Re-frying oil emulsion as buoy-bead for microalgae harvesting: A promising approach for blooms of microalgae management

Abstract

Blooms of microalgae can pose a major threat to ecological balance and human health. Therefore, a novel method of harvesting microalgae was investigated, using re-frying oil to make buoy-bead for the harvesting process. The effectiveness of the method was evaluated by water samples from the Huaihe River basin and Chaohu Lake. The results showed that the buoy-bead flotation method achieved a harvesting efficiency of 97.21 %.The climate change emissions for harvesting 1 m³ of microalgae are 0.33 kg CO₂ eq, and with a positive NPV, the economic feasibility of the microalgae harvesting plan is preliminarily assessed.