Microalgae-activated sludge treatment of molasses wastewater in sequencing batch photo-bioreactor.

The aim of this work was the examination of the treatment potential of molasses wastewater, by the utilization of activated sludge and microalgae. The systems used included a sequencing batch bioreactor and a similar photo-bioreactor, favoring microalgae growth. The microalgae treatment of molasses wastewater mixture resulted in a considerable reduction in the total nitrogen content. A reduction in the ammonium and nitrate content was observed in the photo-bioreactor, while the effluent's total nitrogen consisted mainly of 50% organic nitrogen. The transformation of the nitrogen forms in the photo-bioreactor was attributed to microalgae activity, resulting in the production of a better quality effluent. Lower COD removal was observed for the photo-bioreactor than the control, which however increased, by the replacement of the anoxic phase by a long aeration period. The mechanism of nitrogen removal included both the denitrification process during the anoxic stage and the microalgae activities, as the replacement of the anoxic stage resulted in low total nitrogen removal capacities. A decrease in the photobioreactor performance was observed after 35 days of operation due to biofilm formation on the light tube surface, while the operation at higher temperature accelerated microalgae growth, resulting thus in the early failure of the photoreactor.

Enhancement of the performance of a combined microalgae-activated sludge system for the treatment of high strength molasses wastewater.

The treatment of molasses wastewater, by a combined microalgae-activated sludge process, for the simultaneous organics and total nitrogen reduction, was examined. Further enhancement of the performance of the combined process was accomplished, by means of biofilm carriers or electrocoagulation. A LED light tube was immersed into the reactor tank aiming to enhance the growth of photosynthetic microalgae, while in a similar unit, biofilm carriers were added to the system, representing a moving bed bioreactor. Exposure of the activated sludge biocommunity to light source, resulted in the growth of microalgae and photoreactors exhibited higher removal rates of total nitrogen and nitrates. However, operation at longer times resulted in low effluent quality due to the presence of microalgae cells as a result of high growth rates, and potential light shading effect. Nevertheless, the moving bed system was more beneficial than the single photoreactor, as biofilm carriers provided a self cleaning capacity of the light source, reducing the effect of microalgae deposition. Advanced treatment of the biological effluents, by electrocoagulation, increased even more the process efficiency: the combined photobioreactor and electrocoagulation process resulted in about 78% COD removal and more than 35% total nitrogen removal in the effluent, where nitrates represented almost the single form of total nitrogen.