VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE



MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT
BIOCHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY
Topic: Microalgae-based wastewater treatment for developing economic and
environmental sustainability

Lecturers : Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Thi Ha

PhD. Nguyen Minh Phuong

Students : Nguyen Phan Anh - 21001997

Nguyen Pham Tran Anh - 21001998

Tran Duc Huy - 21002019

Tran Thi Lan Huong - 2020

Class : K66 - CNKTMT CLC

 Table of contents

I. Introduction.........................................................................................................2
II. Operating mechanism........................................................................................3
III. Products of microalgae....................................................................................7
IV. Future potential and conclusion....................................................................12
V. References.........................................................................................................13

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I. Introduction
At present, global warming issues are escalating at an alarming degree and
are becoming increasingly interconnected with others. Extreme weather events
such as heat waves, droughts, and floods are becoming more frequent and intense
as a result of climate change and putting human security at risk. Meanwhile, global
warming exacerbates issues such as soil degradation, biodiversity loss, disease
transmission, as well as water shortages. It has been speculated that these changes
will have an impact on patterns of economic development, political stability, and
the well-being of people. Carbon dioxide (CO 2), a significant greenhouse gas
(GHG) present in the Earth’s atmosphere that accounts for up to 60% of all
greenhouse gases, has been increasing as a result of different human activities that
contribute to global warming. CO2 emissions began to rapidly increase in the
1950s, reaching 25.23 billion metric tons of CO 2 emission in 2000. Between 2000
and 2010, the emission of CO2 increased by 32%, reaching 34.81 billion metric
tons in 2020. In 2020, Thailand accounted for 0.76 percent of world emissions
(258 million tons of CO2) and was placed 24th in terms of CO 2 emissions globally.
(Global Carbon Project, 2021)

Over the last several decades, concerns about climate

change and pollution due to human activity has gained
widespread attention. Microalgae have been proposed as a
suitable biological platform to reduce carbon dioxide, a
major greenhouse gas, while also creating commercial
sources of high-value compounds such as medicines,
cosmetics, food, feed, and biofuel. Industrialization of
microalgae culture and valorization is still limited by
significant challenges in scaling up the production
processes due to economic constraints and productivity
capacities. Therefore, a boost in resource usage efficiency
is required. This enhancement not only lowers

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 manufacturing costs but also enhancing the long-term
viability of microalgae-based products. Using wastewater
as a nutrient source is a great way to reduce manufacturing
costs. Furthermore, water scarcity is one of the most
important global challenges. In recent decades,
industrialization, globalization, and population growth have
all impacted freshwater resources. Moreover, high amounts
of organic and inorganic toxins in the water due to the

disposal of waste into rivers can have severe impacts on

human and animal health. Microalgae cultures are a
sustainable solution to tertiary and quaternary treatments
since they have the ability to digest complex contaminants
(Srimongkol et al., 2022).This assignment will be presented
as a small review on microalgae-based solutions of
wastewater treatment for developing economic and
environmental sustainability.

Graphic abstract: A biorefinery based on microalgae promotes a circular-green economic model

(Srimongkol et al., 2022)

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II. Operating mechanism
Microalgal-based wastewater treatment is possible by
using wastewater as a source of nutrients for microalgae
growth, which promotes the concept of a circular economy
and increases the sustainability of the process. In recent
years, many types of wastewater have been employed to
develop algal biomass for phytoremediation purposes.
Wastewater is classified into different categories based on
its source. Wastewater is classified into different categories
based on its source: municipal wastewater (produced by
rural and urban households), agricultural wastewater
(produced by crop cultivation, livestock breeding,
agricultural product processing, and so on), and industrial
wastewater (produced by various industries).

Figure 1: Wastewater Resources for the Production of Microalgae (Liu, X. Y., and Hong, Y. (2021)) .

