Potential of Microalgal Growth in Laundry Effluents for Phosphate Phytoremediation

Abstract

The objective of this study is to develop a large-scale technology for phosphate wastewater management. Laundry activities are one of the largest producing phosphate contaminants by the use of detergent. Various contaminants, such as nutrients of phosphate, chemicals, and pathogens, can pollute the environment and endanger human health. The experiment was conducted by batch method by using water in a stationary or non-flowing state. The results showed that combining phytoremediation technology and monitoring the microalgae growth phase could reduce TSS, pH, BOD5, COD, and phosphate values in wastewater. The treatment in this study was to combine two species of microalgae. Studies have shown that the optimal pH for microalgae is in the range of 7.5. Providing moderate amounts of aeration and CO2 promoted algal growth. The decrease in phosphate levels was 27.86%, with the best phase observation at the fourth hour of exponential time. Water quality evaluation of BOD, COD, and TSS parameters had a decrease of 51.87%, 51.06%, and 52%, respectively. Thus, it can be concluded that the combining of two species of microalgae in the exponential growth phase has been proven to affect and improve the quality of wastewater from laundry waste and meet the quality standards.

Access to Document

Other files and links

• Link to publication in Scopus
• Open Access Version Available

Fingerprint