Abstract
Abstract Microalgal bioremediation is currently being venerated for its potential in municipal liquid waste (MLW) treatment. Algae-based water treatment with retention time competitive to the conventional water treatment processes is a challenge. The present study investigated the role of algal biomass concentration to improve treatment efficiency to reduce the time required for water treatment. Eighty percent removal of pollutants (in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia, phosphate and fecal coliforms) was obtained in 12 hours at a biomass concentration of 1 gL−1. Further, continuous treatment of MLW using membrane-assisted photobioreactor was established. The treatment led to >95% removal of ammonia, >75% removal of COD and 100% removal of fecal coliforms within 12 hours. Physiological assessment of the algal culture showed that the cells did not manifest symptoms of stress throughout the reactor cycle, a consequence of continuous availability of the nutrients, maintaining the culture in continuous growth state.
Highlights
Out of the total water available on Earth, only 2.5% is in freshwater form, of which only 21% is available for human use
Removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia are the major parameters assessed to determine the efficiency of water treatment
At biomass concentration 1 gLÀ1, the time required for the 95% removal of COD was reduced to 12 h, increasing the removal rate by 50% as compared to the rate at biomass concentration 0.5 gLÀ1
Summary
Out of the total water available on Earth, only 2.5% is in freshwater form, of which only 21% is available for human use. There has been notable development in water supply and water treatment in urban areas in recent years, these efforts still lag behind in the current trend of urbanization and need for sanitation (Bajpai et al 2019). These limitations of heavy economic investments, land availability and sustainability have pushed the need to explore and expand de-centralized water treatment systems (Bajpai et al 2019). The use of algal biomass to capture energy from the waste sources and conversion to a re-usable form makes it an attractive option for environmentally friendly water treatment processes
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