Abstract
Wastewater from the leather finishing step in tanneries contains high nutrient loads and toxic compounds, such as dyes, acids, toxic metals among others. To our best knowledge, for the first time, the influence of light period on the treatment of wet-end and finishing leather wastewaters with a microalgae consortium containing mainly Tetraselmis sp. was investigated. In this work, a microalgae consortium present the ability to grow well in this kind of tannery wastewater and was used for reducing nitrogen, phosphorus, ammonium, chemical and biochemical oxygen demands. Additionally, the wastewater presents high turbidity, which has an influence on the penetration of light, during the cultivations. Therefore, the influence of the illumination period was also studied: continuous light (24-light), 12 h light/dark (12-light) and without light (0-light); in addition to the influence of compositions, 50% and 75% of raw wastewater. The maximum concentration of biomass in the wastewater was observed in the 24-light culture: 50R50S (1.40 gL-1) and 75R25S (1.04 gL-1), with maximum removals of total nitrogen (71.74%), total phosphorus (97.64%), total organic carbon (31.35%), chemical oxygen demand (56.70%), biological oxygen demand (20.68%) and ammonium (100%). These results show that this microalgae consortium is a promising alternative treatment for wastewaters of the leather wet-end and finishing steps.
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