Microalgae Harvesting: A Review

Microalgae are photosynthetic autotrophic microscopic organisms growing in a range of aquatic and terrestrial habitats. They produce a huge complex of compounds in their surroundings which are of important use to humans. Their commercial use lies in human nutrition, animal and aquatic feed, in cosmetics products, natural pigments, pharmaceutical industry, bio-fertilizer for extracting high-value molecules, stable isotope biochemicals, and for the synthesis of antimicrobial, antiviral, antibacterial and anticancer drugs. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a simple, effective and economically advantageous method for harvesting the algal products. Magnetic separation is a simple separation process. Different synthesis methods have been used by researchers to obtain magnetic particles of varying size and shapes according to the algae to be studied. Chemical co-precipitation method has been the most commonly used method, which helps in synthesizing magnetic particles of the micro to nano range. Naked, coated and surface modified are the general types of magnetic particles used for algal harvesting with its own advantages and disadvantages.