Testing of Chlorella/Scenedesmus Microalgae Consortia for Remediation of Wastewater, Co₂ Mitigation and Algae Biomass Feasibility for Lipid Production

Abstract

Industry, transport and unsustainable agriculture result in the increased quantity of wastewater, release of nutrients and emission of carbon dioxide that promotes eutrophication of water bodies and global climate change. the application of microalgae for phycoremediation, their biomass use for human needs may increase sustainability and have a positive effect on the regional development. The experiments were carried out in order to establish the feasibility of treating the local municipal wastewater with microalgae consortia and their biomass potential for biofuel production. The results revealed that Chlorella/Scenedesmus consortium eliminated up to 99.7–99.9% of inorganic phosphorus and up to 88.6–96.4% of inorganic nitrogen from the wastewater within three weeks. The ammonium removal was more efficient than that of nitrate. Chlorella algae grew better in diluted, while Scenedesmus – in the concentrated wastewater. The consortium treated wastewater more efficiently than a single species. The maximum biomass (3.04 g/L) of algal consortium was estimated in concentrated wastewater. Algae accumulated 0.65–1.37 g of CO2/L per day in their biomass. Tus, Chlorella/Scenedesmus consortium is a promising tool for nutrients elimination from the local wastewater under the climatic conditions specific to Lithuania. However, none of the two species were able to accumulate lipids under the nitrogen starvation conditions.

A new kinetics model to predict the growth of micro-algae subjected to fluctuating availability of light

“…The selection of the appropriate micro-algae species and appropriate methods of culture is essential to guarantee the economic feasibility of the intensive production of micro-algae. Chlorella and Scenedesmus have been considered promising candidates for wastewater treatment ( [2,3]) and bio-fuel production ( [2,4,5]), thanks to their maximum growth rates, biomass yields, and lipid and carbohydrate contents, which can reach high levels.…”

Consortium of Microalgae for Tannery Effluent Treatment

“…for the treatment of raw wastewater from effluents of the tannery industry for nutrients removal 11,12 . Furthermore, studies show that microalgae consortium is more efficient in the removal of pollutants and nutrients, like nitrogen, phosphorus, and ammonium, from wastewater when compared to individual microorganisms applied for the treatment local municipal wastewater 13 and dairy farm 14 . In this context, investigations about the isolation of the microalgae species present in the consortium in the environment are searched.…”

Effect of cultivation conditions on β-estradiol removal in laboratory and pilot-plant photobioreactors by an algal-bacterial consortium treating urban wastewater

“…Accordingly, several studies have reported the advantages of co-cultivated photosynthetic microorganisms in WW treatment. On the one hand, Koreivienè et al (Koreivienė et al, 2014) reported high nutrient removal efficiencies in municipal WW treatment using a non-native consortium composed of Chlorella sp. and Scenedesmus sp.…”

“…Finally, Renuka et al (Renuka et al, 2013) described the selfflocculating potential of native and non-native consortia in the treatment of a primarytreated sewage effluent. Among the possible combinations of microalgae, many consortia involve Chlorella and Scenedesmus species (Koreivienė et al, 2014;Renuka et al, 2013;Whitton et al, 2016). Moreover, few woks have been carried out in order to study the biodegradadion of 17β-estradiol at pilot-plant photobioreactor, and in this study the capability of native photobioreactor biomass treating urban wastewater to remove at indoor and outdoor conditions has been assessed.…”