Implementation of UV-based advanced oxidation processes in algal medium recycling

Abstract

Algae show great potential as sustainable feedstock for numerous bioproducts. However, large volume of water consumption during algal biomass production makes that the culture media recycling is a necessity due to economic and environmental concern. To avoid the negative effect of enriched organic matters in the harvested culture media, pre-treatment prior to medium replenishment and reuse is required. In this study, degradation of algenitic organic matters (AOM) in the culture media by UV-based photolysis processes (i.e., direct UV, UV/peroxydisulfate (PDS), UV/H2O2, and UV/NH2Cl) was explored. The results showed that UV, UV/PDS, UV/H2O2 and UV/NH2Cl caused a decrease of SUVA for 29.9%, 35.4%, 40.45%, and 22.6%, respectively, though the organic matter was almost not mineralized. Fluorescence excitation-emission matrix combined with parallel factor analysis indicated that UV/PDS and UV/H2O2 degraded 47.26%–56.31% of the fulvic-like and humic-like fractions in AOM. Powder activated carbon absorption and growth evaluation for the AOPs-treated media indicated that UV/PDS and UV/H2O2 processes not only could remove the growth inhibitors in the media, but were also beneficial to the algae growth. These results suggested that UV/PDS and UV/H2O2 could effectively degrade the hydrophobic components in AOM and converted the growth inhibition fraction of AOM in the recycled media into nutrient source for algal growth. Different from the general application of UV-based AOP in the wastewater treatment, this study provided an innovative idea about how to pre-treat AOM in the media recycling: utilization rather than removal, which was a more sustainable and environment-friendly technology.