Increasing environmental issues led to engineers and scientists searching for solutions. Microalgae is one of them creating potential sources for food, biodiesel, and wastewater treatment technologies. Having growth rates around 24 hours, minimum land uses and higher efficiency of photosynthesis than the terrestrial plants are the reasons for considering Chlorella Vulgaris as preferable species of microalgae for such fields of applications. For many types of wastewater, Chlorella Vulgaris have been utilized successfully. Moreover, biological treatment in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and sequestration of CO2, which is a greenhouse gas (GHG) released from both aerobic and anaerobic processes in WWTPs, are of great concerns of environmental engineers, escalated especially after increased awareness of global warming. In this respect, firstly, C. Vulgaris will be enriched. Then the operational parameters such as hydraulic retention time, nitrogen and phosphorus loading rates, and N/P ratio will be investigated to obtain the optimum treatment for two different wastewater types to be studied further. One of them is agro-industrial wastewater that has been a challenge for engineers due to the varying composition and high organic content. Especially, in Mediterranean region technologies encounter with the problem of oil mill wastewater (OMW) which has high COD, BOD and low nitrogen content and high concentrations of phenolic and aromatic compounds which are hazardous for freshwaters and marine environment. Microalgae is a powerful tool for having the ability to remove high nutrient and COD concentrations, and biodegrade phenolic compounds present in such wastewaters. Hence, in this study, acclimation of mixotrophic C. Vulgaris culture to high concentrations of phenol will be performed. Afterwards, OMW will be treated with acclimated algae cells decreasing the requirement of pretreatment and dilutions of OMW. Another wastewater to be studied on will be the effluent of DAMO-Anammox integrated system, aiming at the removal of effluent ammonium, phosphorus and CO2 of the system; thus, supplies a complete removal of nutrients and potential GHGs.
By: Irmak Subaşı
Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuba Hande Ergüder Bayramoğlu
Date: 03.04.2019