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Solids Retention Time Dependent Phototrophic Growth and Population Changes in Chemostat Cultivation Using Wastewater
Author(s) -
Shen Qi,
Wall Judy D.,
Hu Zhiqiang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143014x13975035526103
Subject(s) - chemostat , phototroph , cyanobacteria , bioreactor , photobioreactor , population , wastewater , hydraulic retention time , algae , light intensity , biology , chlorella vulgaris , botany , environmental engineering , photosynthesis , biomass (ecology) , pulp and paper industry , ecology , environmental science , bacteria , physics , genetics , demography , sociology , optics , engineering
There has been renewed interest in using algae for wastewater polishing and treatment in recent years. Because solids retention time (SRT) is a key design and operating parameter in bioreactor operation, this research determined the effect of SRT on phototrophic growth and microbial population dynamics in continuous‐flow chemostat systems. There was a unique feature of phototrophic growth that differed from chemotrophic growth in chemostat. It was found that the phototrophic biomass concentration increased proportionally as SRT increased from 3 to 9 days. Regardless of the change in SRT, a step function model was successfully applied with the predicted phototrophic production rate of 4.5 ± 0.9 g/m 2 ·d at the light intensity of 68.5 μmol/m 2 ·s. Even though the continuous‐flow systems were initially seeded with a 1:1 mixture of green algae and cyanobacteria, Chlorella vulgaris always dominated (98%) in the continuous‐flow chemostat systems under steady‐state conditions.