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Effect of Microalgae/Activated Sludge Ratio on Cooperative Treatment of Anaerobic Effluent of Municipal Wastewater

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Abstract

In this work, capability of the green microalga (MA), Chlorella vulgaris, in treating synthetic anaerobic effluent of municipal wastewater was investigated. While pure C. vulgaris (100 % MA) provided maximum soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) and N − NH +4 removal efficiencies of 27 and 72 % respectively, addition of activated sludge (AS) to MA in different mass ratios (91, 80, 66.7, 9 % MA) improved wastewater treatment efficiency. Thus giving maximum sCOD and N − NH +4 removal efficiencies 85 and 86.3 % (for MA/AS = 10/1), respectively. Utilizing AS without C. vulgaris, for treating the synthetic wastewater resulted in 87 % maximum sCOD and 42 % maximum N − NH +4 removal efficiencies. Furthermore, algal growth and specific growth rates were measured in the systems with microalga as the dominant cellular population. As a result, faster algal growth was observed in mixed systems. Specific growth rate of C. vulgaris was 0.14 (day−1) in 100 % MA and 0.39 (day−1) in 80 % MA. Finally, data gathered by online measurement of dissolved oxygen indicate that algae-activated sludge mixture improves photosynthetic activity of examined microalga strain during anaerobic effluent treatment.

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Abbreviations

AS:

Activated Sludge

C. vulgaris :

Chlorella vulgaris

DO:

Dissolved Oxygen

MA:

Microalgae

μ:

Microalgal Specific Growth Rate

sCOD:

Soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand

t:

Operational Time

WWT:

Wastewater Treatment

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, P.O. Box 11155–4563, Tehran, Iran

    Fatemeh Pourasgharian Roudsari, Mohammad Reza Mehrnia & Zohreh Moayedi

  2. Plant Protection Organization, Ministry of Agriculture, Tehran, Iran

    Akram Asadi

  3. Algaebiotech B.V., Rijnkade 17a, 1382 GS, Weesp, The Netherlands

    Reza Ranjbar

Authors
  1. Fatemeh Pourasgharian Roudsari
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  2. Mohammad Reza Mehrnia
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  3. Akram Asadi
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  4. Zohreh Moayedi
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  5. Reza Ranjbar
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Correspondence to Mohammad Reza Mehrnia.

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Roudsari, F.P., Mehrnia, M.R., Asadi, A. et al. Effect of Microalgae/Activated Sludge Ratio on Cooperative Treatment of Anaerobic Effluent of Municipal Wastewater. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 172, 131–140 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-013-0480-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-013-0480-z

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