1. Supervisor :Dr. Robert Edyvean and Dr. Stephen Wikinson
Chemical & Biological Engineering.
Enhancing growth using carbon dioxide and improving efficiency of the sedimentation process by using Chitosan for Chlorella vulgaris in photobioreactor
Supatchalee Sophonthammphat
Supervisor :Dr. Robert Edyvean and Dr. Stephen Wikinson
Currently British companies are making an increasing effort to reduce their energy consumption and CO2 
emissions. My project looks at the possibility of capturing and converting waste CO2 to energy via algal biofuel production. The project will examine many of issues ranging from the effect of waste material such as flue gas (CO2) on algae cultivation [1-3] and the efficiency of Chitosan sedimentation for algal harvesting [4-7].
Methodology to study
To enhance CO2 utilisation, 6% CO2 simulated flue gas, bicarbonate will use to cultivate C. vulgaris in 3N BBM media and vitamin B with the controlled conditions such as pH, temperature and light. The research will select the highest growth rate to analyse CO2 capture by measure the total inorganic carbon (TIC) and turbidity. The performing of the jar test will be provided in the coagulation and flocculation process in different ranging of pH. Then, measure of TIC is performed to study the relationship between TIC and pH. The highest TIC will be chosen to control pH. Various dosage of the chitosan will be added in the jar test. Record the optimised dose and time of particles setting. To improve of efficiency of sedimentation process, the result will analyse to compare the data (TIC, OD 680, turbidity and timing) when using chitosan and non use.
Preliminary investigates will look at the impact of aeration and light on the growth rate of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii by taking a picture and comparing a colour. The study found that algal growth in aeration and light conditions were better than non giving aeration and light. However, the study should measure algal density by using spectrophotometer as well.
Chitosan
References
[1] Li F.F.et al., (2011) Microalage Capture of CO2 from Actual Flue gas Discharged from a Combustion Chamber. Industrial &Engineering Chemical Research.Vol.50, pp
[2] Raksasak W.et al. (2012). Accelerating microalgae growth with CO2 transformation. Vol.4. pp retrieve from
[3] Chinnasamy S., Ramakrishnan B., et at. (2009). Biomass Product ion Potential of a Wastewater Algal chlorella vulgaris ARC 1 under Elevated Level of CO2 and Temperture.Int.J. Mol.Sci.Vol.10 pp
[4] Admad A.L. et al. (2011) Optimization of microalgae coagulant process using chitosan. Chemical Engineering Journal. vol. 173 pp
[5] Divakaran R. et al. (2002) Flocculation of algae using chitosan. Journal of Applied Phycology Vol. 14 pp
[6] H. A K., et al. (2013) Use of saponin and chiosan in flotation seperation of Algae. 9th International conference on Sustainable Water Environment: Intelligent Water management Seoul, Korea, August 2013 pp. 1-8.
[7] Lubian L.M. (1989) Concentrating Cutured Marine Microalge with Chitosan. Aquacultural Engineering. Vol.8 pp