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Wastewater treatment using microalgae: how realistic a contribution might it be to significant urban wastewater treatment?

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Abstract

Microalgae have been proposed as an option for wastewater treatment since the 1960s, but still, this technology has not been expanded to an industrial scale. In this paper, the major factors limiting the performance of these systems are analysed. The composition of the wastewater is highly relevant, and especially the presence of pollutants such as heavy metals and emerging compounds. Biological and engineering aspects are also critical and have to be improved to at least approximate the performance of conventional systems, not just in terms of capacity and efficiency but also in terms of robustness. Finally, the harvesting of the biomass and its processing into valuable products pose a challenge; yet at the same time, an opportunity exists to increase economic profitability. Land requirement is a major bottleneck that can be ameliorated by improving the system’s photosynthetic efficiency. Land requirement has a significant impact on the economic balance, but the profits from the biomass produced can enhance these systems’ reliability, especially in small cities.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by EDARSOL CTQ2014-57293-C3 (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) and the PURALGA RTA2013-0056-C03 (INIA) projects. We are most grateful to the Estación Experimental Las Palmerillas of the Fundación Cajamar for collaborating in this research. This research was supported by the Junta de Andalucía and the Plan Andaluz de Investigación (BIO 173).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Almería, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120, Almería, Spain

    F. Gabriel Acién, C. Gómez-Serrano, M. M. Morales-Amaral, J. M. Fernández-Sevilla & E. Molina-Grima

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  1. F. Gabriel Acién
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  2. C. Gómez-Serrano
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  3. M. M. Morales-Amaral
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  4. J. M. Fernández-Sevilla
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  5. E. Molina-Grima
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Correspondence to F. Gabriel Acién.

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This paper has been developed accomplishing the guidelines for ethical responsibility of authors. This is an original work performed by the authors that has not been previously submitted to other journal. Data has been not manipulated or altered. The text was written avoiding plagiarism from other previous published papers.

This work is part of the research performed by the authors in several projects, all of them supported by governmental founds, without conflict with companies or other funding entities.

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Authors declare that they have not conflict of interest on the publication of this paper and data on it contained.

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In this work, no animals or humans are used. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Acién, F.G., Gómez-Serrano, C., Morales-Amaral, M.M. et al. Wastewater treatment using microalgae: how realistic a contribution might it be to significant urban wastewater treatment?. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 9013–9022 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7835-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7835-7

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