Open AccessRemoval of Excessive Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Urban Wastewater Using Local Microalgal Bloom
Author(s) -
Sumaiya Nusrat Chaitee,
Rudra Protap Biswas,
Md. Imran Kabir
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of engineering science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2706-6835
pISSN - 2075-4914
DOI - 10.3329/jes.v12i3.57476
Subject(s) - wastewater , effluent , phosphorus , biosorption , nitrate , hydraulic retention time , freundlich equation , nitrogen , sewage treatment , environmental chemistry , pulp and paper industry , chemistry , phosphate , environmental engineering , bloom , environmental science , adsorption , biology , ecology , sorption , organic chemistry , engineering
The organic content from urban wastewater is treated with various conventional processes efficiently. However, for biological treatment of secondary effluent containing excessive inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus, microalgae can be used. In this study, algal strains have been collected from locally available natural blooms and cultured in a BG-11 medium. Spirulina sp., the blue-green algae, dominant over the other species within the natural bloom, is applied in ten different dosages (0.2-2.5 g/L) to the synthetic wastewater with a 3-day hydraulic retention time. The removal efficiency of nitrate, ammonia, and phosphate have been observed to be about 60%, 30%, and 54% respectively. The highest removal efficiency has been found at 2.5 g/L of microalgae dose. Linear forms of Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms have been used for biosorption modeling, and both isotherms fit well with R2>60% and NRMSE<11% in all cases. Additionally, the separation factor and the adsorption intensity represent the favorability of the biosorption process.Journal of Engineering Science 12(3), 2021, 19-27