Microalgae Harvesting after Tertiary Wastewater Treatment with White-Rot Fungi
Journal of Fungi 2022
Anna Čivžele, Linda Mežule

Tertiary wastewater treatment with microalgae incorporates environmental sustainability with future technologies and high exploitation costs. Despite the apparent ecological benefits of microalgae-assisted wastewater treatment/biomass-based resource production, technological improvements are still essential to compete with other technologies. Bio-flocculation instead of mechanical harvesting has been demonstrated as an alternative cost-effective approach. So far, mostly filamentous fungi of genus Aspergillus have been used for this purpose. Within this study, we demonstrate a novel approach of using white-rot fungi, with especially high potential of algae—Irpex lacteus complex that demonstrates efficiency with various microalgae species at a broad range of temperatures (5–20 °C) and various pH levels. Harvesting of microalgae from primary and secondary wastewater resulted in 73–93% removal efficiencies within the first 24 h and up to 95% after 48 h. The apparent reuse potential of the algae—I. lacteus pellets further complements the reduced operating costs and environmental sustainability of bio-flocculation technology.


Keywords
microalgae harvesting; Irpex lacteus; filamentous fungi; bio-flocculation; wastewater treatment; white-rot fungi
DOI
10.3390/jof8111232
Hyperlink
https://www.mdpi.com/2309-608X/8/11/1232

Čivžele, A., Mežule, L. Microalgae Harvesting after Tertiary Wastewater Treatment with White-Rot Fungi. Journal of Fungi, 2022, Vol. 8, No. 11, Article number 1232. ISSN 2309-608X. Available from: doi:10.3390/jof8111232

Publication language
English (en)
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