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Antibiotics, such as ciprofloxacin (CIP), are frequently detected in various environmental compartments, posing significant risks to ecosystems and human health. In this study, the physiological responses and elimination mechanisms of CIP in Chlorella sorokiniana and Scenedesmus dimorphus were determined. The exposure CIP had a minimal impact on the growth of microalgae, with maximum inhibit efficiency (IR) of 5.14% and 22.74 for C. sorokiniana and S. dimorphus, respectively. Notably, the photorespiration in S. dimorphus were enhanced. Both microalgae exhibited efficient CIP removal, predominantly through bioaccumulation and biodegradation processes. Intermediates involved in photolysis and biodegradation were analyzed through Liquid Chromatography High Resolution Mass Spectrometer (HPLC-MS/MS), providing insights into degradation pathways of CIP. Upregulation of key enzymes, such as dioxygenase, oxygenase and cytochrome P450, indicated their involvement in the biodegradation of CIP. These findings enhance our understanding of the physiological responses, removal mechanisms, and pathways of CIP in microalgae, facilitating the advancement of microalgae-based wastewater treatment approaches, particularly in antibiotic-contaminated environments., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This study was conducted to achieve economic and sustainable production of biomass and lipids from Chlorella sorokiniana by recirculating cultivation with recycled harvesting water, to identify the major inhibitory factors in recirculating culture, and to analyze accordingly economic benefits. The results showed that recirculating microalgae cultivation (RMC) could obtain 0.20-0.32 g/L biomass and lipid content increased by 23.1 %-38.5 %. Correlation analysis showed that the extracellular polysaccharide (PS ext ), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and chromaticity of recirculating water inhibited photosynthesis and induced oxidative stress, thus inhibiting the growth of C. sorokiniana. In addition, the economic benefits analysis found that circulating the medium twice could save about 30 % of production cost, which is the most economical RMC solution. In conclusion, this study verified the feasibility and economy of RMC, and provided a better understanding of inhibitory factors identification in culture., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Microalgae-based biotechnology for antibiotics biodegradation in swine wastewater has been receiving an increasing attention. In this study, microalgae and fungi co-cultivation system, regulated by copper (Cu(II)), was investigated in terms of nutrients and sulfonamides degradation in simulated swine wastewater. Results showed that the removal of ammonium nitrogen (NH 4 + -N), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) by microalgal-fungal consortium increased under 0.1-0.5 mg/L Cu(II) with the highest removal efficiency of 79.19%, 76.18%, 93.93% and 93.46%, respectively. The addition of Cu(II) (0-0.5 mg/L) enhanced the removal of sulfamonomethoxine (SMM), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and sulfamethazine (SMZ) from 49.05% to 58.76%, from 59.31% to 63.51%, and from 37.51% to 63.9%, respectively, and the main removal mechanism was found to be biodegradation. Biodegradation followed a pseudo-first-order model with variable half-lives (10.12 to 15.51 days for SMM, 9.01 to 10.88 days for SMX, and 8.74 to 12.85 days for SMZ). Through mass spectrometry analysis, metabolites and intermediates of sulfonamides were accordingly identified, suggesting that the degradation routes were involved with hydroxylation, deamination, oxidation, de-sulfonation and bond cleavage. Dissolved organic matters released by microalgal-fungal consortium were induced by Cu(II). Fulvic acid-like and protein-like substances were bound to Cu(II), reducing its concentration and thus mitigating the organismal damage to microorganisms. These findings drew an insightful understanding of microalgal-fungal consortium for sulfonamides remediation by Cu(II) regulation in simulated swine wastewater., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest This paper is our unpublished work and it has not been submitted to any other journal for reviews. Thus, it has not been previously published, in whole or in part, and it is not under consideration by any other journal. Additionally, I confirm that both authors are aware of, and accept responsibility for, the manuscript. There is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Microalgae cultivation for biodiesel production is promising, but the high demand for nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, remains a limiting factor. This study investigated effects of struvite, a low-cost nutrient source, on microalgae production under different physiological phases. Changes in element concentrations were determined to characterize the controllable nutrient release properties of struvite. Results showed that nutrient elements could be effectively supplemented by struvite. However, responses of microalgae under different growth stages to struvite varied obviously, achieving the highest biomass (0.53 g/L) and the lowest (0.32 g/L). Moreover, the microalgal lipid production was obviously increased by adding struvite during