•Growth of microalgae on mixed municipal and industrial wastewater.•High nitrogen and phosphorus removal was achieved in all treatments.•Selenastrum minutum had the highest biomass and lipids ...yields.•Lipid content was negatively correlated to the nitrogen concentration.•Mixtures of wastewater have great potential to produce algal biomass and lipid.
The aim of the study was to grow microalgae on mixed municipal and industrial wastewater to simultaneously treat the wastewater and produce biomass and lipids. All algal strains grew in all wastewater mixtures; however, Selenastrum minutum had the highest biomass and lipids yields, up to 37% of the dry matter. Nitrogen and phosphorus removal were high and followed a similar trend in all three strains. Ammonium was reduced from 96% to 99%; this reduction was due to algal growth and not to stripping to the atmosphere, as confirmed by the amount of nitrogen in the dry algal biomass. Phosphate was reduced from 91% to 99%. In all strains used the lipid content was negatively correlated to the nitrogen concentration in the algal biomass. Mixtures of pulp and paper wastewater with municipal and dairy wastewater have great potential to grow algae for biomass and lipid production together with effective wastewater treatment.
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether pharmaceutical pollutants in urban wastewater can be reduced during algal cultivation. A mixed population of wild freshwater green algal species ...was grown on urban wastewater influent in a 650 L photobioreactor under natural light and with the addition of flue gases. Removal efficiencies were very high (>90 %), moderate (50–90 %), low (10–50 %), and very low or non-quantifiable (<10 %) for 9, 14, 11, and 18 pharmaceuticals, respectively, over a 7-day period. High reduction was found in the following pharmaceuticals: the beta-blockers atenolol, bispropol, and metoprolol; the antibiotic clarithromycine; the antidepressant bupropion; the muscle relaxant atracurium; hypertension drugs diltiazem and terbutaline used to relive the symptoms of asthma. Regression analysis did not detect any relationship between the reduction in pharmaceutical contents and light intensity reaching the water surface of the algal culture. However, the reduction was positively correlated with light intensity inside the culture and stronger when data collected during the night were excluded. Algae cultivation can remove partially or totally pharmaceutical pollutants from urban wastewater, and this opens up new possibilities for treating urban wastewater.
Microalgal-based wastewater treatment and CO2 sequestration from flue gases with subsequent biomass production represent a low-cost, eco-friendly, and effective procedure of removing nutrients and ...other pollutants from wastewater and assists in the decrease of greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, it supports a circular economy model. This is based on the ability of microalgae to utilise inorganic nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorous, as well as organic and inorganic carbon, for their growth, and simultaneously reduce these substances in the water. However, the production of microalgae biomass under outdoor cultivation is dependent on several abiotic and biotic factors, which impact its profitability and sustainability. Thus, this study’s goal was to evaluate the factors affecting the production of microalgae biomass on pilot-scale open raceway ponds under Northern Sweden’s summer conditions with the help of a mathematical model. For this purpose, a microalgae consortium and a monoculture of Chlorella vulgaris were used to inoculate outdoor open raceway ponds. In line with the literature, higher biomass concentrations and nutrient removals were observed in ponds inoculated with the microalgae consortium. Our model, based on Droop’s concept of macronutrient quotas inside the cell, corresponded well to the experimental data and, thus, can successfully be applied to predict biomass production, nitrogen uptake and storage, and dissolved oxygen production in microalgae consortia.
Display omitted
•Nordic microalgae strains treated wastewater and sequestered CO2 from flue gases.•Microalgae consortium outcompeted C. vulgaris monoculture in outdoor open ponds.•Microalgae consortium had higher biomass concentration and PO4 removal than monoculture.•Mathematical model on microalgae growth, N uptake/storage, and O2 generation was made.•Model simulated specific traits of microalgal behavior in complex growth conditions.
