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Quality of cellulose and biostimulant extracts from Oedogonium calcareum cultivated during primary wastewater treatment

Abstract
A practical two-product cascading biorefinery was developed to extract a biostimulant and cellulose from the freshwater filamentous macroalga Oedogonium calcareum grown while treating primary wastewater. Biostimulant production provides a valuable extract with production of disinfected residual biomass for further product development. Both Escherichia coli and F-specific RNA bacteriophage, indicators of human pathogens contamination, were absent from the residual biomass. The chemical composition of the biostimulant was complex, consisting of growth-promoting substances, free amino acids, and minerals. The O. calcareum cellulose fractions yielded between 9.5% and 10.1% (w/w) with purities from 84% to 90% and closely resembled microcrystalline cellulose. Biostimulant extraction improved cellulose quality by increasing crystallinity from 59% to 62%. Biomass condition, drying process, and biostimulant production influenced the crystallinity index. This study demonstrates a two-step process of biostimulant and cellulose extraction from wastewater-grown Oedogonium, simultaneously disinfecting biomass and isolating high-quality cellulose as a sustainable alternative to conventional extraction methods.
Type
Journal Article
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
Jayasooriya, N., Magnusson, M., Gavin, C., Gauss, C., Craggs, R., Battershill, C. N., & Glasson, C. R. K. (2024). Quality of cellulose and biostimulant extracts from Oedogonium calcareum cultivated during primary wastewater treatment. Bioresource Technology, 403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2024.130850
Date
2024-07-01
Publisher
Elsevier B.V.
Degree
Supervisors
Rights
Re-use licence for this version: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International