Eutrophication of surface water has become an environmental concern in recent decades. High concentrations of nutrients, especially nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich species, have contributed to the process of eutrophication, highlighting a demand for effective and economical methods of removing nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater. This study aimed to investigate the ability of a green microalga species, Scenedesmus sp., to remove nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), from fertilizer plant wastewater. Different microalgae concentrations from 10 mg/L to 60 mg/L were used to assess the growth rate, biomass production, and removal ability. The results indicated that Scenedesmus sp. grew well in the wastewater (with a growth rate from 0.3 to 0.38/day) and produced up to 70.2 mg/L of dry biomass. The algal species was able to remove ammonium (NH4+), nitrate (NO3−), phosphate (PO43−), total phosphorus (TP), COD, and BOD5 with removal rates up to 93%, 84%, 97%, 96%, 93%, and 84%, respectively. Autobioflocculation (AFL) was observed in all cultures with flocculation activity of up to 88.3% in the highest algal biomass treatment. The formation of bioflocculation enhanced the removal of nutrients, COD, and BOD5 from wastewater effluent. The results indicated that wastewater from a fertilizer plant could be used as a cost-effective growth medium for algal biomass. The autoflocculation of microalgae could be used as a more practical approach for wastewater treatment using microalgae to eliminate eutrophication.
critical issue. It is necessary to identify the fate and sources of MPs in the environment, minimise their release and adverse effects. Compared to marine sediments, standardised methods for extracting and estimating the amount of MPs in freshwater sediments are relatively limited. The present study focuses on MP recovery efficiency of four commonly used salt solutions (NaCl, NaI, CaCl 2 and ZnCl 2 ) for isolating MPs during the density separation step from freshwater sediment.
In order to find a new environmentally friendly coagulant that could partially replace conventional polyaluminum chloride (PAC), which was shown to be toxic to aquatic environments, gum extracted from the seeds of Cassia fistula Linn. (CF) was investigated for the decolorization of reactive dyes Blue 19 (RB19) and Black 5 (RB5) using jar-test experiments. The optimal results showed that crude CF gum did not achieve high degrees of decolorization of RB5 and RB19 when compared with PAC coagulant under the same conditions. Whereas when CF gum was used in combination with PAC, decolorization efficiencies of both dyes reached over high values at 40 % volume fraction of gum. These results indicated the potential of using CF gum as a "green" coagulant or as a contributing factor to color removal in textile wastewater.
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