Assessment of Chlorella sorokiniana Growth in Anaerobic Digester Effluent

• Published in: Plants (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 3; p. 478
• Main Authors: Ziganshina, Elvira E, Bulynina, Svetlana S, Ziganshin, Ayrat M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI 03-03-2021; MDPI AG
• Subjects: anaerobic digester effluent; bacterial community structure; Chlorella sorokiniana; microalgal–bacterial polyculture; nutrient removal; photobioreactor; bacterial community structure; microalgal–bacterial polyculture; photobioreactor; nutrient removal; Chlorella sorokiniana; anaerobic digester effluent
• ISSN: 2223-7747; 2223-7747
• DOI: 10.3390/plants10030478

Microalgae are considered a potential source of valuable compounds for multiple purposes and are potential agents for bioremediation of aquatic environments contaminated with different pollutants. This work evaluates the use of agricultural waste, unsterilized and anaerobically digested, to produce biomass from a strain of
. Furthermore, the presence of bacteria in these wastes was investigated based on the bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed a specific growth rate ranging between 0.82 and 1.45 day
, while the final biomass yield in different digestate-containing treatments (bacterial-contaminated cultures) ranged between 0.33 and 0.50 g L
day
. Besides, substantial amounts of ammonium, phosphate, and sulfate were consumed by
during the experimental period. The predominant bacteria that grew in the presence of
in the effluent-containing treatments belonged to the genera
,
,
,
,
,
, and
. Therefore, this microalga can tolerate and grow in the presence of other microorganisms. Finally, these results show that anaerobically digested agricultural waste materials are a good substitute for growth media for green microalgae; however, phosphate and sulfate levels must also be controlled in the media to maintain adequate growth of microalgae.