Open AccessMICROALGAL-BACTERIAL CONSORTIA: AN ALLURING AND NOVEL APPROACH FOR DOMESTIC WASTEWATER TREATMENT
Author(s) -
Nandini Moondra,
Namrata Jariwala,
R. A. Christian
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
water conservation and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2523-5672
pISSN - 2523-5664
DOI - 10.26480/wcm.01.2020.51.56
Subject(s) - wastewater , pulp and paper industry , nutrient , pollutant , sewage treatment , environmental science , organic matter , phosphate , algae , environmental chemistry , chemistry , environmental engineering , biology , botany , ecology , biochemistry , engineering
The algal-bacterial process has received more attention in the present scenario as a new low-cost method towards pollutant removal from wastewater because symbiotic relationship between algae and bacteria is efficient when compared to traditional secondary treatments. The present work evaluated the optimum concentration of microalgal-bacterial consortia for significant reductions in physicochemical parameters of raw domestic wastewater. In the study, three different concentrations (20%, 30% and 40%) of microalgal-bacterial consortia were studied at 8 hours and 16 hours HRT. Among the different concentrations of consortia studied, 30% consortia gave maximum removal efficiency at both the HRTs. The maximum removal efficiency of phosphate, ammonia, BOD and COD was about 99.79%, 94.85%, 89.02% and 88.96%, respectively, at 8 hours HRT. However, at 16 hours, HRT maximum removal efficiency observed was 97.40%, 94.05%, 83.52% and 88.40% for phosphate, ammonia, BOD and COD respectively. The study depicts that microalgal-bacterial consortia can efficiently remediate nutrients and organic matter from domestic wastewater in both cases when sunlight was ample and even with minimal / no sunlight; hence this system can work effectively throughout the day with much lesser HRT and higher removal efficiency.