Growth of Scenedesmus dimorphus in swine wastewater with versus without solid-liquid separation pretreatment

Augustina Osabutey; Noor Haleem; Seyit Uguz; Kyungnan Min; Ryan Samuel; Karlee Albert; Gary Anderson; Xufei Yang

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128434

Growth of Scenedesmus dimorphus in swine wastewater with versus without solid-liquid separation pretreatment

Bioresour Technol. 2023 Feb:369:128434. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128434. Epub 2022 Dec 5.

Authors

Augustina Osabutey¹, Noor Haleem², Seyit Uguz³, Kyungnan Min⁴, Ryan Samuel⁵, Karlee Albert⁶, Gary Anderson¹, Xufei Yang⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA.
² Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA; Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
³ Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Bursa Uludag University, Gorukle 16240, Bursa, Turkey.
⁴ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA.
⁵ Department of Animal Science, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA.
⁶ Department of Biology & Microbiology, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA.
⁷ Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA. Electronic address: xufei.yang@sdstate.edu.

PMID: 36473585
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128434

Abstract

Scenedesmus dimorphus was cultivated in raw and pretreated swine wastewater (SW) with 6-L photobioreactors (PBRs) to investigate the effect of solid-liquid separation on algal growth. The same aerated PBRs containing no algae were used as control. Moderate COD and nitrogen removal from the SW was achieved with the algal PBRs. However, compared to the control reactors, they offered no consistent treatment boost. Improved algal growth occurred in the pretreated SW, as measured by maximum algal cell count (3202 ± 275 × 10⁶ versus 2286 ± 589 × 10⁶ cells L^-1) and cell size. The enhanced algal growth in the pretreated SW resulted in relatively high nitrogen (5.7 %) and organic matter contents in the solids harvested at the end of cultivation experiments, with ∼25.6 % of nitrogen in the SW retained in the solids and ∼9.1 % absorbed by algae. The pretreatment also resulted in elevated phosphorus removal. This study is anticipated to foster the development of microalgae-based SW treatment processes.

Keywords: Microalgae; Nutrient; Scenedesmus dimorphus; Solid-liquid separation; Swine wastewater.

MeSH terms

Animals
Biomass
Chlorophyceae*
Microalgae*
Nitrogen / analysis
Phosphorus
Photobioreactors
Scenedesmus*
Swine
Wastewater
Water Purification* / methods

Substances

Wastewater
Nitrogen
Phosphorus