Abstract—To determine the performance of microalgae photobireactor for advanced wastewater treatment and microalgal biomass production, Chlorella vulgaris was cultured with final effluent from sewage treatment plant in batch condition. The average specific growth rate was 0.103 d-1 because low P concentration inhibited algal growth. 60% of N and P concentrations were removed from the system in 2 days. When the system operated under a semi-continuous condition with hydraulic retention time (HRT) 2 days, the microalgae showed growth rate of 0.452 d^-1 and 0.277 d^-1 in primary effluent and final effluent, respectively. 30% of N and 53% of P were removed from primary effluent and 44% of N and 84.2% of P were removed from final effluent. These results suggest that semi-continuous mode offers higher biomass production and appropriate HRT were needed for high N and P removals.

Index Terms—Nitrogen and phosphorus removal, microalgae, photobioreactor, wastewater.

Rawiwan Boonchai, Gyu Tae Seo, Da Rang Park, and Chung Yeol Seong are with the Department of Enivironmental Engineering, Changwon National University, 9 Sarim dong, Changwon, Gyeongnam, 641-773, South Korea. Corresponding author: Prof. Gyu Tae Seo (e-mail: gts@changwon.ac.kr).

Cite: Rawiwan Boonchai, Gyu Tae Seo, Da Rang Park, and Chung Yeol Seong, "Microalgae Photobioreactor for Nitrogen and Phosphorus Removal from Wastewater of Sewage Treatment Plant," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 407-410, 2012.