Comparative evaluation of piggery wastewater treatment in algal-bacterial photobioreactors under indoor and outdoor conditions

Dimas García; Esther Posadas; Carlos Grajeda; Saúl Blanco; Sonia Martínez-Páramo; Gabriel Acién; Pedro García-Encina; Silvia Bolado; Raúl Muñoz

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.135

Comparative evaluation of piggery wastewater treatment in algal-bacterial photobioreactors under indoor and outdoor conditions

Bioresour Technol. 2017 Dec;245(Pt A):483-490. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.135. Epub 2017 Aug 24.

Authors

Dimas García¹, Esther Posadas², Carlos Grajeda², Saúl Blanco³, Sonia Martínez-Páramo², Gabriel Acién⁴, Pedro García-Encina², Silvia Bolado², Raúl Muñoz⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, School of Industrial Engineerings, Valladolid University, Dr. Mergelina, s/n, 47011 Valladolid, Spain; Centro para la Investigación de los Recursos Acuáticos de Nicaragua, CIRA/UNAN-Managua, Apdo. Postal 4598, Nicaragua.
² Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, School of Industrial Engineerings, Valladolid University, Dr. Mergelina, s/n, 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
³ The Institute of the Environment, La Serna 58, 24007 León, Spain.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Almeria, Cañada San Urbano, s/n, 04120 Almeria, Spain.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, School of Industrial Engineerings, Valladolid University, Dr. Mergelina, s/n, 47011 Valladolid, Spain. Electronic address: mutora@iq.uva.es.

PMID: 28898848
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.135

Abstract

This work evaluated the performance of four open algal-bacterial photobioreactors operated at ≈26days of hydraulic retention time during the treatment of 10 (×10) and 20 (×20) times diluted piggery wastewater (PWW) under indoor (I) and outdoor (O) conditions for four months. The removal efficiencies (REs) of organic matter, nutrients and zinc from PWW, along with the dynamics of biomass concentration and structure of algal-bacterial population were assessed. The highest TOC-RE, TP-RE and Zn-RE (94±1%, 100% and 83±2%, respectively) were achieved indoors in ×10 PWW, while the highest TN-RE (72±8%) was recorded outdoors in ×10 PWW. Chlorella vulgaris was the dominant species regardless of the ambient conditions and PWW dilution. Finally, DGGE-sequencing of the bacterial community revealed the occurrence of four phyla, Proteobacteria being the dominant phylum with 15 out of the 23 most intense bands.

Keywords: Algal-bacterial processes; Heavy metal biosorption; Microalgae-bacteria dynamics; Nutrient removal; Piggery wastewater biodegradation.

MeSH terms

Bacteria
Biomass
Chlorella vulgaris
Microalgae
Photobioreactors*
Wastewater*

Substances

Waste Water