the growth phase, providing the first evidence that struvite could serve as an alternative buffering nutrient source to culture microalgae. The integration of microalgae cultivation with struvite as a buffering nutrient source provides a novel strategy for high ammonia nitrogen wastewater treatment with microalgae for biodiesel production., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, the microalgae-bacteria symbiosis (ABS) system by co-culturing Chlorella sorokiniana with activated sludge was constructed for pollutants removal, and the according interaction mechanism was investigated. The results showed that the ABS system could almost completely remove ammonia nitrogen, and the removal efficiency of total nitrogen and total phosphorus could accordingly reach up to 65.3 % and 42.6 %. Brevundimonas greatly promoted microalgal biomass growth (maximum chlorophyll-a concentration of 9.4 mg/L), and microalgae contributed to the increase in the abundance of Dokdonella and Thermomonas in ABS system, thus facilitating nitrogen removal. The extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory indicated a repulsive potential barrier of 561.7 KT, while tryptophan-like proteins and tyrosine-like proteins were key extracellular polymeric substances for the formation of flocs by microalgae and activated sludge. These findings provide an in-depth understanding of interaction mechanism between microalgae and activated sludge for the removal of contaminants from wastewater., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

As one of the fourth-generation fluoroquinolone antibiotics, moxifloxacin (MOX) has been frequently released to the aquatic environment, threatening local organisms. However, researches on its ecotoxicity to aquatic organisms are still limited. This study analyzed effects of MOX on the growth, photosynthesis and oxidative stress of two common types of freshwater microalgae, Chlorella sorokiniana and Scenedesmus dimorphus. The 96 h-EC 50 values of MOX for C. sorokiniana and S. dimorphus were 28.42 and 26.37 mg/L, respectively. Although variations of specific indicators for photosynthetic fluorescence intensity were different, photosystems of two types of microalgae were irreversibly damaged. The malondialdehyde content and superoxide dismutase of C. sorokiniana and S. dimorphus evidently increased, indicating that the exposure of MOX caused serious oxidative stress. Chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids contents of C. sorokiniana increased, probably resulting from the resistance to oxidative stress, whereas they were inhibited due to oxidation damage as for S. dimorphus. Risk quotients (RQs) of MOX for C. sorokiniana and S. dimorphus in wastewater were 7.882 and 8.495, respectively, which demonstrated that MOX had a considerable risk to aquatic environment, especially in the context of its increasing use in practice., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Both sulfonamides (SAs) and copper (Cu(II)) were frequently detected together in swine wastewater. In this study, the regulation of Cu(II) on SAs adsorption and release of dissolved organic matters (DOMs) by fungi-microalgae pellets (FM-pellets) were investigated. Aspergillus oryzae pellets were prepared for combination with Chlorella vulgaris and the optimal conditions were at agitation speed of 130 rpm, fungi to microalgae ratio of 10:1 and the combined time of 3 h with the highest combination efficiency of 98.65%. The results showed that adsorption was the main mechanism for SAs removal. FM-pellets exhibited a high SAs adsorption potential within 6 h, and the adsorption capacity of sulfamethazine (SMZ), sulfamonomethoxine (SMM) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX) was 1.07, 0.94 and 1.67 mg/g, respectively. Furthermore, the removal of SMX, SMZ and SMM was greatly promoted from 62.31% to 85.21%, 58.71-67.91% and 64.17-80.31%, respectively, under the presence of 2 mg/L Cu(II) through ion exchange and adsorption bridging. DOMs were analyzed by the parallel factor (PARAFAC) to demonstrate the response mechanism of FM-pellets to Cu(II). Protein-like substances and NADH in DOMs released by FM-pellets formed complexes with Cu(II) to alleviate the damage on the organism. These findings provide new insights into the mechanism and response of Cu(II) in the removal of SAs by FM-pellets., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Fungal pellet is an emerging material to collect oleaginous microalgae, but rare studies have noticed that harvested water is available resource for the next round of cultivation. To systematically optimize regrowth performances of microalgae Chlorella vulgaris, separated water after harvesting by fungi Aspergillus oryzae was prepared under different N/P ratios. The results showed that chlorophylls and enzymes were significantly affected by the proportion of N and P. Although nutrient deficiency was functioned as a stress factor to restrict carbohydrate and protein synthesis, lipid content was obviously increased by 12.69%. The percentage of saturated fatty acids associated with oxidation stability increased, while this part in fresh wastewater accounted for only 36.96%. The favorable biomass concentration (1.37 g/L) with the highest lipid yield (0.42 g/L) appeared in N/P of 6:1. More strikingly, suitable conditions could save 