Algae and waste water

Microalgae and Wastewater Treatment

“…A complete tertiary process aimed at removing ammonium, nitrate and phosphate is estimated to be about four times more expensive than primary treatment (De la Nou¨e et al, 1992). Quaternary treatment intended for the removal of heavy metals, organic compounds (refactory and toxicants) and soluble minerals will be about eight to sixteen times more expensive than that of primary treatment, respectively (Oswald, 1988b).…”

“…Some industrial and agricultural wastewater show total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations up to three orders of magnitude higher than natural water bodies (De la Nou¨e et al, 1992). The normal primary and secondary treatment processes have been introduced in a growing number of places, in order to eliminate the easily settled materials (primary treat-ment) and to oxidize the organic material present in wastewater (secondary treatment).…”

“…Microalgae have a high capacity for inorganic nutrient uptake (Talbot and De la Nou¨e, 1993;Blier et al, 1995) and they can be grown in mass culture in outdoor solar bio-reactors (De la Nou¨e et al, 1992). Biological processes appear to perform well compared to the chemical and physical processes, which are in general, too costly to be implemented in most places and which may lead to secondary pollution (De la Nou¨e et al, 1992).…”

“…The interest in microalgal cultures stems from the fact that conventional treatment processes suffer from some important disadvantages: (a) variable efficiency depending upon the nutrient to be removed; (b) costly to operate; (c) the chemical processes often lead to secondary pollution; and (d) loss of valuable potential nutrients (N, P) (De la Nou¨e et al, 1992). The last disadvantage is especially serious, because conventional treatment processes lead to incomplete utilization of natural resources (Guterstan and Todd, 1990;Phang, 1990).…”

Efficiency of ammonia and phosphorus removal from a colombian agroindustrial wastewater by the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus dimorphus

“…The wastewater treatment by micro-algae cultures has a major advantage. It does not generate additional pollution when the biomass is harvested and it allows efficient recycling of nutrients (De la Noüe et al, 1992). The use of several microalgae and cyanobacteria in wastewater treatment is known (Calzada et al, 1991;Cañizares et al, 1994;De la Noüe et al, 1993;De la Noüe and Proulx, 1988;Serodes et al, 1986;Oswald, 1988).…”