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Microflotation Performance for Algal Separation Accepted.pdf (705.62 kB)

Microflotation performance for algal separation

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journal contribution
posted on 2014-05-23, 12:23 authored by James Hanotu, Hemaka BandulasenaHemaka Bandulasena, William B. Zimmerman
The performance of microflotation, dispersed air flotation with microbubble clouds with bubble size about 50 µm, for algae separation using fluidic oscillation for microbubble generation is investigated. This fluidic oscillator converts continuous air supply into oscillatory flow with a regular frequency to generate bubbles of the scale of the exit pore. Bubble characterization results showed that average bubble size generated under oscillatory air flow state was 86 µm, approximately twice the size of the diffuser pore size of 38 µm. In contrast, continuous air flow at the same rate through the same diffusers yielded an average bubble size of 1,059 µm, 28 times larger than the pore size. Following microbubble generation, the separation of algal cells under fluidic oscillator generated microbubbles was investigated by varying metallic coagulant types, concentration and pH. Best performances were recorded at the highest coagulant dose (150 mg/L) applied under acidic conditions (pH 5). Amongst the three metallic coagulants studied, ferric chloride yielded the overall best result of 99.2% under the optimum conditions followed closely by ferric sulfate (98.1%) and aluminum sulfate with 95.2%. This compares well with conventional dissolved air flotation (DAF) benchmarks, but has a highly turbulent flow, whereas microflotation is laminar with several orders of magnitude lower energy density. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2012; 109:1663–1673. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Funding

WZ would like to acknowledge support from the Concept Fund of Yorkshire Forward and the EPSRC [grant no. EP/I019790/1]. WZ would like to acknowledge the Royal Society for a Brian Mercer Innovation award and the Royal Academy of Engineering for an industrial secondment with AECOM Design Build. JOH would like to thank the University of Sheffield for a doctoral scholarship.

History

School

  • Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Department

  • Chemical Engineering

Citation

HANOTU, J., BANDULASENA, H.C.H. and ZIMMERMAN, W.B., 2012. Microflotation performance for algal separation. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 109 (7), pp. 1663-1673.

Publisher

© Wiley Periodicals

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publication date

2012

Notes

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: HANOTU, J., BANDULASENA, H.C.H. and ZIMMERMAN, W.B., 2012. Microflotation performance for algal separation. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 109 (7), pp. 1663-1673, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bit.24449. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving'.

ISSN

0006-3592

eISSN

1097-0290

Language

  • en