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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Sharon Velasquez OrtaORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© The Author(s) 2024. Microalgae cultivation in wastewater has been widely researched under laboratory conditions as per its potential to couple treatment with biomass production. Currently, only a limited number of published articles consider outdoor and long-term microalgae-bacteria cultivations in real wastewater environmental systems. The scope of this work is to describe microalgal cultivation steps towards high-rate algal pond (HRAP) scalability and identify key parameters that play a major role for biomass productivity under outdoor conditions and long-term cultivations. Reviewed pilot-scale HRAP literature is analysed using multivariate analysis to highlight key productivity parameters within environmental and operational factors. Wastewater treatment analysis indicated that HRAP can effectively remove 90% of NH4+, 70% of COD, and 50% of PO43−. Mean reference values of 210 W m−2 for irradiation, 18 °C for temperature, pH of 8.2, and HRT of 7.7 are derived from pilot-scale cultivations. Microalgae biomass productivity at a large scale is governed by solar radiation and NH4+ concentration, which are more important than retention time variations within investigated studies. Hence, selecting the correct type of location and a minimum of 70 mg L−1 of NH4+ in wastewater will have the greatest effect in microalgae productivity. A high nutrient wastewater content increases final biomass concentrations but not necessarily biomass productivity. Pilot-scale growth rates (~ 0.54 day−1) are half those observed in lab experiments, indicating a scaling-up bottleneck. Microalgae cultivation in wastewater enables a circular bioeconomy framework by unlocking microalgal biomass for the delivery of an array of products. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.)
Author(s): Velasquez-Orta SB, Yanez-Noguez I, Ramirez IM, Ledesma MTO
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Year: 2024
Volume: 31
Pages: 46994-47021
Online publication date: 10/07/2024
Acceptance date: 11/06/2024
Date deposited: 02/07/2024
ISSN (print): 0944-1344
ISSN (electronic): 1614-7499
Publisher: Springer Nature
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-34000-7
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-024-34000-7
Data Access Statement: Datasets can be found in the attached supplementary material, further information can be made available upon request.
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