Bioflocculants from isolated stains : A research update

Bioflocculants are needed to replace fossil-fuel based flocculants for industrial applications. This mini-review highlights the recent research trends on bioflocculant production from isolated strains. The bioflocculant research studies are addressing the search of effective strains that can be cultivated in low-cost medium with maximum bioflocculant production rates. Also, the search of auto-flocculating strains that can be harvested in seawaters is also an attractive research topic. The extracellular polymeric substances extracted from waste sludge biomass can be an effective bioflocculant in use. Another research trend is to use bioflocculant as the template of synthesis of novel materials. Since most bioflocculant studies had applied phosphate buffers for pH control, since the phosphate salts in fermentation broth can have flocculating activities, the reported efficiencies of the so-generated bioflocculants may be overestimated. The control tests to isolate the interference role of added ingredients in the fermenting broth are advised.