Agronomic and Environmental Performance of Lemnaminor Cultivated on Agricultural Wastewater Streams—A Practical Approach

Abstract

This study investigated the potential of Lemna minor to valorise agricultural wastewater in protein-rich feed material in order to meet the growing demand for animal feed protein and reduce the excess of nutrients in certain European regions. For this purpose, three pilot-scale systems were monitored for 175 days under outdoor conditions in Flanders. The systems were fed with the effluent of aquaculture (pikeperch production—PP), a mixture of diluted pig manure wastewater (PM), and a synthetic medium (SM). PM showed the highest productivity (6.1 ± 2.5 g DW m−2 d−1) and N uptake (327 ± 107 mg N m−2 d−1). PP yielded a similar productivity and both wastewaters resulted in higher productivities than SM. Furthermore, all media showed similar P uptake rates (65–70 P m−2 d−1). Finally, duckweed had a beneficial amino acid composition for humans (essential amino acid index = 1.1), broilers and pigs. This study also showed that the growing medium had more influence on the productivity of duckweed than on its amino acid composition or protein content, with the latter being only slightly affected by the different media studied. Overall, these results demonstrate that duckweed can effectively remove nutrients from agriculture wastewaters while producing quality protein.