Nutrient removal and biofuel production in high rate algal pond using real municipal wastewater.
This study evaluated the growth and nutrient removal ability of an indigenous algal consortium on real untreated municipal wastewater in a high rate algal pond (HRAP). The HRAP was operated semicontinuously under different hydraulic retention times (HRT: 2, 4, 6, and 8 days). The average removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand, and total nitrogen and phosphate of real municipal wastewater were maintained at 85.44 ± 5.10%, 92.74 ± 5.82%, and 82.85 ± 8.63%, respectively, in 2 day HRT. Algae dominated the consortium and showed high settling efficiency (99%), and biomass and lipid productivity of 0.500 ± 0.03 g/l/day and 0.103 ± 0.0083 g/l/day (2 day HRT), respectively. Fatty acid methyl ester analysis revealed a predominance of palmitate (C16:0), palmitoleate (C16:1), linoleate (C18:2), and linolenate (C18:3). Microalgal diversity analyses determined the presence of Chlorella, Scenedesmus, and Stigeoclonium as the dominant microalgae. The algal consortium provides significant value not only in terms of energy savings and nutrient removal but also because of its bioenergy potential as indicated by the lipid content (20-23%) and FAME profiling.
Environmental Biotechnology Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Daejeon 305-806, Republic of Korea.
Byung-Hyuk
BH
Kim
Zion
Z
Kang
Rishiram
R
Ramanan
Jong-Eun
JE
Choi
Dae-Hyun
DH
Cho
Hee-Mock
HM
Oh
Hee-Sik
HS
Kim
D056804:Biofuels; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D000460:Chlorophyta / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism*; D058086:Microalgae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism*; D059013:Microbial Consortia; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000378:metabolism*; D010710:Phosphates / Q000378:metabolism; D061005:Ponds / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000382:microbiology*
D056804:Biofuels; D009584:Nitrogen; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D010710:Phosphates; D062065:Wastewater