Anaerobic digestate as substrate for microalgae culture: The role of ammonium concentration on the microalgae productivity

Abstract

In spite of the increasing interest received by microalgae as potential alternatives for biofuel production, the technology is still not industrially viable. The utilization of digestate as carbon and nutrients source can enhance microalgal growth reducing costs and environmental impacts. This work assesses microalgal growth utilizing the liquid phase of anaerobic digestate effluent as substrate. The effect of inoculum/substrate ratio on microalgal growth was studied in a laboratory batch experiment conduced in 0.5L flasks. Results suggested that digestate may be an effective substrate for microalgal growth promoting biomass production up to 2.6 gTSS/L. Microalgal growth rate was negatively affected by a self-shading phenomenon, while biomass production was positively correlated with the inoculum and substrate concentrations. Thus, the increasing of both digestate and microalgal initial concentration may reduce the initial growth rate (μ from 0.9 to 0.04 d(-1)) but significantly enhances biomass production (from 0.1 to 2.6 gTSS/L).

Towards sustainable microalgal biomass production by phycoremediation of a synthetic wastewater: A kinetic study

“…Several research studies were already performed with microalgal growth in wastewaters from different sources: (i) domestic wastewater [19][20][21]; (ii) anaerobic digestion wastewater [22][23][24]; (iii) livestock wastewater [25][26][27]; and (iv) agro-industrial wastewater [28,29]. In almost all studies, microalgae were able to efficiently remove the monitored nutrients.…”

Phycoremediation-Coupled Biomethanation of Microalgal Biomass

“…Prajapati et al (2014a) showed the feasibility of such a closed-loop process, using different concentrations of digestate for the cultivation of Chroococcus sp. Uggetti et al (2014) …”

Raw dark fermentation effluent to support heterotrophic microalgae growth: microalgae successfully outcompete bacteria for acetate

“…Ammonium (NH 4 + ) and phosphate (PO 4 3 − ) ions were quantified using an ion chromatography system (ICS 3000 Dionex, USA), as described elsewhere [29].…”