Cyanobacteria as an eco-friendly resource for biofuel production: A critical review.

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic microorganisms which can be found in various environmental habitats. These photosynthetic bacteria are considered as promising feedstock for the production of the third- and the fourth-generation biofuels. The main subject of this review is highlighting the significant aspects of the biofuel production from cyanobacteria. The most recent investigations about the extraction or separation of the bio-oil from cyanobacteria are also adduced in the present review. Moreover, the genetic engineering of cyanobacteria for improving biofuel production and the impact of bioinformatics studies on the designing better-engineered strains are mentioned. The large-scale biofuel production is challenging, so the economic considerations to provide inexpensive biofuels are also cited. It seems that the future of biofuels is strongly dependent to the following items; understanding the metabolic pathways of the cyanobacterial species, progression in the construction of the engineered cyanobacteria, and inexpensive large-scale cultivation of them.

Study of capability of nanostructured zero-valent iron and graphene oxide for bioremoval of trinitrophenol from wastewater in a bubble column bioreactor

BACKGROUND: Bioremoval of phenolic compounds using fungi and bacteria has been studied extensively; nevertheless, trinitrophenol bioremediation using modified Oscillatoria cyanobacteria has been barely studied in the literature. RESULTS: Among the effective parameters of bioremediation, algal concentration (3.18 g·L−1 ), trinitrophenol concentration (1301 mg·L−1 ), and reaction time (3.75 d) were screened by statistical analysis. Oscillatoria cyanobacteria were modified by starch/nZVI and starch/graphene oxide in a bubble column bioreactor, and their bioremoval efficiency was investigated. Modifiers, namely, starch/zero-valent iron and starch/GO, increased trinitrophenol bioremoval efficiency by more than 10% and 12%, respectively, as compared to the use of Oscillatoria cyanobacteria alone. Conclusions: It was found that starch/nano zero-valent iron and starch/GO could be applied to improve the removal rate of phenolic compounds from the aqueous solution.