Treatment of low C/N ratio wastewater and biomass production using co-culture of Chlorella vulgaris and activated sludge in a batch photobioreactor

The aim of this work was to study the performance of pollutants removal and biomass production by co-culture of Chlorella vulgaris and activated sludge in a batch photobioreactor (PBR), compared with their single system to treat a low C/N ratio (COD/N = 4.3) wastewater. The co-culture system surpassed activated sludge system in terms of nutrients removal and outperformed microalgae alone system in regard to COD removal. Biomass productivity of the co-culture system was 343.3 mg L-1 d(-1), and the harvested biomass could be developed as biofuels, animal feeds or soil conditioners due to the improved calorific value and cellular composition compared with activated sludge. The low C/N ratio wastewater enabled bacteria to maintain a relatively low level, hence in favor of microalgae enrichment and nutrient recovery.