harvesting of microalgae dunaliella salina using electroflocculation

one of the important bottle-necks in production of microalgae based biodiesel is thelack of an efficient method for harvesting of microalgae from the culture medium. in thisstudy, the electroflocculation method was developed for harvesting of microalgaedunaliella cells from culture medium. the effect of several parameters such as thecurrent density, electrical conductivity of culture medium, time, electrode gap, andelectrode type on harvesting efficiency and energy consumption were also determined.the maximum harvesting efficiency of this method was 97.44% at ec= 1.35 s m-1 andcurrent density of 90 a m-2 during 3 minutes electroflocculation process in a 300 mlbeaker. the maximum efficiency was achieved by aluminum electrodes with 1 cmdistance between electrodes and the maximum energy consumption for this practice was0.621 kw h m-3. it was concluded that electroflocculation is an efficient and cost effectivemethod for microalgae harvesting.