 Moisture displacement and simultaneous migration of surface-functionalized algae from water to an extraction solvent using ionic polyelectrolytesNalin U. Samarasinghe and Sandun D. Fernando Renewable Energy, 2015, vol. 81, issue C, 639-643 Abstract: Effective moisture removal and the ability of algal biomass to be compatible with lipophilic solvents are key to making the algal lipid extraction processes economically viable. Here we report a simple technique to chemically remove moisture from algal water while forcing above 95% of the algal cell mass to migrate to a (hydrophobic) lipid extraction solvent. The technique is based on functionalization of algal cell surface with a water-soluble cationic polyelectrolyte, Poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PolyDADMAC) that has hydrophobic ligands in its structure. Studies indicate that algal cells continued to displace moisture even after migrating into the solvent phase - continuing to perform the chemical drying step. The general results indicate that the technique could be extended to systems that require separation of particles with charged surfaces - by using a surface active ionic polyelectrolyte with appropriate charge and ligand combination(s). Keywords: Algae; Dewatering; Polyelectrolytes; Separation; Harvesting (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:81:y:2015:i:c:p:639-643 DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2015.03.053 Access Statistics for this article Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier |
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