Inorganic Nitrogen and Phosphate Removal from Port Water Using Microalgal Biotechnology Toward Sustainable Development

Abstract

Microalgae are the most common organisms and they habitat in almost all water bodies throughout the globe. Currently, about 50,000 microalgae species have been identified. In modern wastewater treatment technology, microalgae remediation is getting attention due to possibility of generating byproducts and the high efficiency of nutrient recovery from effluents. In India, the primary source of coastal marine water contamination is municipal waste discharge. Around 87 cities and towns are located in the coastal areas in India generate 5560.99 MLD of wastewater that is discharged into water bodies. The continuous discharge of wastewater in an open area or directly into water leads to increase of nitrogen, phosphate, sulfur, macro, and microelements content. Overloading of nitrogen and phosphates induces eutrophication in an aquatic system. That may disturb the aquatic animal life cycle and affect human health, contributing to the spread of gastrointestinal, dermatological diseases, and conjunctivitis. In the present study, the domestic effluent discharging point, e.g., Veraval port coastal area (N 20.904909, E 70.382417), Gujarat, India, was selected to collect water samples during the monsoon season (July 2021). The physiochemical parameters of the collected water samples were measured. The results revealed presence of 35.34 µM of nitrate, 47.96 µM of nitrite, and 19.40 µM of phosphate. Microalgae, e.g., Chlorella Sp-based nutritional remediation technique was used to remove N and P completely from the waste water. The generated biomass obtained from the wastewater treatment may be potentially useful for bioenergy production. This study may provide a feasible microalgae-based treatment process for the reduction of N and P load in surface water bodies (SKM designed the outline structure of the article. KU and PMK carried out the experimental work, data analysis, and manuscript writing. SKM has conceptualized and coordinated, corrected, and communicated the manuscript. KP went through the manuscript and provided important suggestions for improvements. All authors have read the manuscript and are agreed with the content of the current version of the manuscript.).