Enhancing algal biomass production and nutrients removal from municipal wastewater via a novel mini photocavity bioreactor

Abstract

This study presents the use of a novel photocavity reactor in order to intensify the growth rate, biomass and lipid productivity in microalgae. The reactor offers an aseptic approach for better control on growth rate in microalgae.The Absorption Factor (AF), Attenuation Factor (AtF), Modified Fluence Rate (MFR) and water factor of the photo reactor were recorded to be 1.581, 0.267, 0.347 mW/cm 2 and 2.072 respectively. The maximum growth rate recorded was 310 mg L −1 inphotocavity reactor. The results clearly indicate that using the stainless steel visible photoreactor can lead to a significant increase in the growth rate (43.3%), productivity of biomass (27-33%) and lipid content (6-8%) in comparison to microalgae cultivated in glass conical flasks (control). COD, total nitrogen, phosphate and bacterial load (colony-forming unit-CFU) were determined in this study. A decrease in COD (180 to 19 mg/l) and CFU (57×10 9 to 5×10 1 ) of wastewater was also recorded in this study.