• Mycobiology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.236-241
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• 2018

The cation-dependent galactose-specific flocculation activity of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe null mutant of $lkh1^+$, the gene encoding LAMMER kinase homolog, has previously been reported by our group. Here, we show that disruption of $prk1^+$, another flocculation associated regulatory kinase encoding gene, also resulted in cation-dependent galactosespecific flocculation. Deletion of prk1 increased the flocculation phenotype of the $lkh1^+$ null mutant and its overexpression reversed the flocculation of cells caused by lkh1 deletion. Transcript levels of $prk1^+$ were also decreased by $lkh1^+$ deletion. Cumulatively, these results indicate that Lkh1 is one of the negative regulators acting upstream of Prk1, regulating non-sexual flocculation in fission yeast.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.763-769
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• 1995

As a mean to recover photosynthetic bacterial(PSB) cells and its practical uses in food industrial wastewater treatment, various biodegradable polyelectrolytes were first investigated for flocculation of suspended colloids in the PSB treatment process of soybean curd wastewater. Anionic polyelectrolytes such as sodium alginate and carrageenan were not effective but a cationic polyelectrolyte chitosan isolated from Portunus trituberclatus showed very effective flocculation activity. The concentration of chitosan, pH and temperature of wastewater for maximal flocculation were 40 mg/l, pH 7 and room temperature, respectively. Test using deacetylated chitosan to various degree showed higher flocculating activities in samples deacetylated over 75% and time for maximum flocculation was 40 min by stirring slowly under the above optimal conditions. Chitosan was not only effective to flocculate cells but also removed COD and MLSS of the wastewater. COD of 42% and MLSS of 87% were removed by addition of chitosan to the soybean curd wastewater treated with PSB.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.432-438
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• 2018

Microalgae hold promise as a renewable energy source for the production of biofuel, as they can convert light energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis. However, cost-efficient harvest of microalgae remains a major challenge to commercial-scale algal biofuel production. We first investigated the potential of electrolytic water as a flocculant for harvesting Tetraselmis sp. Alkaline electrolyzed water (AEW) is produced at the cathode through water electrolysis. It contains mineral ions such as $Na^+$, $K^+$, $Ca^{2+}$, and $Mg^{2+}$ that can act as flocculants. The flocculation activity with AEW was evaluated via culture density, AEW concentration, medium pH, settling time, and ionic strength analyses. The flocculation efficiency was 88.7% at 20% AEW (pH 8, 10 min) with a biomass concentration of 2 g/l. The initial biomass concentration and medium pH had significant influences on the flocculation activity of AEW. A viability test of flocculated microalgal cells was conducted using Evans blue stain, and the cells appeared intact. Furthermore, the growth rate of Tetraselmis sp. in recycled flocculation medium was similar to the growth rate in fresh F/2 medium. Our results suggested that AEW flocculation could be a very useful and affordable methodology for fresh biomass harvesting with environmentally friendly easy operation in part of the algal biofuel production process.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.558-563
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• 2008

To prevent weakly flocculating characters of bottom brewing yeast during first fermentation, various technical investigations were carried out using strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It appeared that the propagation at $10^{\circ}C$ promoted the molecular structure and biochemical composition of cell wall in favor of flocculation. The yeast grown at $20^{\circ}C$ by addition of zinc ion also had a stimulating effect on flocculation behavior during first fermentation cycle. The zinc ion did not influence directly on the changes of cell wall in favor of stronger flocculence. The increased fermentation activity of yeast due to addition zinc ion was rather responsible for the intensified flocculation capacity. It was concluded that the weakly flocculating characters of bottom brewing yeast during first fermentation can be solved by using yeast propagated at $10^{\circ}C$ or by means of yeast by addition of zinc ion during propagation.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.626-632
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• 2023

Acemannan, a highly acetylated glucomannan, was extracted from fresh Aloe vera leaves by ethanol fractionation, resulting in a concentration increase of more than threefold. The presence of acemannan was confirmed using FTIR and ¹H NMR analysis, revealing an average molecular weight of 780 kDa. The flocculating activity of the fractionated aloe gel polysaccharide was assessed through settling tests in a 1% (w/v) bentonite suspension. The results demonstrated that the aloe polysaccharide exhibited remarkable stability within a temperature range of 20~70 ℃. The maximal flocculation rate at different pH levels ranged from 93% to 97%, with an optimal dose for maximum flocculation rate between 0.25 mg/mL. Notably, the minimum dose required for flocculation was achieved at a pH of 3, attributed to the compression of electrostatic repulsion on the surface of bentonite particles. However, the flocs obtained under acidic conditions were less dense and compact, exhibiting lower sedimentation velocity compared to those formed under neutral and alkaline pH conditions. Additionally, the addition of salt showed a slight synergistic effect on flocculation, significantly enhancing the sedimentation velocity. This investigation highlights the potential of Aloe vera polysaccharide as a natural and edible flocculant, offering promising applications in various industries.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.268-275
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• 1993