Municipal wastewater or domestic wastewater is

defined as wastewater discharged from houses, kitchens,
bathrooms, and laundry rooms (REF). In comparison to
several types of wastewater, municipal wastewater

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 composes of lower levels of N (15–90 mg L−1), P (5–
20 mg L−1) and typically has a low level of COD
concentration (less than 300 mg L−1) (Scott et al.,
2012; You et al., 2022) and is often suitable for microalgae-
based wastewater processes. Municipal wastewaters
generally have a low COD concentration (less than
300 mg L−1) which why municipal wastewater has been the
more commonly used and studied in recent decades (Li et
al., 2008). There are four categories of municipal
wastewater used for cultivation of microalgae, including
raw sewage, which is municipal wastewater prior primary
settling, primary sewage, which is wastewater after primary
settling, secondary sewage, which is wastewater after
treating with activated sludge in the aeration tank, and
centrate, which is the by-product of sludge dewatering
containing high amounts of nutrients (Li et al., 2008; Liu
and Hong, 2021; You et al., 2022).

Agricultural wastewater is wastewater discharged from the process of crop

cultivation, livestock breeding, and agricultural products processing, including
farmland drainage wastewater and animal manure wastewater. Several studies
have presented the benefits of agricultural product processing wastewater as a
medium for microalgae cultivation, such as potato processing wastewater, palm oil
mill effluent, starch processing wastewater, and swine wastewater. Agricultural
wastewaters from animal manure wastewater have high nutrient concentrations,
high turbidity, and high insoluble organic compound concentrations, and there are
very limited algae species used in the animal wastewater treatment. However,
contaminants with high turbidity can block light and reduce photosynthetic
efficiency. Furthermore, contaminants with high turbidity can block light and

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reduce photosynthetic efficiency. Meanwhile, high amounts of ammonia nitrogen
concentration can impede the growth of microalgae involving the electron transfer
of photosystem II, making it unsuitable for microalgae cultivation. In addition,
there are very limited algae strains used in the animal wastewater treatment (Zhou
et al., 2012). Consequently, therefore, agriculture wastewater is commonly diluted
before algal-based treatments in order to reduce the turbidity and nutrient
concentration.

Industrial wastewater includes pulp and paper industry effluent, petroleum

industrial wastewater, sugar mill effluent, coal-fired metal-contaminated
wastewater, pharmaceutical industry wastewater, textile dye industry effluent,
palm oil mill effluent (POME), electroplating industry wastewater, and agricultural
machinery manufacturing industry wastewater (Wang et al., 2016; Udaiyappan et
al., 2017). Wastewater generated from various industrial sections are composed of
many types of contaminants such as heavy metals, antibiotics, oil and grease, and
some other chemicals (Udaiyappan et al., 2017; Liu and Hong, 2021). Industrial
wastewaters are usually combined with anaerobic pretreatment or diluted suitably
in order to avert the inhibition of algal growth caused by high COD concentrations
since this type of wastewater contains some nutrient and high-COD as mentioned
before (Wang et al., 2016). Hariz et al. (2019) used an integrated system of
effluent treatment and CO2 fixation by Scenedesmus sp. UKM9and Chlorella sp.
UKM2. In this study, Scenedesmus sp. was used to treat POME in the first step.
Then Chlorella sp. was used to treat the treated POME from the first step and
capture carbon dioxide gas (CO2) in the second step. The results show that this
system can remove 86% TN, 85% Reactive Phosphate (PO₄−3), and 48% COD,
respectively, indicating a higher nutrient reduction in POME and greater CO 2 fixed
when compared to the individual treatment operation. Moreover, using molecular
biology techniques is another way to enhance the expression of related enzymes in
microalgae cells which can improve the effectiveness of wastewater treatment as

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well as biomass accumulation of microalgae (You et al., 2022). Besides, industrial
wastewater could be applied as a medium in order to not only promote biomass
growth and cleaner water, but also to reduce typical high costs to produce valuable
compounds from microalgae, such as pigments. The wastewater was an effluent
from a food processing company, so no potential contaminants were detected. This
was already expected, since the company has to comply with high standards,
according to food safety regulations. However, it is important to mention that for
further development of the process proposed in this study, biosafety concerns have
to be considered. Depending on the desired application of the pigments, further
analyses should be done to assure that the bioproducts do not present any potential
risk. In this particular study, the pigments extracted will be used for a project of art
and design, highlighting the applicability of such bioproducts as natural textile
dyes (Ferrándiz et al., 2016; Moldovan et al., 2017) and raising no major concerns
regarding potential risks by contaminants. Future research is thus encouraged in
order to address the current challenges, such as cultivation systems and extraction
methods. This way, once technical feasibility and economic viability of this
concept is ensured, its further development as a resource recovery solution should
move towards regulations analysis and decision-making processes.

