Cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris in Membrane-Treated Industrial Distillery Wastewater: Growth and Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

The alcohol industry discharges large quantities of wastewater, which is hazardous and has a considerable pollution potential. Cultivating microalgae in wastewater is an alternative way of overcoming the current high cost of microalgae cultivation and an environmentally friendly treatment method for industrial effluents. The study analyzed the growth and biochemical composition of Chlorella vulgaris cultivated in membrane-treated distillery wastewater (MTDW) and nutrients removal efficiency. The results showed biomass productivity of 0.04 g L−1 d−1 for MTDW with the contents of content of protein, carbohydrate, and lipid at 49.6 ± 1.4%, 26.1 ± 0.6%, and 10.4 ± 1.8%, respectively. The removal efficiencies of TN, TP, and COD were 80, 94, and 72.24% in MTDW, respectively. In addition, removal efficiencies of 100, 85.37, and 42.86% for Ca2+, Mg2+, and Mo2− were achieved, respectively. The study added to our growing knowledge on the cultivation of Chlorella with wastewater, suggesting that it was feasible to cultivate Chlorella with MTDW and represented an economical and environmentally friendly strategy for microalgae biomass production and reuse of wastewater resources.

A synthetic biology approach for the treatment of pollutants with microalgae

“…It is a robust species, with relatively high resistance to chemical/ physiological changes (Wirth et al, 2020), which is partly why it shows great bioremediation potential. Li et al (Li et al, 2021) cultivated C. vulgaris on membrane-treated distillery wastewater, and demonstrated removal efficiencies of 80, 94% and 72% of total nitrogen, phosphorous and chemical oxygen demand (COD), respectively, while simultaneously removing 99, 85% and 42% of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and molybdenum (Mo). C. vulgaris has demonstrated 96%-99% removal of common pesticides such as atrazine, carbofuran, dimethoate, and simazine (Hussein et al, 2017) as well as for heavy metals (Piccini et al, 2019;Goswami et al, 2022).…”

Performance of Chlorella vulgaris in Phycoremediation of Livestock Effluent

“…Microalgae function to convert inorganic nitrogen to organic form by an assimilation process that can be performed by all eukaryotic microalgae, which require inorganic nitrogen in the form of nitrite (NO2 -), nitrate (NO3 -), and ammonia (NH4) [11]. The maximum nitrate removal rate can be achieved up to 84.68% by cultivating C. vulgaris in distillery wastewater [16]. Statistical analysis suggests no significant difference (p>0.95) among the treatments.…”

“…Statistical analysis suggests no significant difference (p>0.95) among the treatments. Phosphorus is another key element for microalgae growth and other cellular activities [16]. Figure 4 displays a bar graph illustrating P concentration in livestock effluent on the initial day (Day 0) and Day 12.…”

Comparative Evaluation of Chlorella vulgaris and Anabaena variabilis for Phycoremediation of Polluted River Water: Spotlighting Heavy Metals Detoxification

“…On the other hand, the presence of polysaccharides (i.e., extracellular polymeric substances or EPS) and diverse proteins on the cyanobacterial surface also provides an enormous number of binding sites for the heavy metals [26]. Among the microalgal genera, Chlamydomonas, Chlorella, and Scenedesmus have been extensively used for phycoremediation studies [23,27], while the species belonging to the cyanobacterial genera Anabaena and Nostoc have merely been utilized and studied [26]. However, most of these microalgae-and cyanobacteria-based phycoremediation studies primarily focused on the removal of nutrients and/or pollutants from a particular industrial wastewater such as textile, tannery, poultry, or dairy wastewater [28].…”