Abstract
Occurrence of large-scale harmful algal blooms (HABs) in our reservoirs and water bodies threaten both quality of our drinking water and economy of aquaculture immensely. Hence, rapid removal of HAB biomass during and after a bloom is crucial in protecting the quality of our drinking water and preserve our water resources. We reported here a rapidly deployable algae cleaning system based on a high-capacity high-throughput (HCHT) spiral blade continuous centrifuge connected with inlet and effluent water tanks and a series of feed-in and feed-out pumps as well as piping, all fitted into a standard 20 feet metal shipping container. The system separates algal biomass from algae-laden water with a maximum flow rate of 4000 L/h and a centrifugal force of 4500× g. Cells collected by the system are still intact due to the low centrifugal force used. We showed that after HCHT centrifugation, cellular contents of HAB biomass were not found in the effluent water, and hence, could be discharged directly back to the water body. Furthermore, the addition of flocculants and chemicals prior to the separation process is not required. The system could operate continuously with proper programmed procedures. Taken overall, this system offered a much better alternative than the traditional flocculation- and sonication-based methods of HAB removal in a freshwater environment. This deployable system is the first of its kind being built and had been field-tested successfully.
Highlights
Occurrence of large-scale harmful algal blooms (HAB) in freshwater and marine environments is a worldwide problem that threatens water quality, as well as aquatic and human life
We had commissioned a company in the Netherlands called Evodos Dynamic Settlers to build our deployable rapid cleaning system with their high-capacity high-throughput (HCHT) centrifuge system
Other species identified in the metagenomic analysis were all non-photosynthetic bacteria [49,50,51,52,53]. As they were all found in eff02, they may be too small to be collected by the mobile cleaning system, and were retained in the effluent water (Figure 9). These results further suggested that our mobile cleaning system was capable of removing over
Summary
Occurrence of large-scale harmful algal blooms (HAB) in freshwater and marine environments is a worldwide problem that threatens water quality, as well as aquatic and human life. Freshwater algal blooms caused by cyanobacteria (sometimes denoted as “cyanoHAB” [1]) occur worldwide, including in China [2], Africa [3], North America [4], Middle East [5], Australia [6,7] and Europe [8]. These large-scale cyanoHAB have caused economic losses. CyanoHAB-causative agents, in particular Microcystis aeruginosa, produce hepatotoxic microcystins [9] If these toxic cyanoHAB occur in reservoirs and lagoons that are designated to provide water for drinking purposes, the effects can be catastrophic. In May 2007 in WuXi city on the Northern shore of the
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