A bioprinting technique for large‐scale, custom‐printed immobilization of microalgae is developed for potential applications within architecture and the built environment. Alginate‐based hydrogels with various rheology modifying polymers and varying water percentages are characterized to establish a window of operation suitable for layer‐by‐layer deposition on a large scale. Hydrogels formulated with methylcellulose and carrageenan, with water percentages ranging from 80% to 92.5%, demonstrate a dominant viscoelastic solid–like property with G′ > G″ and a low phase angle, making them the most suitable for extrusion‐based printing. A custom multimaterial pneumatic extrusion system is developed to be attached on the end effector of an industrial multiaxis robot arm, allowing precision‐based numerically controlled layered deposition of the viscous hydrogel. The relationship between the various printing parameters, namely air pressure, material viscosity, viscoelasticity, feed rate, printing distance, nozzle diameter, and the speed of printing, are characterized to achieve the desired resolution of the component. Printed prototypes are postcured in CaCl₂ via crosslinking. Biocompatibility tests show that cells can survive for 21 days after printing the constructs. To demonstrate the methodology for scale‐up, a 1000 × 500 mm fibrous hydrogel panel is additively deposited with 3 different hydrogels with varying water percentages.

Phototrophic communities of autotrophic microalgae and heterotrophic bacteria perform complex tasks of nutrient acquisition and tackling environmental stress but remain underexplored as a basis for the bioremediation of emerging pollutants. In industrial monoculture designs, poor iron uptake by microalgae limits their productivity and biotechnological efficacy. Iron supplementation is expensive and ineffective because iron remains insoluble in an aqueous medium and is biologically unavailable. However, microalgae develop complex interkingdom associations with siderophore-producing bacteria that help solubilize iron and increase its bioavailability. Using dye degradation as a model, we combined environmental isolations and synthetic ecology as a workflow to design a simplified microbial community based on iron and carbon exchange. We established a mutualism between the previously non-associated alga Chlorella sorokiniana and siderophore-producing bacterium Ralstonia pickettii. Siderophore-mediated increase in iron bioavailability alleviated Fe stress for algae and increased the reductive iron uptake mechanism and bioremediation potential. In exchange, C. sorokiniana produced galactose, glucose, and mannose as major extracellular monosaccharides, supporting bacterial growth. We propose that extracellular iron reduction by ferrireductase is crucial for azoreductase-mediated dye degradation in microalgae. These results demonstrate that iron bioavailability, often overlooked in cultivation, governs microalgal growth, enzymatic processes, and bioremediation potential. Our results suggest that phototrophic communities with an active association for iron and carbon exchange have the potential to overcome challenges associated with micronutrient availability, while scaling up bioremediation designs.

Microalgae are promising host organisms for the production of encapsulated recombinant proteins such as vaccines. However, bottlenecks in bioprocess development, such as the drying stage, need to be addressed to ensure feasibility at scale. In this study, we investigated the potential of spray drying to produce a recombinant vaccine in microalgae. A transformant line of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii carrying a subunit vaccine against salmonid alphavirus was created via chloroplast engineering. The integrity of the recombinant protein after spray drying and its stability after 27 months storage at –80 °C, +4 °C and room temperature were assessed by immunoblotting. The protein withstood spray drying without significant losses. Long-term storage at +4 °C and room temperature resulted in 50% and 92% degradation, respectively. Optimizing spray drying and storage conditions should minimize degradation and favour short-term storage at positive temperatures. Using data on yield and productivity, the economics of spray drying- and freeze drying-based bioprocesses were compared. The drying stage corresponded to 41% of the total production cost. Process optimization, genetic engineering and new market strategies were identified as potential targets for cost reduction. Overall, this study successfully demonstrates the suitability of spray drying as a process option for recombinant protein production in microalgae at the industrial scale.