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Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Thickening Effluent of an Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant by an Isolated Green Microalga

Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms and are considered excellent candidates for a wide range of biotechnological applications, including the removal of nutrients from urban wastewaters, which they can recover and convert into biomass. Microalgae-based systems can be integrated into conventi...

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Autores principales: Baldisserotto, Costanza, Demaria, Sara, Accoto, Ornella, Marchesini, Roberta, Zanella, Marcello, Benetti, Linda, Avolio, Francesco, Maglie, Michele, Ferroni, Lorenzo, Pancaldi, Simonetta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7766996/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33353199
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants9121802
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author Baldisserotto, Costanza
Demaria, Sara
Accoto, Ornella
Marchesini, Roberta
Zanella, Marcello
Benetti, Linda
Avolio, Francesco
Maglie, Michele
Ferroni, Lorenzo
Pancaldi, Simonetta
author_facet Baldisserotto, Costanza
Demaria, Sara
Accoto, Ornella
Marchesini, Roberta
Zanella, Marcello
Benetti, Linda
Avolio, Francesco
Maglie, Michele
Ferroni, Lorenzo
Pancaldi, Simonetta
author_sort Baldisserotto, Costanza
collection PubMed
description Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms and are considered excellent candidates for a wide range of biotechnological applications, including the removal of nutrients from urban wastewaters, which they can recover and convert into biomass. Microalgae-based systems can be integrated into conventional urban wastewater treatment plants (WW-TP) to improve the water depuration process. However, microalgal strain selection represents a crucial step for effective phytoremediation. In this work, a microalga isolated from the effluent derived from the thickening stage of waste sludge of an urban WW-TP was selected and tested to highlight its potential for nutrient removal. Ammonium and phosphate abatements by microalgae were evaluated using both the effluent and a synthetic medium in a comparative approach. Parallelly, the isolate was characterized in terms of growth capability, morphology, photosynthetic pigment content and photosystem II maximum quantum yield. The isolated microalga showed surprisingly high biomass yield and removal efficiency of both ammonium and phosphate ions from the effluent but not from the synthetic medium. This suggests its clear preference to grow in the effluent, linked to the overall characteristics of this matrix. Moreover, biomass from microalgae cultivated in wastewater was enriched in photosynthetic pigments, polyphosphates, proteins and starch, but not lipids, suggesting its possible use as a biofertilizer.
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spelling pubmed-77669962020-12-28 Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Thickening Effluent of an Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant by an Isolated Green Microalga Baldisserotto, Costanza Demaria, Sara Accoto, Ornella Marchesini, Roberta Zanella, Marcello Benetti, Linda Avolio, Francesco Maglie, Michele Ferroni, Lorenzo Pancaldi, Simonetta Plants (Basel) Article Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms and are considered excellent candidates for a wide range of biotechnological applications, including the removal of nutrients from urban wastewaters, which they can recover and convert into biomass. Microalgae-based systems can be integrated into conventional urban wastewater treatment plants (WW-TP) to improve the water depuration process. However, microalgal strain selection represents a crucial step for effective phytoremediation. In this work, a microalga isolated from the effluent derived from the thickening stage of waste sludge of an urban WW-TP was selected and tested to highlight its potential for nutrient removal. Ammonium and phosphate abatements by microalgae were evaluated using both the effluent and a synthetic medium in a comparative approach. Parallelly, the isolate was characterized in terms of growth capability, morphology, photosynthetic pigment content and photosystem II maximum quantum yield. The isolated microalga showed surprisingly high biomass yield and removal efficiency of both ammonium and phosphate ions from the effluent but not from the synthetic medium. This suggests its clear preference to grow in the effluent, linked to the overall characteristics of this matrix. Moreover, biomass from microalgae cultivated in wastewater was enriched in photosynthetic pigments, polyphosphates, proteins and starch, but not lipids, suggesting its possible use as a biofertilizer. MDPI 2020-12-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7766996/ /pubmed/33353199 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants9121802 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Baldisserotto, Costanza
Demaria, Sara
Accoto, Ornella
Marchesini, Roberta
Zanella, Marcello
Benetti, Linda
Avolio, Francesco
Maglie, Michele
Ferroni, Lorenzo
Pancaldi, Simonetta
Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Thickening Effluent of an Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant by an Isolated Green Microalga
title Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Thickening Effluent of an Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant by an Isolated Green Microalga
title_full Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Thickening Effluent of an Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant by an Isolated Green Microalga
title_fullStr Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Thickening Effluent of an Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant by an Isolated Green Microalga
title_full_unstemmed Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Thickening Effluent of an Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant by an Isolated Green Microalga
title_short Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Thickening Effluent of an Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant by an Isolated Green Microalga
title_sort removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from thickening effluent of an urban wastewater treatment plant by an isolated green microalga
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7766996/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33353199
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants9121802
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