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 Figure 2: Table of several studies of microalgae growth coupled with wastewater treatment for biofuel
and other value-added compounds production (Srimongkol et al., 2022)

III. Products of microalgae

Because of the efficiency of being a bio-refinery of algae, interest in
wastewater integrated algal-biorefinery has recently attracted considerable
attention. Microalgae has been extensively studied in the recent decade and is
considered to be third-generation biomass feedstock with several benefits,
including less cultivation requirement along with high productivity. Moreover,
Microalgae-based treatment development focuses on identifying or improving on

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those properties, such as a fast growth rate and high oil content. The algal lipids
are ideal feedstock for the production of bioenergy products such as jet
fuel, biodiesel, and gasoline. Apart from the lipids, the presence of rich amount of
carbohydrates and proteins makes them a potential source for the production of
multiple products.

Figure 3: Wastewater integrated algal-biorefinery for biofuel and other value-added compound
productions (Srimongkol et al., 2022)

Biofuels, as a clean and renewable energy source,

have always been considered alternatives for fossil fuels.
Algae have advantages over first generation biofuels made
from sugar, starch, and vegetable oil because of their high
growth rates and productivity, ability to grow on non-arable
land using wastewater, ability to use water contaminants
and CO2, and ability to produce a variety of high-value
biological compounds. As a third-generation biofuel,
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microalgae have the advantages of fast growth, simple
cultivation conditions, no occupation of arable land, and
alleviation of the greenhouse effect. Besides, the use of
microalgae cultivated in wastewater to produce biofuels
(such as biodiesel, bioethanol, biogas, biohydrogen) is
extremely cost-effective and in line with concept of
sustainable development of wastewater treatment. It is
reported that many types of microalgae have high lipids
content, including triacyl-glycerides, which are high-quality
raw materials for biodiesel. At present, the development of
potential biodiesel for photosynthetic microalgae mainly
focuses on improving the lipid content and biomass
production. Microalgae yielded high amount of biodiesel as
compared to other biodiesel feedstocks, as a result of which
these microorganisms were extensively studied for further
innovations in bioenergy production. Conveniently,
propagation of microalgal cells can be done in an open
pond, closed bioreactors in an unfertile land. The
microalgal extracted oil extracted from Botryococcus
braunii, Chlorella sp., Crypthecodinium cohnii,
Cylindrotheca sp., Dunaliella primolecta, Isochrysis sp. is
inedible, hence a non-food feedstock for biodiesel
production and do not compete with food for human
consumption. However, for commercial production of
algal-based biodiesel, the economic feasibility and the
challenges behind the use of microalgae as a feedstock for
the production of biodiesel need to be intensively
investigated. In a study which compare the life cycle
inventory of biodiesel derived from microalgae in a lab

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scale, pilot scale and commercial scale, the phases of
production that require the highest energy input include
biomass drying, cell disruption and pumping of the
cultures. Therefore, selection of cost-effective approach has

to be adopted to reduce the cost of production, sun drying

and low-pressure shelf drying has been reported to be
economically viable alternative even though it may require
larger surface area and longer time. It was observed that
water is an important resource in the cultivation of
microalgae primarily for media preparation and
thermoregulation but the intensive usage of water can be
reduced by reusing 90% of the input water (A. Pathy et al.
2022). Cultivation of microalgae in wastewater also implied
successful coupling of wastewater treatment and biodiesel
production thereby reducing the use of freshwater for the
cultivation of microalgae. Microalgae can be successfully
cultivated along the coastline which could strongly enhance
the economic growth of the region and algal farming can

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 provide employment for locals and the exchange of
technologies and innovations to developing countries. It
was also stated that the economic feasibility of the biodiesel
production from microalgae can be enhanced by co-
production of high-value added products. Organic biomass
such as carotenoids, phycocyanin and biotin can be used in
cosmetic, pharmaceutical and nutrition industry.

