Inertial Microfluidics-Based Separation of Microalgae Using a Contraction–Expansion Array Microchannel

Abstract

Microalgae separation technology is essential for both executing laboratory-based fundamental studies and ensuring the quality of the final algal products. However, the conventional microalgae separation technology of micropipetting requires highly skilled operators and several months of repeated separation to obtain a microalgal single strain. This study therefore aimed at utilizing microfluidic cell sorting technology for the simple and effective separation of microalgae. Microalgae are characterized by their various morphologies with a wide range of sizes. In this study, a contraction–expansion array microchannel, which utilizes these unique properties of microalgae, was specifically employed for the size-based separation of microalgae. At Reynolds number of 9, two model algal cells, Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris) and Haematococcus pluvialis (H. pluvialis), were successfully separated without showing any sign of cell damage, yielding a purity of 97.9% for C. vulgaris and 94.9% for H. pluvialis. The result supported that the inertia-based separation technology could be a powerful alternative to the labor-intensive and time-consuming conventional microalgae separation technologies.

Separation of Microalgae from Bacterial Contaminants using Spiral Microchannel in the Presence of a Chemoattractant

“…This is due to microalgae's ability to absorb CO2 through photosynthesis (Borowitzka 2013), their greater biomass productivity compared to terrestrial plants (Wan et al 2015), and their use in feedstocks to produce high-value products like food, cosmetics and renewable, thereby meeting global demand (Yuan et al 2017). The aforementioned industrial potential, typically achieved by growing a single algal strain with a high proportion of target product, is only possessed by a few unique species (Kim et al 2021). Therefore, it is crucial to separate microalgae strains with desired characteristics from their natural habitats to facilitate productivity in laboratory research and effective commercial applications.…”

Lattice-Boltzmann Modelling for Inertial Particle Microfluidics Applications — A Tutorial Review

“…For example, researchers have successfully demonstrated the isolation of circulating tumour cells [43][44][45][46], malaria parasites [47,48], bacteria [49], and circulating fetal cells [50][51][52]. IPMF has been used for water filtration [53], dewatering of microalgae suspensions [54,55], blood plasma separation [56][57][58], exosome sorting [59,60], blood cell fractionation [61,62], stem cell purification [63,64], and the concentration of mammalian cells [65]. IPMF has also proven its value in flow cytometry applications and as a particle spacer [66][67][68], turning disordered dilute suspensions into orderly spaced particle trains that can be used for downstream processes [69][70][71][72], such as cell encapsulation in droplets [73,74].…”

Geometric structure design of passive label-free microfluidic systems for biological micro-object separation

“…Microfluidic separation devices have established their reputation based on a reduced sample and reagent volumes, improved portability, significant sensitivity, and low cost 6 . Minute bioparticles, such as red blood cells (RBCs) and white blood cells (WBCs) 7 , CTCs 2 , 8 – 10 , exosomes 11 , 12 , DNA 13 , parasites 14 , bacteria 15 , 16 , and spores 5 , 17 , 18 , can be separated by microfluidics based on their size differences and other attributes. There are two types of microfluidic separation devices: active and passive 19 .…”