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Microalga-Mediated Tertiary Treatment of Municipal Wastewater: Removal of Nutrients and Pathogens

Author

Listed:
  • Swati Rani

    (Department of Biotechnology, B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar 144011, India)

  • Raja Chowdhury

    (Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee 247667, India)

  • Wendong Tao

    (Department of Environmental Resources Engineering, State University of New York, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA)

  • Linda Nedbalová

    (Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 44 Prague, Czech Republic
    Centre for Phycology, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Dukelská 135, 379 82 Třeboň, Czech Republic)

Abstract

The microalgal strain Chlorella sorokiniana isolated from a waste stabilization pond was used for tertiary treatment of municipal wastewater. Three light:dark (L:D) regimes of 12:12, 16:8, and 24:0 were used for treating wastewater in microalga (A), microalga + sludge (A + S), and sludge (S) reactors. The removal of nutrients (N and P) was found to be the highest in the microalga-based reactor, with more than 80% removal of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and 1.2–5.6 log unit removal of pathogens. The addition of sludge improved chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. Nitrifiers were found to be predominant in the A + S reactor. Algal biomass productivity was more than 280 mg/L/d in all the L:D regimes. The increase in light regime improved nutrient removal and biomass productivity in the algal reactor. Results of the kinetic study showed that (i) nitrifiers had more affinity for ammonium than microalga, and hence, most of the ammonia was oxidized to nitrate, (ii) microalga assimilated nitrate as the primary nitrogen source in the A + S reactor, and (iii) solubilization of particulate organic nitrogen originated from dead cells reduced the nitrogen removal efficiency. However, in the microalga-based reactor, the ammonium uptake was higher than nitrate uptake. Among pathogens, the removal of Salmonella and Shigella was better in the A + S reactor than in the other two reactors (microalga and sludge reactor). Additionally, the heterotrophic plate count was drastically reduced in the presence of microalga. No such drastic reduction was observed in the stand-alone sludge reactor. Kinetic modeling revealed that microalga–pathogen competition and pH-induced die-off were the two predominant factors for pathogen inactivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Swati Rani & Raja Chowdhury & Wendong Tao & Linda Nedbalová, 2021. "Microalga-Mediated Tertiary Treatment of Municipal Wastewater: Removal of Nutrients and Pathogens," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-24, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:17:p:9554-:d:621494
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Swati Dahiya & Raja Chowdhury & Wendong Tao & Pradeep Kumar, 2021. "Biomass and Lipid Productivity by Two Algal Strains of Chlorella sorokiniana Grown in Hydrolysate of Water Hyacinth," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-21, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Raja Chowdhury & Nidia Caetano & Matthew J. Franchetti & Kotnoor Hariprasad, 2023. "Life Cycle Based GHG Emissions from Algae Based Bioenergy with a Special Emphasis on Climate Change Indicators and Their Uses in Dynamic LCA: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, January.
    2. Goknur Sisman-Aydin & Kemal Simsek, 2022. "Municipal Wastewater Effects on the Performance of Nutrient Removal, and Lipid, Carbohydrate, and Protein Productivity of Blue-Green Algae Chroococcus turgidus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Saumya Verma & Raja Chowdhury & Sarat K. Das & Matthew J. Franchetti & Gang Liu, 2021. "Sunlight Intensity, Photosynthetically Active Radiation Modelling and Its Application in Algae-Based Wastewater Treatment and Its Cost Estimation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-28, October.

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