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Wastewater Cultivated Macroalgae as a Bio-resource in Agriculture

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Sustainable Global Resources Of Seaweeds Volume 1

Abstract

Algae cultivation in the wastewater as bioremediation technique and production of the biomass for various products is an innovative industrial ecology model. On one hand, algae recover from the wastewater nutrients, organic carbon and minerals that would otherwise be lost. On the other hand, wastewater enables the large-scale production without using large volumes of quality water and commercial growth media. Macroalgae provide an interesting opportunity for multiple industries due to their ability to grow in a range of waste substrates and the suitability of resultant biomass for a variety of applications. In comparison to microalgae, they have an advantage of lower separation and dry mass preparation costs. This chapter will review the wastewater treatment by macroalgae and their high effectiveness in recovering nutrients, their cultivation in the wastewater for various products, focusing on the agricultural use.

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Abbreviations

DW:

Dry Weight

IMTA:

Integrated-Multi-Trophic-Aquaculture

TN:

Total Nitrogen

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Acknowledgements

The Authors acknowledge projects: INTEGRATE - Integrate Aquaculture: an eco-innovative solution to foster sustainability in the Atlantic Area, funded by the ERDF through the INTERREG Atlantic Area 2014-2020 Programme (project grant number EAPA_232/2016); Water2Return - Recovery and recycling of nutrients: turning waste water into added-value products for a circular economy in agriculture (H2020 2017-2022) and LIFE AlgaeCan - Adding sustainability to the fruit and vegetable processing industry through solar-powered algal wastewater treatment (LIFE 16/ENV/EC 2017-2021).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Algen, Algal Technology Centre, LLC, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Maja Berden Zrimec, Ana Cerar & Robert Reinhardt

  2. CTAQUA, Aquaculture Technology Centre, El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz), Spain

    Erik Malta & Martha Bonnet Dunbar

  3. ICMAN-CSIC, Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia, Spanish National Research Council, Puerto Real (Cádiz), Spain

    Martha Bonnet Dunbar

  4. University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Agricultural Department, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Rok Mihelič

Authors
  1. Maja Berden Zrimec
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  2. Erik Malta
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  3. Martha Bonnet Dunbar
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  4. Ana Cerar
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  5. Robert Reinhardt
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  6. Rok Mihelič
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maja Berden Zrimec .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Vignan’s Foundation of Science Technology and Research Deemed to be University, Vadlamudi, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Ambati Ranga Rao

  2. Dr. C. D. Sagar Centre for Life Sciences, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Dayananda Sagar Institutions, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

    Gokare A. Ravishankar

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Zrimec, M.B., Malta, E., Dunbar, M.B., Cerar, A., Reinhardt, R., Mihelič, R. (2022). Wastewater Cultivated Macroalgae as a Bio-resource in Agriculture. In: Ranga Rao, A., Ravishankar, G.A. (eds) Sustainable Global Resources Of Seaweeds Volume 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91955-9_23

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