Currently, most wastewater treatment plants do not meet the legal requirements, especially regarding phosphorus and nitrogen contents. In this work, real primary urban wastewater (P-UW) was used as culture medium for the growth of Chlorella vulgaris. Experiments were carried out in batch photobioreactors at laboratory scale. To determine the maximum nutrient removal levels and the optimal pH value for C. vulgaris growth, the following pH values were studied: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. Additionally, two control experiments were conducted using UW and tap water at the same conditions but without microalgae inoculation. The operational conditions were agitation rate = 200 rpm, T = 25 °C, aeration rate = 0.5 L/min, and continuous light with illumination intensity = 359 µE m−2 s−1. Significant higher growth was obtained at pH = 7. The direct use of C. vulgaris for P-UW treatment demonstrated high removal percentages of organic (COD and BOD5 removal = 63.4% and 92.3%, respectively) and inorganic compounds (inorganic carbon removal = 99.6%). The final biomass was characterized by an accumulation of high energetic compounds, mainly carbohydrates, which ranged between 63.3% (pH = 5) and 82.8% (pH = 11) and represent a source of biofuels. These new achievements open up the possibility of new horizons in urban wastewater treatment.
<p>:<strong> </strong>The present work compares the biosorption capacity of Fe<sup>3+</sup> by the living biomass presented in our previous study with dead biomass prepared from the same microalgae after deactivating the cells using temperature (drying). This technique (dry biomass) is the most frequently used in biological processes based on adsorption by microalgae. The influence of different parameters on the biosorption capacity of the two biomasses was studied. The highest efficiency of metal removal was recorded by a live microalgae <em>Scenedesmus obliquus,</em> with a removal value of 100% within 20 minutes versus to 43% for dried microalgae within 60 minutes. This work confirms the potential use of a live microalgae <em>Scenedesmus obliquus</em> as an efficient technique for removing ions from wastewater.</p>
A physio-chemical characterization of olive oil mill wastewater (OMW) obtained from a continuous two-phases olive oil extraction process is presented. High organic load of OMW from Ben Karrich region has been registered. The values of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total phenolic compounds were 84.5 g of O2/L and 3.79 g/L, respectively. In this sense, a treatment using activated carbon as adsorbent was proposed. Results have shown high removal percentages in total phenolic compounds (98%) and COD (90%). The optimal operating conditions were 4 g of activated carbon and adsorbing time equal to 5 minutes.
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