Crude petroleum oil spills are among the most important organic contaminations. While the separated oils accumulated on the surface water are relatively easily removed, the emulsified portions are more difficult to remove and pose significant threats to the environment. Bioremediation using bacteria has proven to be an effective method, but the biomass produced in this case does not have any significant remunerative value. In this work, microalgae were proposed to combine emulsified oil remediation process with the potential of microalgae as a biofuel feedstock, thus enhancing the economic and environmental benefits of the process. A freshwater strain of Chlorella vulgaris was grown in water containing different concentrations of emulsified crude oil at different temperatures. The specific growth rate (μ_max) of the microalgae for each initial oil concentration was determined and was found to increase with the increase in initial oil concentration. For example, at 30°C, the specific growth rate, μ increased from 0.477 to 0.784 per day as the oil concentration increased from 57 to 222 mg/L. At 30°C, the effect of substrate concentration agreed with that of the microalgae growth, whereas at 40°C, the drop in oil concentration decreased with the increase in concentration. The results were fitted to a modified Monod kinetics model that used specific interfacial area as the influential substrate instead of the actual concentration. The results of this study clearly show the potential of using microalgae for emulsified oil remediation at relatively high concentrations.

中文翻译：

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使用微藻修复原油-水乳状液

原油泄漏是最重要的有机污染物之一。虽然积聚在地表水中的分离油相对容易去除，但乳化部分更难去除，并对环境构成重大威胁。使用细菌进行生物修复已被证明是一种有效的方法，但在这种情况下产生的生物质没有任何显着的回报价值。在这项工作中，提出微藻将乳化油修复过程与微藻作为生物燃料原料的潜力相结合，从而提高该过程的经济和环境效益。在不同温度下，在含有不同浓度乳化原油的水中培养了普通小球藻淡水菌株。比增长率（μ_{确定了每个初始油浓度下微藻的max} )，并发现随着初始油浓度的增加而增加。例如，在 30°C 时，随着油浓度从 57 增加到 222 mg/L，比生长速率 μ 从每天 0.477 增加到 0.784。在 30°C 时，底物浓度的影响与微藻生长的影响一致，而在 40°C 时，油浓度的下降随着浓度的增加而减小。将结果拟合到使用特定界面面积而不是实际浓度作为影响底物的修改后的 Monod 动力学模型。这项研究的结果清楚地表明了在相对较高的浓度下使用微藻进行乳化油修复的潜力。