• Environmental Engineering Research
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.356-362
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• 2017

This study investigates the use of methyl-esterified eggshell membranes (MESM) for the harvesting of microalgae species under various conditions. Eggshell membranes were esterified with HCl to impact polycationic characteristics. After methyl esterification, the negative surface charge property of eggshell membrane was changed from negative to positive for all pH values to improve microalgae sorption capacity. The harvesting efficiency of microalgae by MESM reached 78-99% for all pH ranges evaluated. In addition, a 150 mesh particle size and $10mg\;L^{-1}$ MESM dose were found to yield up to 98% microalgae harvesting. These results indicate that the high cationic charge of MESM strongly adsorbs the negatively-charged microalgae. MESM is biocompatible and can be applied to the harvest of microalgae.