Nitrogen and phosphorus removal from anaerobically digested wastewater by microalgae cultured in a novel membrane photobioreactor

Abstract Background With the further development of anaerobic digestion, an increasing output of anaerobically digested wastewater (ADW), which typically contained high concentrations of ammonium, phosphate, and suspended solids, was inevitable. Microalgae cultivation offered a potential waste-to-value strategy to reduce the high nutrient content in ADW and obtain high value-added microalgae. However, ADW generally contained a mass of pollutants (suspended solids, competitors, etc.), which could inhibit microalgae growth and even result in microalgae death by limiting light utilization. Thus, it is highly imperative to solve the problem by a novel modified photobioreactor for further practical applications. Results Four microalgae species, Scenedesmus dimorphus, Scenedesmus quadricauda, Chlorella sorokiniana, and Chlorella vulgaris ESP-6, were cultivated in the membrane photobioreactor (MPBR) fed with ADW to investigate the efficiency of ammonia and phosphorus removal. The results showed that C. sorokiniana had the best performance for the removal of ammonia and phosphorus from ADW. The highest amount of C. sorokiniana biomass was 1.15 g/L, and the removal efficiency of phosphate (66.2%) peaked at an ammonia concentration of 128.5 mg/L after 9 days’ incubation. Moreover, the MPBR with 0.1 μm membrane pore size had the best ammonia and phosphate removal efficiencies (43.9 and 64.9%) at an ammonia concentration of 128.5 mg/L during 9 days’ incubation. Finally, the continuous multi-batch cultivation of C. sorokiniana was performed for 45 days in MPBR, and higher removal ammonia amount (18.1 mg/day) and proteins content (45.6%) were obtained than those (14.5 mg/day and 37.4%) in an normal photobioreactor. Conclusion In this study, a novel MPBR not only eliminated the inhibitory effects of suspended solid and microorganisms, but also maintained a high microalgae concentration to obtain a high amount of ammonia and phosphate removal. The research provided a theoretical foundation for the practical application of MPBRs in various wastewater treatment schemes without pretreatment by algae, which could be used as biofuels or protein feed.