Biodiesel Production and Treatment of Brewery Wastewater by

Microalgae

A. Melo1, T.Mata1,a, M.Simes1,a, N.Caetano2,a

a
LEPAE Laboratory for Process, Environmental and Energy Engineering
1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP), R.
Dr. Roberto Frias S/N, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
2
Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering (ISEP), Polytechnic Institute of
Porto (IPP), R. Dr. Antnio Bernardino de Almeida S/N, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal

Using microalgae for wastewater treatment seems to be quite promising for their growth
combined with biological cleaning [1]. At the same time microalgae provide a means of
expanding and exploring photosynthesis getting a way to produce biomass that can be
used for biofuel production, as feed in aquaculture, or as fertilizer in agriculture.
Microalgae show several advantages over conventional activated sludge processes for
which there is associated high energy consumption for aeration and high costs for the
subsequent sludge management processes. Also, by removing nitrogen, phosphorus and
carbon from water, microalgae can help reducing the eutrophication in the aquatic
environment [2].
This work aims to use microalgae for the treatment of a brewery wastewater, having in
mind their utilization as feedstock for biodiesel production. For this purpose three
microalgae species were studied and cultivated under mixotrophic growth conditions in
a synthetic brewery effluent (used as culture medium): Chlorela vulgaris, Scenedesmus
obliquos and Haematococcus pluvialis. The growth rate of these algae was determined
through biomass dry weight concentration and the corresponding cultures absorbance
variation in time. Also, since one objective is the wastewater treatment by removal of
NH4+, NO3, and PO43- by making algae to grow using these water contaminants as
nutrients, the variation in the amount of these components and also of chemical oxygen
demand (COD) have been followed in time. After growth the microalgal cells were
harvested by centrifugation and the total lipids were extracted from the fresh biomass
using a modified method of Bligh and Dyer [3]. Then, the total lipids content was
determined. After extraction, the fatty acids were analysed using a modified method of
Lepage and Roy [4] and the resulting methyl esters of fatty acids were analysed with a
gas chromatograph.
As a result of this work we have selected which of the three microalgae species is the
best one to treat this kind of effluent and produce biodiesel.
References:
[1] Aslan, S. and Kapdan I.K. (2006). Batch kinetics of nitrogen and phosphorus removal from
synthetic wastewater by algae. Ecological Engineering 28 (1):64-70.
[2] Ryu, J.K., Cho, J.H., Kim. D.Y. (2009). Strategies to industrialize the algae bio-business
and policy direction (Korean). Policy Research 2009-13, Korea Maritime Institute, Seoul.
[3] Bligh E, Dyer W. (1959). A rapid method of total lipid extraction and purification. Canadian
Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 37:911-7.
[4] Lepage G., Roy, C.C. (1984). Improved recovery of fatty acid through direct
transesterification without prior extraction or purification. J. of Lipid Research 25:1391-96 .