Cultivation of an Algae-Bacteria Consortium in a Mixture of Industrial Wastewater to Obtain Valuable Products for Local Use

Abstract

Profitability of biofuel production from microalgae is difficult to achieve but co-locating production with wastewater treatment plants is a possible avenue help to reduce costs. A microalgae culturing project was conducted using wastewater from an industrial park to obtain valuable metabolites from the biomass to eventually use them locally. Different growth conditions were tested with a mixture of wastewater as the culture medium and a native microalgae-bacteria consortium isolated locally. The results showed that this consortium grows well in wastewater and that different fatty acids profiles are produced under the different growth conditions. The optimal culture conditions to produce biomass and extracted lipids are in mixotrophic mode under an irradiance of 200 μmol m−2 s−1 with an injection of 1% of CO2. High amounts of other fatty acids were also produced and could potentially be used to make other co-products. In addition to reducing wastewater treatment costs, the manufacture of biosurfactants could bring additional income to the overall microalgae production process.