52.4% of cultivation costs. These experiments confirmed that reusing bioflocculated water could be effectively utilized for biodiesel production., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Sulfonamides (SAs) and heavy metals are frequently detected together in livestock wastewater. In this study, evaluations regarding their potentially adverse effects on microalgae and according removals were investigated. Results showed that the growth of C. vulgaris was inhibited by SAs and Cu. There was an obvious recovery period in photosynthetic activity (Fv/Fm), indicating that the damage to the photosystem of microalgae was reversible. The co-existence of SAs and Cu significantly affected the biochemical characteristics, including the activities of antioxidant enzyme and the contents of photosynthetic pigments, proteins and polysaccharides. The addition of Cu obviously promoted the removal efficiencies of SMZ, SMX and SMM, which might be ascribed to the bridging effect of Cu in the bioadsorption of SAs. This study is conducive to understand the changes in the biochemical responses of microalgae under the combined impacts of SAs and Cu, and provides a new insight for the simultaneous removals., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

To confront with energy crisis, microalgae as the promising feedstock have a great potential in exploring renewable energy field, whereas the high costs related to medium preparation and biomass harvesting are the main bottleneck to hinder the development on a large scale. Though cultivation of filamentous fungi for microalgae harvesting is an efficient, sustainable and emerging method, and the studies on specific mechanisms and spent medium recycling for efficiency improvement as well as resource saving through a co-pelletization mode are urgently needed. Hence, in this study, the harvesting process of autotrophic microalgae Chlorella vulgaris by pre-cultured Aspergillus oryzae pellets was investigated systematically. The highest efficiency (99.23%) was obtained within 5 h under the optimized conditions of 30 °C, 130 rpm and fungi:algae ratio of 1:1 on a dry weight basis without demand for pH adjustment (initial value on 9.68). Charge neutralization was not the main mechanisms involved in fungi-algae aggregations, and the functional group changes on cell surfaces as well as secreted metabolites in medium could be mainly responsible for inducing the bioflocculation process. After harvesting, separated water could also effectively support microalgae re-growth. The biomass concentration in medium with 50% recycling was higher than that in fresh medium, while lipid content was increased from 24.37% to 33.97% in fully recycled medium. These results indicated that the pellet-assisted mode for algal harvesting is a promising way to promote biofuel production and resource recycling., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Contamination by estrogens and heavy metals can cause great environment concern and necessitate efficient approaches for their removals. In this study, the combined effects of 17β-estradiol (E2) and Cu(II) on microalgae growth and biochemical characteristics were investigated. Results showed that 1 mg/L Cu(II) promoted the growth of Scenedesmus dimorphus, while 2 mg/L Cu(II) exhibited growth inhibition, compared with the same concentration of E2. Biochemical characteristics including enzyme activities as well as the contents of chlorophyll, protein and carbohydrate were significantly affected by the coexistence of E2 and Cu(II) after 12 d of cultivation. S. dimorphus exhibited high E2 and Cu(II) removal efficiencies (89.9% of E2 and 76.6% Cu(II) under the coexistence of 0.5 mg/L E2 and 1 mg/L Cu(II), respectively). Lower concentration of Cu(II) might serve as a bridge during E2 removal by S. dimorphus while competitive adsorption of Cu(II) and E2 occurred under the condition of excessive Cu(II). Results could confirm that S. dimorphus was a potential bioresource for the effective removal of E2 and Cu(II)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Microplastics are ubiquitous in aquatic ecosystems worldwide, but knowledge on their impacts on phytoplankton, especially freshwater microalgae, is still limited. To investigate this issue, microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was exposed to polystyrene (PS) microplastics with 4 concentration gradients (5, 25, 50 and 100 mg/L), and the growth, chlorophyll a fluorescence, photosynthetic activities (Fv/Fm), the contents of malondialdehydes (MDA), soluble proteins, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and settlement rate were accordingly measured. Results showed that the density of microalgae decreased as the increase of PS microplastics concentrations, and the highest inhibitory rate (IR) was 45.8% on the 7th day under the concentration of 100 mg/L. The high concentration (100 mg/L) of microplastics evidently inhibited the content of EPS released by microalgae into the solution. PS under all dosages tested could reduce both the chlorophyll a fluorescence yields and photosynthetic activities. