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Flocculation is a promising method to overcome the economic hurdle to separation of algae from its growth medium in large scale operations. However, understanding of the floc structure and the effects of shear on the floc structure are crucial to the large scale implementation of this technique. The floc structure is important because it determines, in large part, the density and settling behavior of the algae. Freshwater algae floc size distributions and fractal dimensions are presented as a function of applied shear rate in a Couette cell using ferric chloride as a flocculant. Comparisons are made with measurements made for a polystyrene microparticle model system taken here as well as reported literature results. The algae floc size distributions are found to be self-preserving with respect to shear rate, consistent with literature data for polystyrene. Three fractal dimensions are calculated which quantitatively characterize the complexity of the floc structure. Low shear rates result in large, relatively dense packed flocs which elongate and fracture as the shear rate is increased. The results presented here provide crucial information for economically implementing flocculation as a large scale algae harvesting strategy., (© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

A novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique which resolves the separate components of the evolving vertical concentration profiles of 3-component non-colloidal suspensions is described. This method exploits the sensitivity of MRI to chemical differences between the three phases to directly image the fluid phase and one of the solid phases, with the third phase obtained by subtraction. 19F spin-echo imaging of a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) oil was interlaced with 1H SPRITE imaging of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) particles. The third phase was comprised of borosilicate glass spheres, which were not visible while imaging the PTFE or LDPE phases. The method is demonstrated by performing measurements on 2-phase materials containing only the floating (LDPE) particles, with the results contrasted to the experimental behaviour of the individual phases in the full 3-phase system. All experiments were performed using nearly monodisperse particles, with initial suspension volume fractions, phi(i), of 0.1.