In some studies, more than one culture was immobilized to achieve a multifunctional immobilization matrix. For example, Adlercreutz et al. (1982) co-immobilized mixed cultures of algae (Chlorella pyrenoidosa) and bacteria (Gluconobacter oxy — dans) inside calcium alginate beads for the continuous production of dihydroxyac — etone. They did not observe any significant loss of activity within the first six days of this bioprocess. They used the algal cells as an in situ oxygen supplier, which was directly used by the bacteria during the conversion of glycerol to dihydroxyacetone (Adlercreutz et al. 1982). Co-immobilization of microalga S. obliquus with Bacillus subtilis bacteria in carrageenan beads was studied inside air-lift reactors, for enhancing the production of alpha-amylase enzyme (Chevalier and de la Node 1988). Microalgal cells were again used as an in situ oxygen generator for the bacterial cells, which were mainly responsible for the synthesis of alpha-amylase enzyme. Co-immobilization overcame the existing oxygen diffusion problems and yielded higher alpha-amylase activity by a factor of around 20 %. They also observed higher growth rates for the algal cells when co-immobilized with bacteria, compared to the immobilization with algal cells alone (Chevalier and de la Node 1988).

Immobilization of Dunaliella tertiolecta in alginate (Grizeau and Navarro 1986) and Dunaliella salina in agar-agar (Thakur and Kumar 1999) increased the amount of glycerol production. Immobilized algae were also used for the generation of keto acids from amino acids (Wikstrom et al. 1982).

Luan et al. (2006) achieved successful removal (90 %) of a highly toxic tribu — tyltin using alginate-immobilized C. vulgaris cells. They observed that less than 10 % of the tributyltin was accumulated inside the cells, while the remainder was adsorbed by both the immobilization matrix and the cell walls.

He et al. (2014) recently constructed an algal fuel cell with immobilized C. vulgaris cells in sodium alginate placed inside a cathode chamber of the fuel cell. The aim was to achieve a complete process that combines biomass production, electricity generation, and wastewater treatment all at the same time. They observed a significant chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of 92.1 %.