TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of pot-ale enrichment on the treatment efficiency of primary settled wastewater by the microalga Chlorella vulgaris
AU - Evans, Laurence
AU - Mohsenpour, Seyedeh Fatemeh
AU - Hennige, Sebastian John
AU - Willoughby, Nik
AU - Adeloye, Adebayo J.
AU - Gutierrez, Tony
N1 - Funding Information:
This work forms part of the Ph.D. research by Laurence Evans, who would like to thank the Water Academy of Heriot-Watt University and a James Watt Scholarship for its financial support. Partial support was also provided through a Natural Environment Research Council grant (NERC, NE/K009028/1) to Sebastian Hennige. The authors are also grateful to Veolia Water Outsourcing Ltd. for their cooperation in providing access to the treatment plant and provision of primary settled wastewater samples. The opinions expressed in this paper are not necessarily those of Veolia Water Outsourcing Ltd. or their operatives. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments which considerably improved the manuscript.
Funding Information:
This work forms part of the Ph.D. research by Laurence Evans, who would like to thank the Water Academy of Heriot-Watt University and a James Watt Scholarship for its financial support. Partial support was also provided through a Natural Environment Research Council grant (NERC, NE/K009028/1) to Sebastian Hennige. The authors are also grateful to Veolia Water Outsourcing Ltd. for their cooperation in providing access to the treatment plant and provision of primary settled wastewater samples. The opinions expressed in this paper are not necessarily those of Veolia Water Outsourcing Ltd. or their operatives. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments which considerably improved the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
PY - 2021/12/10
Y1 - 2021/12/10
N2 - This study evaluated the performance of microalgae under static cultivation for primary settled municipal wastewater (PSW) treatment as a low energy treatment process. The availability of a suitable carbon substrate was determined to be the main limiting factor affecting the algal treatment performance. To overcome the material cost of applying commercial sources of organic carbon, we evaluated pot ale – a carbohydrate-rich by-product from the production of malt whiskey – as a carbon substrate to promote microalgae growth and the removal of nitrogen (NH3–N) and phosphate (PO4–P) in PSW. For this, the mixotrophic microalgal species Chlorella vulgaris was used in batch experiments of PSW enriched with pot ale. Characterisation of the wastewater in the microalgae treatments compared with the control treatments (WWC) and wastewater with pot ale (WWPA) highlighted that C. vulgaris was a key organism in the algal-bacterial consortium responsible in inorganic N and P removal. We also observed a high variability in the characteristics of PSW across independent batches enriched with pot ale, which resulted in variability in the N and P removal efficiency by the alga, from 99% to 58% at reducing NH3–N, and from 94% to 58% at reducing PO4–P. As an extension of these batch-wise operated treatments, we investigated removal of NH3–N and PO4–P under semi-continuous operation with pot ale enrichment and found this to be a viable system for potential further development. This work highlights the use of pot ale enrichment with microalgae as a promising application for enhancing the efficiency of inorganic nutrient removal from PSW.
AB - This study evaluated the performance of microalgae under static cultivation for primary settled municipal wastewater (PSW) treatment as a low energy treatment process. The availability of a suitable carbon substrate was determined to be the main limiting factor affecting the algal treatment performance. To overcome the material cost of applying commercial sources of organic carbon, we evaluated pot ale – a carbohydrate-rich by-product from the production of malt whiskey – as a carbon substrate to promote microalgae growth and the removal of nitrogen (NH3–N) and phosphate (PO4–P) in PSW. For this, the mixotrophic microalgal species Chlorella vulgaris was used in batch experiments of PSW enriched with pot ale. Characterisation of the wastewater in the microalgae treatments compared with the control treatments (WWC) and wastewater with pot ale (WWPA) highlighted that C. vulgaris was a key organism in the algal-bacterial consortium responsible in inorganic N and P removal. We also observed a high variability in the characteristics of PSW across independent batches enriched with pot ale, which resulted in variability in the N and P removal efficiency by the alga, from 99% to 58% at reducing NH3–N, and from 94% to 58% at reducing PO4–P. As an extension of these batch-wise operated treatments, we investigated removal of NH3–N and PO4–P under semi-continuous operation with pot ale enrichment and found this to be a viable system for potential further development. This work highlights the use of pot ale enrichment with microalgae as a promising application for enhancing the efficiency of inorganic nutrient removal from PSW.
KW - Bioremediation
KW - Microalgae
KW - Organic waste
KW - Photobioreactor
KW - Pot ale
KW - Wastewater treatment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118490847&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129436
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129436
M3 - Article
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 327
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
M1 - 129436
ER -