This study explored the possibility of incorporating extremophilic
algal cultivation into dairy wastewater treatment by characterizing
a unique algal strain. Results showed that extremophilic microalgae Chlorella vulgaris CA1 newly isolated from dairy wastewater
tolerated a high level of ammonia nitrogen (2.7 g/L), which was over
20 times the ammonia nitrogen that regular Chlorella sp. could tolerate. The isolate was mixotrophically cultured in
dairy effluent treated by anaerobic digestion (AD) for recycling nutrients
and polishing the wastewater. The highest biomass content of 13.3
g/L and protein content of 43.4% were achieved in the culture in AD
effluent. Up to 96% of the total nitrogen and 79% of the total phosphorus
were removed from the dairy AD effluent. The ability of the algae
to tolerate a high level of ammonia nitrogen suggests the potential
for direct nutrient recycling from dairy wastewater while producing
algal biomass and high value bioproducts.
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