Abstract
Conventional domestic wastewater treatment in most developing countries is confined to secondary treatments, mainly focusing on solids and organics removal, which results in eutrophication when the effluents are discharged into receiving bodies. Thus, to resolve the issues associated with the conventional treatment system, in the present study, microalgae was introduced in the primary treated effluent collected from a sewage treatment plant to study the efficiency of the system in reducing eutrophication and other challenges of secondary treatment. Phycoremediation is an effective and eco-friendly treatment alternative that reduced the primary-treated effluent’s PO4-P, NH3-N and COD concentration to 97.89%, 98.81%, and 88.24%, respectively at the identical HRT practiced for secondary treatment. One-way ANOVA was also conducted to determine the effectiveness of the system statistically. The experimental and statistical analysis proved that microalgal treatment could resolve the challenges of conventional secondary treatments if adopted for domestic wastewater.
Highlights
Wastewater generation is an inevitable process as it is approximately 80% of the water consumption in society
Microalgae effectively remove nutrients, organic matter, and solids from domestic wastewater compared to secondary treatment in STP
The effluent characteristics of the microalgal system were within the norms at the identical HRT practiced for secondary treatment in STPs
Summary
Wastewater generation is an inevitable process as it is approximately 80% of the water consumption in society. The wastewater characteristics generated result from the life comforts and technologies practiced daily (Abdel-Raouf et al, 2012). Developing countries such as India (middle and low-income countries) are looking for infrastructures for effective wastewater treatment systems. Conventional municipal wastewater treatment is confined to secondary treatments, mainly focusing on solids and organics removal (Neveux et al, 2016). Secondary effluents released to nearby receiving bodies are rich in nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), resulting in eutrophication and dead zones in water bodies, polluting the freshwater sources. Tertiary treatments that enhance nutrient removal are less in practice due to their high energy and cost requirements and additional concerns of safe sludge disposal (Kube et al, 2018)
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