Acronym ANTIBIOFOULING
Category
Marine Biotechnology
Title Biotechnology of marine microalgae: development of antibiofouling surfaces for photobioreactors Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator NA Coordinator email NA
Coordinator institution
UAL - University of Almeria (Spain)
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2014 End year 2018 Funding (€) € 219,010 Website NA Summary The economic and/or energetic feasibility of processes based on using microalgae biomass requires an efficient cultivation system. In photobioreactors (pbrs), the adhesion of microalgae to the transparent pbr surfaces leads to biofouling and reduces the penetration of the solar radiation within the pbr. Reduction of light within the pbr decreases biomass productivity and therefore, the photosynthetic efficiency of the cultivation system. Moreover, biofouling of a pbr leads to a series of other undesired events including changing cell pigmentation degradation of the culture, and contamination by invasive microorganisms, which finally requires the cultivation process to be stopped. Designing pbr surfaces with proper functional groups, or surface coatings, to prevent microalgal adhesion is essential for solving this problem that will result in a significant advancement in micraolgal biotechnology. The aim of this project is to study the adhesion of marine microalgae to photobioreactor surfaces using planktonic as well as benthic species, (1) by studying the physico-chemical properties of microalgae and solid substrata surfaces (including zeta potential, surface free energy and cell morphology), (2) by building and setting up a benchmark and a protocol allowing a reliable testing of the adhesion cell density and the strength of the micraolgal adhesion, with a diverse group of substrata, or surface coatings, resulting in the selection of optimal surface materials, and/or coatings, for different marine microalgae strains, and (3) by describing both the surface-microalge and microalgae-microalgae interactions through experimentally validated models. Finally, the selected surface materials and coatings will be implemented in three of the ready-to-use commercial technologies for massive biomass production (tubular, flat panel and raceway photobioreactors) in our outdoor pilot plant facilities for marine microalgae biomass production.
The expected result from this project include: (1) a comprehensive and useful set of physico-chemical properties for both the microalgae cell and substrata surfaces, that may help to understand the cell to cell and the substrata to cell interactions; (2) the construction of pbrs with substantial reduction in biofouling enabling extended operational periods at high productivity. In addition, the project data (surface to cells interactions) will be useful to select solid surfaces promoting, just the opposite, formation of microalgal biofilms (immobilized microalgae pbrs) that may be useful in practical environmental applications, and for designing less energy consuming strategies, such as biofloculation, for harvesting marine microalgal biomass.
Keywords
Algae;
Bioprospecting;
Technology;
Biofouling;
Antifouling;
Biofilm;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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