Figure 1. Schematic of microalgal cultivation and harvesting process using thermoreversible sol-gel transition.

Microalgal cells are seeded in the TAPP medium in solution phase at 15 °C. Then, the temperature is raised at 22 °C for gelation of the medium and entrapped microalgal cultivation. After the cultivation period, the temperature is decreased to 15 °C allowing microalgal clusters to gravimetrically settle at the bottom. The temperature is finally raised to 25 °C and settled microalgal clusters are scraped off the TAPP surface.