Can luminescent solar concentrators increase microalgal growth on anaerobically digested food effluent?
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Can luminescent solar concentrators increase microalgal growth on anaerobically digested food effluent? Mohammadjavad Raeisossadati 1 & Navid Reza Moheimani 1,2 Received: 8 July 2020 / Revised and accepted: 22 September 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Increasing microalgal biomass productivity and enhancing nutrient removal rates are critical when growing microalgae in wastewater. In most cases, the effluents such as anaerobically digested food effluent (ADFE) are very turbid. Using such effluents as a medium for an algal culture would leave the culture with high turbidity resulting in photo-limitation of the algal culture. Light-diffusing systems can be used to overcome the light limitation in microalgal cultures. In this study, red luminescent solar concentrators were used to shift the sunlight into the desired wavelength and deliver it into the depth of cultures of an outdoor microalgal consortium cultivated in ADFE in paddlewheel-driven raceway ponds. Biomass productivity and specific growth rate of cultures grown using red luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) were 61% and 59% higher than those in control cultures. The nitrogen assimilation rate of biomass under red LSCs was 1.8-fold higher than that in the control. Further, the lipid content of the cultures under red LSCs (490 mg lipid g−1 biomass) was 30% higher than that of the control. The results of this study showed that using red LSCs can improve microalga growth on ADFE when paddlewheel raceway ponds are used. Keywords Wastewater treatment . Light diffuser . Anaerobically digested food effluent . Raceway pond . Microalgae
Introduction Food waste contributes to materials consumed by humans that are discharged, degraded, or contaminated (Girotto et al. 2015). It has been reported that around 5 billion tonnes of solid waste are being produced every year by European countries (Thassitou and Arvanitoyannis 2001). An anaerobic digestion (AD) system is an efficient method to treat waste in terms of controlling pollution and producing energy from waste (Chen et al. 2008). Anaerobic digestion–based technology for waste treatment has the advantages of biogas production as well as the reduction of greenhouse gasses and the stabilization of organic materials (Holm-Nielsen et al. 2009). However, AD systems produce a considerable amount of anaerobic digestion effluent containing a high concentration of ammonia and phosphate (Zhang et al. 2007). It has been * Navid Reza Moheimani [email protected] 1
Algae R&D Centre, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150, Australia
2
Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems, Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Perth 6150, Australia
reported that 10,000 t of digestate is being produced yearly from a 500-kW biogas AD plant (Nwoba et al. 2019). The toxicity of the effluent due to a high level of ammonia requires a post-treatment system. Microalgae have shown to be suitable candidates for treating anaerobically digested effluents (Nwoba et al. 2016; Raeisossadati et al. 2019c). AD effluent
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