Scale-up potential of cultivating Chlorella zofingiensis in piggery wastewater for biodiesel production.

Scale-up potential of cultivating Chlorella zofingiensis in piggery wastewater for simultaneous wastewater treatment and biodiesel production was tested. The cultivation of C. zofingiensis with autoclaved wastewater and NaClO-pretreated wastewater, cultivation of algae indoors and outdoors, and stability of semi-continuous feeding operation were examined. The results showed that C. zofingiensis cultivated in piggery wastewater pretreated by autoclaving and NaClO had no evident difference in the performance of nutrient removal, algal growth and biodiesel production. The outdoor cultivation experiments indicated that C. zofingiensis was able to adapt and grow well outdoors. The semi-continuous feeding operation by replacing 50% of algae culture with fresh wastewater every 1.5 days could provide a stable net biomass productivity of 1.314 g L(-1) day(-1). These findings in this study can prove that it is greatly possible to amplify the cultivation of C. zofingiensis in piggery wastewater for nutrient removal and biodiesel production.

Enantioselective resolution of γ-lactam by a whole cell of Microbacterium hydrocarbonoxydans (L29-9) immobilized in polymer of PVA-alginate-boric acid.

Using immobilized cells of a novel strain of Microbacterium hydrocarbonoxydans L29-9 in polymers of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-alginate-boric acid, enantioselective resolution of racemic γ-lactam to produce (-)γ-lactam was successfully carried out. A 6:1 ratio of PVA:sodium alginate not only prevented agglomeration of the matrix but also produced beads with high gel strength. The optimum biotransformation conditions were 1 g/L substrate, pH 7.0, reaction temperature of 30 °C, and reaction time of 3 h. After every two cycles, the immobilized cell beads were separated and immersed in 0.5 mM KCl solution at 4 °C for preservation. At optimum conditions, the enantiomeric excess and the yield of (-)γ-lactam were >99% and 34%, respectively. The beads showed a slight decrease in the enantiomeric excess when re-used up to 14 cycles (the enantioselectivity of the immobilized cells decreased slightly after 14 cycles of usage).