B. braunii, stored in the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, was grown on modified Chu 13 medium described
by Largeau et al. [11]. Algal cells were cultured in 100 L
plate photobioreactor with an airflow rate of 0.1 vvm at 25 ± 1 C
under a light/dark cycle of 16/8 h (light intensity 35 lmol/m2/s).
The algal cells were harvested by filtration using 20 lm nylon
mesh followed by subsequently washing three times with distilled
water. The resulted wet algal biomass was re-suspended in a certain
amount of distilled water, and the wet biomass with various
water amounts was prepared.