MUMBAI, India, July 13 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (202611046211 A) filed by Banaras Hindu University on April 10, 2026, for A Magnetite Based Polymeric Nanocomposite For Effective Microalgal Harvesting.
Inventors include Niwas Kumar; Pratyoosh Shukla; Surendra Kumar Yadav; and Jay Singh.
The application for the patent was published on July 10, 2026, under issue no. 28/2026.
Abstract: The present disclosure relates to an efficient method for harvesting microalgal biomass using a nanocomposite material. Microalgal harvesting remains a major bottleneck in the large-scale production of biofuels and value-added metabolites due to high operational costs and low efficiency of conventional separation techniques. In this work, a nanocomposite comprising a natural polymer, chitosan, conjugated with iron nanoparticles was developed for rapid and effective microalgae dewatering. The synthesized nanocomposite was characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), confirming its structural and functional properties. The functionalized nanocomposite exhibited excellent stability in aqueous microalgal systems and demonstrated a dewatering efficiency of more than 95 ± 2% for Chlorella sorokiniana NKPS02 at an optimized dosage of 60 ppm within 5 minutes. The magnetic properties of the nanocomposite enable facile separation of microalgal biomass from freshwater systems. The disclosed approach offers a rapid, cost-effective, and scalable solution for microalgal harvesting, thereby enhancing the commercial viability of microalgae-based biofuels and bioproducts.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
