Annual production of microalgae in wastewater using pilot-scale thin-layer cascade photobioreactors
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Morillas-España, Ainoa; Lafarga, Tomás; Acién Fernández, Francisco Gabriel; Gómez-Serrano, Cintia; González-López, Cynthia VictoriaDate
2021-04-12Abstract
Microalgae based wastewater treatment has been suggested as an alternative to polluting and energy-consuming conventional processes. The main advantage of this strategy is the dual role of microalgae: they recover nutrients from waste and simultaneously produce biomass with varied industrial applications. In the current study, biomass of Scenedesmus sp. was produced using primary wastewater in two pilot-scale thin-layer cascade photobioreactors (63 and 126 m2). The wastewater used for microalgal growth was not subjected to any conventional treatment process, besides removal of solids, and contained a variable N-NH4+ content of 83.0-210.6 mg·L-1. Biomass productivity values were comparable to those obtained when operating using freshwater and commercial chemicals as nutrient sources. When operating at a dilution rate of 0.3 day-1, the average annual productivity was 24.8 g·m-2·day-1 (82.0 t·ha-2·year1) with a maximum of 32.8 g·m-2·day-1 in summer. Inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus remov...