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Nitrogen and phosphorus removal through laboratory batch cultures of microalga Chlorella vulgaris and cyanobacterium Planktothrix isothrix grown as monoalgal and as co-cultures

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Abstract

Batch cultures of the green microalga Chlorella vulgaris and cyanobacterium Planktothrix isothrix and their corresponding co-cultures were grown in municipal wastewater in order to study their growth as well as the nitrogen (NH4–N) and phosphorus (PO 3−4 –P) removal. The cultures were grown under two irradiances of 20 and 60 μmol photons m−2 s−1 in shaken and unshaken conditions. The co-culture of unshaken Chlorella and Planktothrix showed the greatest growth under both irradiances. The monoalgal Planktotrix cultures showed better growth when unshaken than when shaken, whereas Chlorella cultures grew better when mixed, but only at the higher irradiance. The highest percentage of nitrogen removal (up to 80%) was attained by the unshaken co-cultures of Chlorella and Planktothrix. The amount of nitrogen recycled in the biomass reached up to 85% of that removed. Shaken monoalgal cultures of Chlorella showed phosphorus removal under both irradiances. They completely removed the initial phosphorus concentration (7.47 ± 0.17 mg L−1) within 96 and 48 h under 20 and 60 μmol photons m−2 s−1, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

The work has been carried out within the framework of the agreement between UCR and ISE-CNR. M. Silva is indebted to the University of Costa Rica for enabling her to spend a year visiting the ISE-CNR of Florence (Italy) for research purposes. The authors would like to extend their thanks to Dr. Annarita Leva, from CNR-IVALSA, for her statistical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, San José, 2060, Costa Rica

    Ana Margarita Silva-Benavides

  2. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología (CIMAR), Ciudad de la Investigación, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, San José, 2060, Costa Rica

    Ana Margarita Silva-Benavides

  3. Istituto per lo Studio degli Ecosistemi del CNR, Sede di Firenze, via Madonna del Piano, 10, 50019, Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy

    Giuseppe Torzillo

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  1. Ana Margarita Silva-Benavides
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  2. Giuseppe Torzillo
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Correspondence to Giuseppe Torzillo.

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Silva-Benavides, A.M., Torzillo, G. Nitrogen and phosphorus removal through laboratory batch cultures of microalga Chlorella vulgaris and cyanobacterium Planktothrix isothrix grown as monoalgal and as co-cultures. J Appl Phycol 24, 267–276 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-011-9675-2

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