The production potential of a locally isolated Chlorella vulgaris strain and a local green-algae consortium, used in municipal wastewater treatment combined with CO2 sequestration from flue gases, ...was evaluated for the first time by comparing the elemental and biochemical composition and heating value of the biomass produced. The microalgae were grown in outdoor pilot-scale ponds under subarctic summer conditions. The impact of cultivation in a greenhouse climate was also tested for the green-algae consortium; additionally, the variation in species composition over time in the three ponds was investigated. Our results showed that the biomass produced in the consortium/outdoor pond had the greatest potential for bioenergy production because both its carbohydrates and lipids contents were significantly higher than the biomasses from the consortium/greenhouse and C. vulgaris/outdoor ponds. Although greenhouse conditions significantly increased the consortium biomass's monounsaturated fatty acid content, which is ideal for biodiesel production, an undesirable increase in ash and chemical elements, as well as a reduction in heating value, were also observed. Thus, the placement of the pond inside a greenhouse did not improve the production potential of the green-algae consortium biomass in the current study infrastructure and climate conditions.
Display omitted
•A local algae consortium, a locally isolated strain, wastewater and flue gases.•Higher potential of the consortium/outdoor biomass for biofuels production.•Biomass from the greenhouse had the highest monounsaturated fatty acids content.•Outdoor ponds biomass had higher heating value than biomass from the greenhouse.
Harvesting microalgae from liquid culture is a difficult issue to solve and is most commonly done through settling. However, settling is a slow process on its own and generally needs to be induced ...chemically or by introducing stress to the culture. Polymeric, cationic substances, such as cationised starch and chitosan, are often used for flocculation and settling. These large, positively charged molecules form large clusters with suspended particles in the liquid medium. In the present study, three natural organic flocculants (cationic starch, chitosan and acacia tannin S5T) were tested to harvest microalgal cultures grown in wastewater. Two microalgal species, one strain of Chlorella vulgaris and one strain of Scenedesmus obliquus, were cultured in municipal wastewater for different lengths of time, and settled using either cationic starch, chitosan or acacia tannin S5T. Results indicated that S5T worked with approximately the same efficiency in the two assayed species, although it requires a relatively high dosage to function (about 300 mg L−1), while the other two flocculants varied from species to species.
Microalgae produce a wide range of lipid compounds of potential commercial interest. Total lipid extraction performed by conventional extraction methods, relying on the chloroform-methanol solvent ...system are too laborious and time consuming for screening large numbers of samples. In this study, three previous extraction methods devised by Folch et al. (1957), Bligh and Dyer (1959) and Selstam and Öquist (1985) were compared and a faster single-step procedure was developed for extraction of total lipids from green microalgae. In the single-step procedure, 8 ml of a 2∶1 chloroform-methanol (v/v) mixture was added to fresh or frozen microalgal paste or pulverized dry algal biomass contained in a glass centrifuge tube. The biomass was manually suspended by vigorously shaking the tube for a few seconds and 2 ml of a 0.73% NaCl water solution was added. Phase separation was facilitated by 2 min of centrifugation at 350 g and the lower phase was recovered for analysis. An uncharacterized microalgal polyculture and the green microalgae Scenedesmus dimorphus, Selenastrum minutum, and Chlorella protothecoides were subjected to the different extraction methods and various techniques of biomass homogenization. The less labour intensive single-step procedure presented here allowed simultaneous recovery of total lipid extracts from multiple samples of green microalgae with quantitative yields and fatty acid profiles comparable to those of the previous methods. While the single-step procedure is highly correlated in lipid extractability (r² = 0.985) to the previous method of Folch et al. (1957), it allowed at least five times higher sample throughput.