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images demonstrated that microplastic beads were wrapped on the surface of microalgae and damaged their membranes, which could suggest the reduction of photosynthetic activities and the increase of soluble proteins and MDA content. The results also showed that PS microplastics could inhibit the settlement of microalgae at the later stage, which also indicated the recovery of microalgae from the toxic environment. Our findings will contribute to understanding the effects of microplastics on freshwater microalgae, as well as evaluating the possible influences of microplastics on aquatic ecosystems., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Biodiesel is one of the best promising candidates in response to the energy crisis, since it has the capability to minimize most of the environmental problems. Microalgae, as the feedstock of third-generation biodiesel, are considered as one of the most sustainable resources. However, microalgae production for biodiesel feedstock on a large scale is still limited, because of the influences of lipid contents, biomass productivities, lipid extraction technologies, the water used in microalgae cultivation and processes of biomass harvesting. This paper firstly reviews the recent advances in microalgae cultivation and growth processes. Subsequently, current microalgae harvesting technologies are summarized and flocculation mechanisms are analyzed, while the characteristics that the ideal harvesting methods should have are summarized. This review also summarizes the environmental pollution control performances and the key challenges in future. The key suggestions and conclusions in the paper can offer a promising roadmap for the cost-effective biodiesel production., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Oxidative stress is a universal interpretation for the toxicity mechanism of nanoplastics to microalgae. However, there is a lack of deeper insight into the regulation mechanism in microalgae response to oxidative stress, thus affecting the prevention and control for nanoplastics hazard. The integrated analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics was employed to investigate the mechanism for the oxidative stress response of Chlorella pyrenoidosa to nanoplastics and subsequently lock the according core pathways and driver genes induced. Results indicated that the linoleic acid metabolism, glycine (Gly)-serine (Ser)-threonine (Thr) metabolism, and arginine and proline metabolism pathways of C. pyrenoidosa were collectively involved in oxidative stress. The analysis of linoleic acid metabolism suggested that nanoplastics prompted algal cells to secrete more allelochemicals, thereby leading to destroy the immune system of cells. Gly-Ser-Thr metabolism and arginine and proline metabolism pathways were core pathways involved in algal regulation of cell membrane function and antioxidant system. Key genes, such as LOX2.3 , SHM1 , TRPA1 , and proC1 , are drivers of regulating the oxidative stress of algae cells. This investigation lays the foundation for future applications of gene editing technology to limit the hazards of nanoplastics on aquatic organism. [Display omitted] • Nanoplastic prompted cells to release allelochemicals and damaged immune systems. • Down-regulated of dimethylglycine and arginine increased reactive oxygen species. • Glycine, serine, and threonine metabolism regulated algal antioxidant system. • LOX2.3 , SHM1 , TRPA1 , and proC1 genes regulated the oxidative stress of cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • An efficient algal-fungal co-culture system was developed for wastewater treatment. • C. sorokiniana - A. oryzae removed the most COD (85.9 %), NH 4 +-N (76.5 %), TP (60.3 %). • Co-cultivation systems showed higher biomass concentration and metabolites content. • C. sorokiniana - A. oryzae exhibited higher Chl- a content and photosynthetic activity. • Protein and polysaccharide in EPS promoted the formation of algal-fungal aggregates. Microalgal-fungal co-cultivation technology has demonstrated outstanding efficacy in wastewater treatment and valuable resources recovery. However, it is still unclear how extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) could potentially affect the formation and development of co-cultivation aggregates. In this work, efficient microalgal-fungal co-cultivation systems (MFCS) were developed for swine wastewater treatment. Different co-cultivation systems were established using various microalgae (Chlorella sorokiniana and Scenedesmus dimorphus) with fungi (Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus niger). The results showed that the introduction of fungi improved nutrient removal, and C. sorokiniana - A. oryzae co-cultivation system demonstrated the highest removal efficiency for chemical oxygen demand (COD) (85.9 %), ammonium (NH 4 +-N) (76.5 %), and total phosphorus (TP) (60.3 %). Biomass production in co-cultivation system was higher, and S. dimorphus - A. oryzae co-cultivation system achieved the highest biomass production of 0.74 g/L. In addition, the lipid content in co-cultivation system was up to 33.3 %, which was 1.8 times higher than that in the mono-cultivation group. Besides biomass production, A. oryzae also promoted the photosynthetic activity of C. sorokiniana , showing higher pigments content and electron transport efficiency. The morphology of co-cultivation systems displayed complex interactions between fungi and microalgae, forming aggregated structures. The analysis of EPS demonstrated their importance in