It is worth mentioning that agitation is another key factor
affecting fungi–algae pellets formation in this study. It was found
that fungi–algae pellet did not form when no shaking was provided
during the entire experiments (data not shown). Shaker rotation
also affected the size of fungi–algae pellets. As shown in Fig 2A–
D, the diameters (7–9 mm) of fungi pellets/fungi–algae pellets obtained
from cultures rotated on shaker with 50 rpm rotation are
much larger than those with 150 rpm rotation rate (2–4 mm). Similar
phenomena were observed in previous reports [11,28].
3.2.2. Fungal assisted bio-flocculation of autotrophic microalgal cells