Microalgal biomass may have biostimulating effects on plants and seeds due to its phytohormonal content, and harnessing this biostimulating effect could contribute to sustainable agriculture. Two ...Nordic strains of freshwater microalgae species Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus obliquus were each cultivated in a photobioreactor receiving untreated municipal wastewater. The algal biomass and the supernatant after algal cultivation were tested on tomato and barley seeds for biostimulating effects. Intact algal cells, broken cells, or harvest supernatant were applied to the seeds, and germination time, percentage and germination index were evaluated. Seeds treated with C. vulgaris, in particular intact cells or supernatant, had up to 25 percentage units higher germination percentage after 2 days and an overall significantly faster germination time (germinated on average between 0.5 and 1 day sooner) than seeds treated with S. obliquus or the control (water). The germination index was higher in C. vulgaris treatments than in the control for both tomato and barley, and this was observed for both broken and intact cells as well as supernatant. The Nordic strain of C. vulgaris cultivated in municipal wastewater thus shows potential for use as biostimulant in agriculture, adding novel economic and sustainability benefits.
Display omitted
•Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) composition was microalgae species specific.•Thin-layer chromatography and solid-phase extraction improved reproducibility.•Direct ...transesterification produced different FAMEs profiles than single-step method.•Pretreatment did not have a strong impact in FAMEs characterisation.
A systematic qualitative and quantitative analysis of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) is crucial for microalgae species selection for biodiesel production. The aim of this study is to identify the best method to assess microalgae FAMEs composition and content. A single-step method, was tested with and without purification steps—that is, separation of lipid classes by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) or solid-phase extraction (SPE). The efficiency of a direct transesterification method was also evaluated. Additionally, the yield of the FAMEs and the profiles of the microalgae samples with different pretreatments (boiled in isopropanol, freezing, oven-dried and freeze-dried) were compared. The application of a purification step after lipid extraction proved to be essential for an accurate FAMEs characterisation. The purification methods, which included TLC and SPE, provided superior results compared to not purifying the samples. Freeze-dried microalgae produced the lowest FAMEs yield. However, FAMEs profiles were generally equivalent among the pretreatments.
The potential to convert natural microalgae (Scenedesmus) into solid fuels by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) was evaluated. The deashing microalgae (DA) were obtained by acid-washing natural ...microalgae (NM) with HCl. The deashing efficiency was high from 44.66% for NM to 14.45% for DA. HTC carried out at temperature in the range from 180 to 260 °C with this two types feedstock (i.e. NM and DA). The results showed that DA-derived hydrochars had good physicochemical and fuel properties compared with that of NM-derived hydrochars. HTC process of DA was mainly based on polymerization, and the hydrolysis process was short. The hydrochars obtained from DA at 220 °C (HC-D220) had the highest value of 51.86% with a carbon content and fixed carbon content 1.15 and 1.33 times, respectively, greater than that of DA. The high heating value (HHV) of HC-D220 reached 26.64 MJ/kg which is equivalent to medium-high calorific coal. The thermogravimetric analysis (TG) demonstrated that the hydrochars derived from DA have good combustion properties with stable at high temperature zones. They can easily mix with coal or replace coal in combustion application. The results of this study revealed that natural microalgae can be utilized by hydrothermal carbonization to generate renewable fuel resources.
•Seaweeds contain substances which interfere with common protein estimation.•The Lowry and BCA assays are not suitable for protein estimation in seaweed.•Protein-estimation by use of N-conversion ...factors varies between different species.•FTIR and NIR estimation of seaweed protein is rapid and environmentally sustainable.
Seaweed is considered a potentially sustainable source of protein for human consumption, and rapid, accurate methods for determining seaweed protein contents are needed. Seaweeds contain substances which interfere with common protein estimation methods however. The present study compares the Lowry and BCA protein assays and protein determination by N-ratios to more novel spectroscopic methods. Linear regression of the height or the integrated area under the Amide II band of diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) was used to predict seaweed protein with good prediction performance. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was performed on both DRIFTS and near-infrared (NIR) spectra, with even higher prediction accuracy. Spectroscopy performed similar to or better than the calculated N-ratio of 4.14 for protein prediction. These spectral prediction methods require minimal sample preparation and chemical use, and are easy to perform, making them environmentally sustainable and economically viable for rapid estimation of seaweed protein.
PDF