Figure 4:
Fuel used in transporting goods and people is accountable for 33% of total
worldwide energy consumption. For instance, the combustion of one-litre diesel
leads to the emission of 2.9 kg of greenhouse gases. In the future scenario, this
emission’s likeliness is projected to rise substantially due to the increase in
economic and social dynamics caused by rapid globalization. Heavy dependency
on fossil fuels has severely damaged earth ecosystems causing extreme heatwaves,
the meltdown of arctic ice, a rise in sea level, and frequent droughts. Further, fossil
fuel is expected to exhaust within a century if it is not substituted by an alternative
(Nogueira et al., 2020). So, the search for sustainable, clean, and green energy that
could reduce our dependency on fossil fuels is the need of the hour.

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and chemical-based processes. So, due to its dependency on
non-renewable resources, conventional hydrogen
production techniques are not sustainable. On the contrary,
hydrogen derived from biomasses and photosynthetic
microorganisms is considered as a sustainable energy
source (Kim et al., 2021). Algae have been used in recent
decades for producing hydrogen more sustainably. Algae
have several fermentable sugars (Fig.4) as their constituents
which is desirable for hydrogen production. Features such
as higher growth rate and absence of lignin (which helps
bypass chemical and cost-intensive pre-treatment
procedures) strengthen algae’s candidature for biohydrogen
production in a sustainable and economically viable
manner. However, certain constraints, such as the higher
water requirement and a significant initial investment, pose
challenges in their cultivation at a larger scale. The
biohydrogen production from algae follows specific distinct
mechanisms based on its dependency on light. Bio-
photolysis and photo-fermentation utilize light for hydrogen
production; contrastingly, dark fermentation occurs in the
absence of light (Liu et al., 2022). Each method has its

advantages and disadvantages; photolysis has challenges, such

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 as lower biohydrogen yield, whereas fermentation is energy-
intensive.

Graphic abstract: Biohydrogen production process (A. Pathy et al. 2022)

Moreover, microalgae-based cultivated in wastewater
is also considered as the feedstocks for supplement and
pharmaceutical, animal feed, and biofertilizers,
biopolymers, … During the processes, in short, the
pollutants adsorbed on the algae surface can be desorbed to
purify the biomass, while the pollutants accumulated in the
cells cannot be removed. Therefore, the safety of
microalgae biomass resource utilization needs to be further
evaluated. At present, many countries have formulated
regulations on the existence of various contaminants in feed
or food or environment friendly products, which is of great
significance for the beginning of discussions on whether
wastewater can be used to cultivate microalgae in many
fields in order to develop economic and environmental
sustainability (Liu & Hong, 2021).
IV. Future potential and conclusion
In summary, microalgae are photosynthetic
microorganisms that play a vital role in the bioremediation
of several types of wastewaters, including removal of N, P,
and C, the reduction of BOD, as well as heavy metal
removal. The integration of microalgae into several types of
wastewaters can decrease the cost of wastewater treatment,
obtain a lower footprint in terms of energy consumption,
and provide environmental sustainability compared to
existing conventional wastewater treatment processes. It is

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 highly vital to evaluate the environmental effects of large-
scale use of microalgae bioenergy if it is to be developed
into an alternative energy to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
Moreover, integrated microalgal biorefinery not only solves
environmental problems, but also acts as a producer which
can produce high added-value bio compounds such as
biofuel, biodiesel, and other valuable compounds.
However, although the use of wastewater from different
sources such as municipal wastewater, agricultural
wastewater, and industrial wastewater to cultivate
microalgae has been extensively studied, most of the
research mainly stays on the lab-scale, and recently some
pilot studies have gradually developed. Therefore, the key
tasks in the future still include screening and improving
dominant algae suitable for different types of wastewater,
designing and developing systems or equipment that can be
used for large-scale cultivation, optimizing cultivation
conditions, and developing cost-effective microalgae
separation and capture technologies. Moreover, positioning
the secondary pollution after the absorption and
transformation or adsorption of primary pollutants and the
development of safety assurance technologies for the
utilization of microalgae biomass generated after
wastewater purification will also become the focus of the
future. These breakthroughs can effectively help the future
development of the technology.
V. References

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