The whole cells of Actinoplanes missouriensis KCTC 1780 which produce glucose isomerase was immobillized by flocculation method for the effective production of high fructose syrup using packed-bed bioreactor system. Among the flocculation methods used In this study, the glucose Isomerase activity of flocculated cells using 5% polyethylenimmine and 0.2% glutaraldehyde was the highest as 46.3 unit, and the flocculant was 10.3g(wet weight) per 100m1 of broth, and the residual activity was 92.5%. In the batch operation of glucose isomerization using the flocculated cells, the optimum pH, temperature and isomerization ratio were 7.0, 75$^{\circ}C$ and 31%, respectively. The optimum concentration of Mg2+ which was activator on the glucose isomerization of flocculated cells was 0.1M, and glucose isomerase activity was increased by about 40% compared to none of Mg2+. In the packed-bed bioreactor system with 1.2 hour of residence time at 7$0^{\circ}C$, the reaction stability maintained until 96 hour without toss of activity, and the equilibrium was kept up to 120 hours of the operation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.147-153
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• 2018

This study investigates the role of microbial extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) as bioflocculants to harvest microalgae (water-microalgae separation). The EPS extracted from waste activated sludge (WAS) by heat extraction were fractionated into soluble EPS (S-EPS), loosely-bound EPS (LB-EPS) and tightly-bound EPS (TB-EPS) forms. All the EPSs facilitated the flocculation of microalgal cells from stable growth medium. Of those EPSs, the TB-EPS showed the highest flocculating activity (FA) resulting in the substantial decrease in the amount of EPS added in terms of total organic carbon (TOC) during flocculation. The FA of microalgae was improved with the increase in TB-EPS dose, however, excessive dose of TB-EPS adversely affected it due to destabilization. Both LB- and TB-EPS could be utilized for flocculating microalgae as a sustainable option to the existing chemical-based flocculants. In addition to the conventional assessments, the effectiveness of the two bioflocculants for floc forming was also confirmed using a novel assessment of lens-free shadow imaging technique (LSIT), which was firstly applied for the rapid and quantitative assessment of microalgal flocculation.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.770-776
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• 1995

For the purpose of development of non-toxic and biodegradable flocculant, chitosan complex was isolated from Ganoderma lucidum wastes. The isolated complex was identified as the expected chitosan-glucan complex by IR specta. The complex was extracted by treatment of 50% NaOH solution at 120$\circ$C for 5 hrs, namely optimal condition and solubilized with 2% acetic acid for fur-ther use as flocculant. Preliminary experiments showed that the solubilized complex had higher flocculation activity of 1.3 fold than commercial chitosan at 400 mg/l concentration in soybean curd wastewater. Also the solubilized complex removed 83% of MLSS and 60% of COD in the soybean curd wastewater treated by photosynthetic bacteria, 50% of turbidity and 21% of MLSS in sugar industry wastewater, and 90% of turbidity and 89% of MLSS in alcohol fermentation wastewater. Bacterial cell flocculation activities of the solubilized chitosan-glucan complex were 89% in Bacillus subtilis broth, 81% in Streptococcus lactis broth, and more than 90% in Escherichia coli broth after standing for 2 days. The results reveal that chitosan-glucan complex from Ganoderma lucidum wastes can substitute for commercial chitosan as non-toxic and biodegradable flocculant.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.257-262
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• 2013

As the regulation of total phosphorus (T-P) concentration in biologically treated sewage effluent is reduced to 0.2~2 mg/L, flocculation process is recommended to remove T-P. In this study, the performance of Ti-salt coagulant was investigated in terms of dosage and pH in removing phosphorus and the collected sludge after Ti-salt flocculation was calcined to produce titania for effective sludge recycling. The flocculation performance was carried out using two methods: sedimentation and air floatation. Both methods were feasible to apply for Ti-salt flocculation. Ti-salt flocculation was effective in reducing phosphorus concentration in sewage effluent, which showed similar performance of alum ($Al_2(SO_4)_3$). The calcined sludge was recycled to titania which is the widely used metal oxide. Titania produed from Ti-salt sludge indicated similar characteristics of commercially-available P-25 in regard to photocatalytic activity and surface area. Therefore, this can be easily adopted to titania application by replacing P-25.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.790-795
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• 1995

Flocculant-producing microorganisms were isolated from soil samples using kaoline as the flocculating test material. One strain that had high flocculating activity among them was selected and identified as Arcuadendron sp. TS-49. The favorable medium for production of the flocculant was 3% glucose, 0.2% yeast extract, 0.1% $NH_4Cl$, 0.01% $MgSO_4$, and 0.05% $MnSO_4$ in 150ml of T.W. with initial pH 7.0.The optimum culture temperature and pH were $30^{\circ}C$ and pH 7.0, respectively. The flocculant activity was observed most highly after 4 to 5 days of cultivation at the optimum condition and decreased significantly with the lapse of cultivation time. The flocculant was produced constituently and seemed to be degraded for ressimilation during cultivation. The productivity achieved by this system was about ten-fold higher than that of scrrening mediuim. This bioflocculant flocculated all tested solids, including various microorganisms and organic/inorganic compounds. Several qualitative analyses of the bioflocculant showed that it was a kind of glycoprotein containing sugars and protein.