Paper details

Title:

Mass Culture of Chlorella pyrenoidosa Using Olive-Mill Wastewater

Author(s):

Maaitah, M., Hodaifa, G., Órpez, R., Romero, A.M., Sánchez, S.

Document(s):

Abstract:

Olive oil industry is one of the most important industries in the world. Many environmental problems occur from that industry because of the production of huge amounts of wastewater since this by-product is characterized by a high inorganic and organic load. Organic substances found in olive-mill wastewater (OMWW) include sugars, phenolic compounds, polyalcohol, pectin’s, and lipids. This wastewater can be used as nutrients to produce an algal biomass with a biochemical composition rich in lipids. The use of microalgae to treat OMWW, remove carbon dioxide, and produce biomass as sustainable sources (like biofuels) is a practical option. Microalgae have extensive industrial and economic potential, and can constitute a source of third generation biofuels, principally biodiesel, produced by the transesterification of algal-derived lipids. Chlorella pyrenoidosa is a green unicellular algal that can produce a substantial amount of lipids. Experiments have been carried out in photobioreactors of 0. 5 dm3 of useful capacity, with different dilutions of olive mill wastewater (washing olive oil from systems that use decanter of two outlets); culture media have been formed with dilutions of washing olive oil from 5 to 100% (v/v). Temperature was 25°C, pH 8, an air flow of 1 v/v/min was supplied and under a light-dark cycle (12 h illumination per day). In all cultures, a concentration of 2 mg/dm3 of chloramphenicol were added, allowing minimizing the bacterial contamination. Fundamentally, this study tries to evaluate the growth kinetics (maximum specific growth rate, µm, and volumetric biomass productivity, Pb) as well as the formation of lipids in the biomass formed. At lab level, a concentration of 30 % (v/v) of olive mill-wastewater permits to reach the highest values of µm and Pb, 0,036 h-1 and 1.9 10-3 g dm-3h-1, respectively. The final stage tries to carry out an efficient separation of lipids, valuating the possibility of transforming lipid fraction into biodiesel.

Keywords:

biodiesel, microalgae, lipids, Chlorella pyrenoidosa, olive-mill wastewater

Topic:

Biomass Resources

Subtopic:

Algae production systems

Event:

26th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition

Session:

1BV.8.37

Pages:

236 - 240

ISBN:

978-88-89407-18-9

Paper DOI:

10.5071/26thEUBCE2018-1BV.8.37

Price:

FREE