Investigation of the Phycoremediation Potential of Freshwater Green Algae <i>Golenkinia radiata</i> for Municipal Wastewater

Recent developments in the removal of pollutants from wastewater show that phycoremediation to wastewater treatment and reuse wastewater may provide sustainable biosolutions. This work investigated the performance of the green microalgae Golenkinia radiata Chodat 1984 (Chlorophyceae) in terms of N, P, and COD removal at different treatment stages of municipal wastewater, reusability of remediated wastewater and wastewater-based biomass production. Water samples were taken from different wastewater units (presettling basin effluent, active sludge basin effluent, and discharge channel) of a municipal wastewater treatment plant (İzmir, Turkey). In the 7-day experiments, Chl-a, Chl-b, DO, pH, and T (°C) were also measured alongside the pollutant analyses. The results in Chl-a (1803 ± 75.9 µg L−1) and biomass yield (7.66 ± 0.05 g L−1) in the primary effluent (P) were quite impressive. Additionally, the results showed that the correlation between the increase in Chl-a and the residual concentrations of pollutants was remarkable. NH4-N, NO3-N, NO2-N, PO4-P, and COD treatment efficiencies were in the ranges of (74.6–83.0%), (15.35–70.4%), (0.00–47.22%), (80.67–86.27%), and (77.22–87.53%), respectively. The final concentrations of pollutants (E) were found to comply with EU legislation. The results also reveal that green microalgae G. radiata may be a strong candidate for microalgae-based wastewater treatment