Wastewater treatment for nutrient removal with Ecuadorian native microalgae

<p>The aim of this project was to study the feasibility of utilizing native microalgae for the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus, as a potential secondary wastewater treatment process in Ecuador. Agitation and aeration batch experiments were conducted using synthetic secondary wastewater effluent, to determine nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies by a native Ecuadorian microalgal strain. Experimental results indicated that microalgal cultures could successfully remove nitrogen and phosphorus. and removal efficiencies of 52.6 and 55.6%, and 67.0 and 20.4%, as well as production efficiencies of 87.0 and 93.1% were reported in agitation and aeration photobioreactors, respectively. Aeration was not found to increase the nutrient removal efficiency of . Moreover, in the case of , a negative impact was observed, where removal efficiencies decreased by a factor of 3.3 at higher aeration rates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the removal of nutrients by native Ecuadorian <i>Chlorella sp.</i>, hence the results of this study would indicate that this native microalgal strain could be successfully incorporated in a potential treatment process for nutrient removal in Ecuador.