the recovery of microalgae is one of the major problems that limits its industrial production. Physical methods like centrifugation and filtration are costly. This chapter focuses on flocculation and the use of bioflocculants for the cost-effective recovery of microalgal biomass.