Sustainable treatment of domestic wastewater through microalgae

Abstract

The present work evaluated the optimum concentration of microalgal cells for domestic wastewater treatment in terms of removal in nutrients and physicochemical parameters. In the study, three different concentrations (20, 30, and 40%) of microalgae was considered at 8 hours and 24 hours of Hydraulic Retention time (HRT). Among the different microalgal concentrations studied 30% microalgae concentration gave maximum removal at both the HRTs. The maximum removal efficiency of phosphate, ammonia and COD for the non-filtered sample was 87.67, 96.88, and 80.39%, respectively, for filtered sample it was about 91.32, 100, and 83.64%, respectively at 8 hours HRT. However, at 24 hours HRT maximum removal efficiency observed was 97.92, 92.22, and 93.47% for ammonia, COD and phosphate respectively in case of non-filtered sample whereas in filtered samples maximum removal efficiency was 100, 94.44, and 95.51% for ammonia, COD and phosphate respectively. From the study, it was found that microalgae can effectively remove nutrients and organic contents to desirable limits even at a low HRT of 8 hours. At the urban sector, if microalgae are incorporated in a conventional wastewater treatment system will enhance the cost-effective efficiency by lowering the HRT and increasing the removal efficiency with footprints of sustainable treatment.

Keywords: Biological treatment; domestic wastewater; microalgae.