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 Characterization of Cheese whey Effluents and Investigation of Their Potential to be used as a Nutrient Substrate for Chlorella Biomass Production

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was the characterization of three different types of cheese-whey (CW) effluents, originating from the production of different Greek goat and sheep cheese types, and the detailed design of CW based media for Chlorella biomass production. One of these CW originated from the primary stage (PCW) and two from the second stage (SCW) of cheese production. Initially, the experimental approach included the detailed characterization of these CW fractions by well established methods. On the second part of this work, CW-based media were designed and used for Chlorella biomass production. It has been shown through this study that CWs exhibit a high polluting potential by exhibiting a high concentration of solids (1.5–5.7 g L−1), organic carbon (25–34.1 g L−1) as well as biochemical and chemical oxygen demand (26-37.5 and 65.394.1 g L−1 respectively). Furthermore, CW types exhibited 0.79–2.52 g L−1 nitrogen, 366–549 mg L−1 phosphorous and 56.6–80.1 g L−1 lactose. Chlorella cultivation experiments showed that the addition of a trace minerals solution was crucial to achieve cell growth was. Chlorella cultivated in PCW exhibited high photosynthetic efficiency and the growth was comparable to that of control cultures. On the other hand, the increase of salt concentration in SCW caused a decrease of cell growth and photosynthetic efficiency. It was shown through this study that the detailed characterization of a wastewater type, as well as the detailed design of media, are the most important steps to achieve an algal biomass production, with perspective applications the valorization of CW.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the present study are not publicly available, but they are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the group of Chemicotechniki Laboratories for their assistance and technical support in analytical procedures.

Funding

This research has been co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH – CREATE – INNOVATE (project code: T2EDK-03976).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, Vasilika Voutes, 70013, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Theocharis T. Nazos, Napoleon Christoforos Stratigakis & Demetrios F. Ghanotakis

  2. Chemicotechniki Laboratories, 1 Dikonimou Makri street, 74100, Rethymno, Crete, Greece

    Maria Spantidaki & Afroditi Lagouvardou Spantidaki

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  1. Theocharis T. Nazos
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Contributions

TN: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Validation Visualization, Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing; NCS: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing; MS: Methodology, Investigation; ALS: Methodology, Investigation, Validation; DG: Conceptualization, Writing—Review & Editing, Supervision, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition.

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Correspondence to Demetrios F. Ghanotakis.

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Nazos, T.T., Stratigakis, N.C., Spantidaki, M. et al.  Characterization of Cheese whey Effluents and Investigation of Their Potential to be used as a Nutrient Substrate for Chlorella Biomass Production. Waste Biomass Valor 14, 3643–3655 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-023-02081-z

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