Environmental Engineering / Çevre Mühendisliği

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Access type: Open accessSubject: search.filters.subject.Diatom

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  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 2
    Citation - Scopus: 1
    Dynamics of Co2 Consumption, and Biomass and Lipid Carbon Production During Photobioreactor Cultivation of the Diatom Cyclotella
    (TÜBİTAK - Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu, 2023) Ökten, Hatice
    Understanding of CO2 delivery and consumption dynamics in algal photobioreactors are critical to unravel microalgae’s full potential for bioproduct generation and carbon capture from flue gas streams. This study aims to expand our current understanding by cultivating the diatom Cyclotella under controlled process conditions of a bubble column photobioreactor and analyzing CO2 consumption dynamics in real time using results from an online CO2 sensor connected to the reactor exhaust. Two sets of experiments were conducted: they served to contrast the influence of silicon and nitrate (Si&N colimitation) and Si limitation, and the light availability, respectively. CO2 consumption was calculated based on the mass balance around the reactor inlet and outlet gas streams. Biomass samples and lipid extracts were analyzed for carbon (C) content to determine biomass-C and lipid-C concentrations. The outlet CO2 concentrations varied significantly with cultivation time and process conditions. More than 15% to 65% of the CO2 introduced left the reactor in the exhaust at any instance based on the set CO2 transfer rates. The highest average daily capturing efficiency was 60%. Nutrient limitation regimes imposed generated unique CO2 consumption profiles undiscernible by the biomass-C analysis, i.e. unlike Si limitation, N limitation had more immediate detrimental effects on C consumption. Final biomass-C concentration increased with increasing N and light availability, 275 mg/L vs. 336 mg/L, and 270 mg/L vs. 501 mg/L, respectively. Biomass-C based capturing efficiency approximations resulted in 20% to 40% underestimation. Under Si-limited conditions, the higher light intensity increased the final lipid-C to biomass-C ratio by two times (from 20% to 40%) and the final lipid-C concentration and peak productivity by four times (from 56 mg/L to 216 mg/L, from 7 to 30 mg/L-day, respectively). This study demonstrates online exhaust CO2 concentration-based analysis’s unique capabilities for assessing carbon availability and capture, organic-C production, and its diversion to biomass and lipid production.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 5
    Citation - Scopus: 5
    Screening Diatom Strains Belonging To Cyclotella Genus for Chitin Nanofiber Production Under Photobioreactor Conditions: Chitin Productivity and Characterization of Physicochemical Properties
    (Elsevier, 2023) Özkan, Altan
    Diatom species belonging to Cyclotella and Thalassiosira genera have the unique and industrially relevant ability to biosynthesize and extrude pure chitin nanofibers. The current understanding of diatom-based chitin production is narrowed by the complete reliance on the performance of a single strain. This study aims to facilitate the development of a wider understanding for enhanced industrial utility. For this purpose, six Cyclotella strains were cultivated under standardized process conditions of a bubble column photobioreactor, and the resulting productions were characterized in terms of rate and physicochemical properties. A two-stage cultivation protocol was followed where the cells were cultivated under silicon replete and then following its complete consumption under silicon deplete conditions. All the strains produced chitin fibers of β-form with relatively constant average diameters, ranging from 48 to 58 nm. Chitin production rates and final concentrations as well as fiber number densities and length distributions were highly strain-dependent. Dissolved silicon availability controlled chitin biosynthesis: following its depletion, the productivity of all the strains increased drastically. Two strains of marine origin, C. cryptica CCMP 332 and C. cryptica CCMP 333, generated the most favorable outcomes for commercial-scale production and had final concentrations of 272 ± 9 mg/L and 316 ± 12 mg/L, and maximum production rates of 48 ± 2 mg/L-day and 51 ± 2 mg/L-day, respectively. The superior performance of these strains was due to (i) the extrusion of more fibers per fiber port, in the case of C. cryptica CCMP 333 as many as 20.7 ± 1.0. indicating free fiber accumulation in suspension, and (ii) the biosynthesis of longer fibers, mean fiber lengths varied from 15 to 20 μm during cultivation. This study demonstrates the importance of species selection and silicon availability for diatom-based chitin production in terms of rate, final concentration, and nanofiber fiber length distributions.