Electrocoagulation Process for Microalgal Biotechnology - A Review

As an electrotechnology, electrocoagulation (EC) is founded on the uninterrupted exercise of an external electric field across specified semi-conductive electrodes. This technique may be viewed as a side of a large domain of biotechnological methods and perceived cost-effective and environmentally-friendly in terms of the less intensive application of non-renewable resources and elevated degrees of energetic performance. From this point of view, EC is an encouraging treating system to control several of microalgae's utilization restrictions. Using electric field-founded technologies may include upstream (i.e. electroporation for genetic transformation, inactivation of culture contaminants, and improvement of growth kinetics) and downstream processes (e.g. harvesting and extraction methods). This review gives a thorough information of the present situation of the explicit usage of such methods on microalgal biotechnology, also following tendencies and defies concerning expansions in EC to be used to microalgae manufacturing utilization. Like other electrotechnolgies, EC remains a viable process usable in microalgal biotechnology even if it is based on the destruction of the cells. However, more researches should be planned in the perspective of a large industrial usage of this electrochemical technique