Poorya Rafiee - PhD student at Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran
Sirous Ebrahimi - Professor at Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran
Maryam Hosseini - Assistant Professor at Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran

Microalgae-based industries are developing everywhere, since their application in biofuel and other down processing products. However, the industry bottleneck is still the dewatering phase. Electrocoagulation (EC) is a quick and conventional strategy for harvesting. However, its mechanism is yet to be unfolded. Thus, in this study, parametric EC runs were executed to help understand and later optimize the electrocoagulation operation. The biomass concentration, current, time, salinity and inter-electrode gap were the investigated EC parameters. In addition, in this study, for the first time, a mixed local culture of microalgae was used for harvesting through EC. The results reach complete recovery of biomass from the medium.

electrocoagulation, harvesting, microalgae, mixed culture, parameters