the formation and stabilization of microalgae-fungal aggregates. Moreover, proteins and polysaccharides, along with chemical bonds (N-H, C = O and C-O-C), played a crucial role in the formation and development of aggregates. This study provides insights into the potential of MFCS for swine wastewater treatment, highlighting the importance of species selection and EPS-mediated interactions in enhancing system performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the third generation biofuel feedstock to confront with energy crisis, microalgae have great potential for the exploration of renewable energy fields, whereas the high cost related to biomass production and harvesting is the main bottleneck to hinder the applications on a large scale. To mitigate the environmental impacts in a sustainable mode, co-culturing filamentous fungi with targeted microalgae is a superior method to efficiently accumulate and harvest the total biomass. This paper serves as a base to review current advances in pelletization of microalgae with fungi for the co-cultivation process. The pellet formation is initially introduced, and then electrostatic interactions, hydrophobic interactions and specific components on cell walls as the main harvesting mechanisms are explored and generalized together with the inclusion of critical affecting parameters for efficiency promotion. Apart from the discussion about biomass harvesting, the latest studies of this co-cultivated technology on wastewater treatment in diverse types associated with corresponding removal mechanisms are analyzed as well. Subsequently, this article emphasizes the effects of fungal-algal cultivation on downstream processing for biofuel production, followed by the practical bioenergy conversion performances. Based on the policies support, the implications of this novel co-cultivation technology have shown the potential in further development. Meanwhile, the current challenges and future perspectives about harvesting on a large scale, removal of multiple pollutants and exploration of integrated biorefinery are pointed out systematically. Image 1 • Filamentous fungi can entrap microalgae to form co-pellets. • Co-cultivation achieves high efficiency in biomass harvesting. • Pollutants in wastewater are efficiently removed by fungal-algal pellets. • Filamentous fungi may cause positive effects on the total biofuel production. • Fungal-algal pellets have enhanced the feasibility on large-scale applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy demands and costs of harvesting microalgal biomass make it unrealistic and unsustainable for economically feasible microalgal biofuel production. Therefore, meticulous exploration of the harvesting processes is essential to identify appropriate harvesting techniques for potentially commercialized microalgal biodiesel production. Flocculation may be a superior method when considering harvesting efficiency, economic cost, energy consumption and technical feasibility. This review sheds some light on the recent progresses of physical/chemical flocculation and bioflocculation applied in the microalgal biomass harvesting processes. Physical flocculation techniques are energy-intensive and require special equipment, creating the cost barrier for microalgal biomass harvesting. Magnetic particle flocculation is much more efficient and is also recyclable. In contrast, chemical flocculation that involves the application of organic and inorganic flocculants, is now in the limelight. The microalgae species applied, the dosages of flocculants as well as flocculation recovery efficiencies are compared and presented in detail in this review. In addition, bioflocculation as a harvesting techniques is critically described, in particular the mechanisms of autoflocculation, a promising bioflocculation by co-cultivation of microalgae with microorganisms, are explored. This review also disclosed the effects of flocculant application on downstream processes, especially when chemical flocculants are applied. This review intends to provide guidance for the long-term adoption of these economically beneficial mature flocculation recovery technologies in the biofuel industry. Despite of considerable progress, key challenges such as further reduction of costs and the minimization of downstream product pollution risks in conventional and advanced harvesting techniques, must be addressed. This article also suggests the directions for future research in microalgae harvesting and argues that the production of microalgae biofuels under potential policy intervention should be carried out in a healthy and sustainable way. Image 1 • As a potential substitute for fossil fuel, microalgae biofuel has great significant application prospects. • The high cost of the harvesting process is the main bottleneck in microalgae biofuel production. • The selection of microalgae harvesting technologies is advised to ensure the sustainable development of biofuels. • The systematic policy guarantees the successful large-scale application of the microalgae biofuel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Effects of nitrogen on nutrient removal and biodiesel production of mono- and mix-cultured microalgae was investigated. • Microalgae co-culture could remove 70.4%–74.1% nitrogen. • Algae grown in media with different nitrogen sources had better