Microalgae cultivation for pretreatment of pharmaceutical wastewater associated with microbial fuel cell and biomass feed stock production

Abstract

This study evaluated the potential of microalgae Scenedesmus abundance for pretreatment of pharmaceutical wastewater in photobioreactor (PBR) associated with photosynthetic microbial fuel cell (PMFC). At the end of pretreatment process, the removal efficiency of COD of 75 % along with nitrate and phosphate of 78 and 83 % was obtained, respectively. In continuation of treatment process, the pretreated wastewater was used as a substrate for further treatment in PMFC and was succeeded to achieve maximum COD removal of 87.8 % calculating the total (combined of PBR and PMFC) removal efficiency of 95 %. A maximum voltage of 740.13 mV and power density of 838.68 mW/m2 was achieved. A maximum biomass of 0.71 g/L from PBR after pretreatment and 0.78 g/L from PMFC process was obtained.