Annual production of microalgae in wastewater using pilot-scale thin-layer cascade photobioreactors

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 applica...

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Main Authors: Morillas-España, Ainoa, Lafarga, Tomás, Acién Fernández, Francisco Gabriel, Gómez-Serrano, Cintia, González-López, Cynthia Victoria
Formato: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Idioma:English
Publicado: 2022
Acceso en liña:http://hdl.handle.net/10835/13314
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author Morillas-España, Ainoa
Lafarga, Tomás
Acién Fernández, Francisco Gabriel
Gómez-Serrano, Cintia
González-López, Cynthia Victoria
author_facet Morillas-España, Ainoa
Lafarga, Tomás
Acién Fernández, Francisco Gabriel
Gómez-Serrano, Cintia
González-López, Cynthia Victoria
author_sort Morillas-España, Ainoa
collection DSpace
description 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 removal rates varied between 695.4-2383.4 and 70.4-111.8 mg·m-2·day-1 respectively. Production of Scenedesmus sp. using wastewater would allow not only to process large volumes of water that could be reused for agricultural irrigation or safely disposed into water streams, but also reduce production costs by 0.44 €·kg-1, based on a preliminary economic analysis. Overall, results demonstrate that thin-layer cascade reactors can be used to effectively remove nutrients from wastewater while simultaneously produce valuable biomass with potential applications in agriculture or animal feed production.
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spelling oai:repositorio.ual.es:10835-133142023-10-10T09:50:49Z Annual production of microalgae in wastewater using pilot-scale thin-layer cascade photobioreactors Morillas-España, Ainoa Lafarga, Tomás Acién Fernández, Francisco Gabriel Gómez-Serrano, Cintia González-López, Cynthia Victoria 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 removal rates varied between 695.4-2383.4 and 70.4-111.8 mg·m-2·day-1 respectively. Production of Scenedesmus sp. using wastewater would allow not only to process large volumes of water that could be reused for agricultural irrigation or safely disposed into water streams, but also reduce production costs by 0.44 €·kg-1, based on a preliminary economic analysis. Overall, results demonstrate that thin-layer cascade reactors can be used to effectively remove nutrients from wastewater while simultaneously produce valuable biomass with potential applications in agriculture or animal feed production. 2022-02-24T09:37:24Z 2022-02-24T09:37:24Z 2021-04-12 info:eu-repo/semantics/article 3861-3871 http://hdl.handle.net/10835/13314 en http://eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/2016SABANA/ES/Sustainable%20Algae%20Biorefinery%20for%20Agriculture%20aNd%20Aquaculture/SABANA/ Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
spellingShingle Morillas-España, Ainoa
Lafarga, Tomás
Acién Fernández, Francisco Gabriel
Gómez-Serrano, Cintia
González-López, Cynthia Victoria
Annual production of microalgae in wastewater using pilot-scale thin-layer cascade photobioreactors
title Annual production of microalgae in wastewater using pilot-scale thin-layer cascade photobioreactors
title_full Annual production of microalgae in wastewater using pilot-scale thin-layer cascade photobioreactors
title_fullStr Annual production of microalgae in wastewater using pilot-scale thin-layer cascade photobioreactors
title_full_unstemmed Annual production of microalgae in wastewater using pilot-scale thin-layer cascade photobioreactors
title_short Annual production of microalgae in wastewater using pilot-scale thin-layer cascade photobioreactors
title_sort annual production of microalgae in wastewater using pilot-scale thin-layer cascade photobioreactors
url http://hdl.handle.net/10835/13314
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