Meat processing wastewater Phycoremediation by Botryococcus sp.: a biokinetic study and a techno-economic analysis

About five decades ago, the mass production of certain protein-rich micro-algae was considered as a possibility to close the predicted so called "protein gap". Comprehensive analyses and nutritional studies have demonstrated that these algal proteins are of high quality and comparable to conventional vegetable proteins. However, due to high production costs as well as technical difficulties to incorporate the algal material into palatable food preparations, the propagation of algal protein is still in its infancy. To date, the majority of micro-algal preparations are marketed as health food, as cosmetics or as animal feed.

The potential of Cosmarium species, belonging to green algae, was investigated as a viable biomaterial for biological treatment of triphenylmethane dye, Malachite Green (MG). The results obtained from the batch experiments revealed the ability of algal species in removing dye. The effects of operational parameters (temperature, pH, dye concentration and algal concentration) on decolorization were examined. Optimal initial pH was determined 9. The stability and efficiency of the algae in long-term repetitive operations were also examined. Michaelis-Menten kinetics was used to describe the apparent correlation between the decolorization rate and the dye concentration. The optimal kinetic parameters, nu(max) and K(m) are 7.63 mg dye g cell(-1)h(-1) and 164.57 ppm, respectively. All assays were conducted in triplicates.