growth performances. • The ultimate biomass increase and productivity in the mix-culture were the highest. • The biodiesel yields in this study ranged from 8.5–11.2 g-biodiesel/100 g-dry weight. Effects of nitrogen source inhomogeneity on nutrient removal and biodiesel production of mono- and mix-cultured microalgae were investigated in this study. The microalgal growth characteristics, lipid accumulation, biodiesel production and nutrient removal were determined by mono- or co-culturing microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus dimorphus in media with different nitrogen sources. The results showed that microalgae cultivated in media with different nitrogen sources indicated higher nitrogen removal, biomass increase and productivities of biomass, lipids and biodiesel than media with the sole nitrogen source. As for the microalgae grown in media with the same nitrogen source, the pattern for the lipid content was in the relationship C. vulgaris > mixed culture > S. dimorphus. The fatty acids of microalgae mainly consisted of C16:0, C16:1, C18:0, C18:2 and C18:3, accounting for 79.6–90.6% of the total. The biodiesel production in this study ranged from 8.5 to 11.2 g-biodiesel/100 g-dry weight. This study presents one of the few studies, suggesting that nitrogen source itself can influence the nutrient removal and biodiesel production of mono- and mix-cultured microalgae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Cd(Ⅱ) had dual effects of inhibition and promotion on algae. • C. sorokiniana biochemical characteristics were influenced by TBBPA and Cd(Ⅱ) • TBBPA removal rate increased 17.01% when added Cd(Ⅱ) • TBBPA and Cd(Ⅱ) caused the up-regulation of protein synthesis-related genes. • Cd(Ⅱ) induced the up-regulation of DNA replication. With the continuous increase of e-waste, more and more pollutants such as tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) and bivalent cadmium ions (Cd(Ⅱ)) are often detected in the surface water. However, their combined toxicity to microalgae is still unclear. Therefore, this study comprehensively explored effects of TBBPA and Cd(Ⅱ) on freshwater microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana , in terms of growth, photosynthetic activity, biochemical characteristics and molecular level. Results showed that Cd(Ⅱ) below 1 mg/L could promote the growth of microalgae, while TBBPA with various dosages showed inhibitory effects. The coexistence of TBBPA and Cd(Ⅱ) had a significant effect on photosynthetic activity, enzyme activity and chlorophylls content. Simultaneously, the release of dissolved organic matters reduced the damage of pollutants to algae. Moreover, C. sorokiniana had a good removal effect on Cd(Ⅱ), and the removal efficiency could reach 72.83%. Interestingly, addition of Cd(Ⅱ) could enhance the removal effect of C. sorokiniana on TBBPA, and the highest removal reached 44.16%. Transcriptome analysis showed that C. sorokiniana had different responses to Cd(Ⅱ) and TBBPA stress, while both caused the regulation of protein synthesis-related genes. Additionally, exposure to Cd(II) upregulated DNA replication-related genes in microalgae, thereby promoting cell proliferation. This study provides insights into toxic mechanisms of TBBPA and Cd(Ⅱ) to microalgae together with their removal patterns, which offers a theoretical basis for further assessment of the actual risk of Cd(II) and TBBPA to aquatic organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An effective harvesting strategy with a low energy consumption as well as total cost is important for biofuel production. Microalgae harvesting by chitosan-based flocculants has received extensive attention, due to the outstanding structural features, biodegradability, applicability to various types of microalgae species and environmental friendliness. However, it is a significant strategy to select and prepare flocculants with high harvesting efficiencies for microalgae harvesting, based on different modifications strategies and external impact factors. This work reviews the latest research on chitosan-based flocculants for microalgae harvesting applications, including general aspects, harvesting mechanisms, several types of the dual harvesting system and surface modification methods commonly used to prepare chitosan-based flocculants. Suitable modification strategies for chitosan can achieve the high harvesting performance by improving synthetic effects and properties. The influences of external factors on microalgae harvesting are emphasized in detail. The effects of chitosan-based flocculants on downstream process are evaluated as well. This paper provides a potential prospect for future studies of chitosan-based flocculants on microalgae harvesting. Furthermore, uncertainties and research gaps of chitosan-based flocculants that exist in the usage of microalgae harvesting on a large scale have been put forward to foster the industry. • This paper reviews recent findings on microalgae harvesting using chitosan-based flocculants. • Chitosan-based flocculants can be modified by dual harvesting system and surface modification. • External factors affecting harvesting efficiency have been reviewed. • More studies of chitosan-based flocculants are needed before engineering application on a large scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]