Sustainable algae biofuel production is rising in demand, and the need to establish an efficient and proper algae harvesting method is extremely essential. Membrane filtration technology seems to be the most promising as a solid-liquid separation process. However, fouling seems to be the major problem for membranes. There is limited research on how to solve the problem of fouling, and cake buildup inside the membranes. A novel membrane design is required to solve the problem of fouling and cake buildup inside the membranes. The objective of this research is to construct a novel two way membrane design for algae biomass harvesting and water recycling. The methods used include culturing algae species, filtering them through the membrane module, and sample analysis for determining the water quality. The results show that the present filtration model had no fouling, or cake buildup as opposed to the previous filtration model. The present model permeate has a very low optical density of 0.007 absorbance at 750 nanometers. This result shows that permeate is completely devoid of algae.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:GATECH/oai:smartech.gatech.edu:1853/53885 |
| Date | 21 September 2015 |
| Creators | Cheruvu, Sarasija |
| Contributors | Chen, Yongsheng |
| Publisher | Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | Georgia Tech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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