This document discusses the use of microalgae (phycoremediation) for wastewater treatment. It begins with definitions of phycoremediation and discusses how it utilizes microalgae and macroalgae to remove or transform pollutants from wastewater. The document then outlines several applications of phycoremediation including removal of nutrients, organic matter, and heavy metals. Specific examples of phycoremediation being used to treat domestic wastewater, industrial wastewater from textile, food, tannery, chemical and pharmaceutical facilities, are provided. The document emphasizes that phycoremediation is an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional wastewater treatment methods.

1. PHYCOREMEDIATION
MICROALGAL TECHNOLOGY
Prepared by
N. SOWNTHARYA,
I – M SC MICROBIOLOGY,
VIVEKANANDHA ARTS AND SCIENCE
COLLEGE FOR WOMEN,
SANkAGIRI , SALEM,TAMILNADU
Guidance by
Dr. R. DINESHKUMAR ,
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR ,
DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY ,
VIVEKANANDHA ARTS AND SCIENCE
COLLEGE FOR WOMEN,
SANKAGIRI , SALEM , TAMILNADU.

2. CONTENTS;
• INTRODUCTION
• CONVENTIONAL OF BIOREMEDIATION AND
PHYCOREMEDIATION
• APPLICATION OF PHYCOREMEDIATION
• PHYCOREMEDIATION OF VARIES WASTES
• DOMESTIC WASTEWATER TREATMENT
• INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT

3. INTRODUCTION
• Phycoremediation can be defined as the use of microalgae or macroalgae
for sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2), or for the removal of toxic and
non toxic substances from solid, liquid or gaseous wastes,
where the organisms do so by metabolic uptake, accumulation or
biotransformation processes.
• The term phycoremediation was first coined by John (2002) to refer to the
remediation carried out by algae.
• However, the use of algae in the remediation of wastewater has been in
vogue for nearly 50 years.

4. • The first description of this application being reported by oswald,
cosidered one of the pioneers in biological treatment of wastewater.
• Phycoremediation utilizes both micro and macroalgae to remove or
biotransform toxic pollutants , including nutrients and xenobiotics from
wastewater.
• It is environment friendly and also resolves the problems associated
associated with conventional remediation methods.

5. CONVENTIONAL OF BIOREMEDIATION AND
PHYCOREMEDIATION
• Bioremediation, is refers to the treatment of wastes using living
systems, including microorganisms, plants and animals.
• Phycoremediation is being recently identified as a unique
technology.
• All bioremediation systems, use of bacteria is more common, which
is now widely regarded as conventional bioremediation technology.
• phycoremediation, which has recently gained prominence, offers lots
of advantages over conventional bioremediation systems

6. PHYCOREMEDIATION
BIOREMEDIATION IN PARTICULAR
BACTIRIAL TREATMENT METHODS
• Some microalgal strains are
capable of growing in multiple
modes of nutrition such as
autotrophic, heterotrophic and
mixotrophic, thereby making
them versatile in removing wide
range of pollutants.
• Algal biomass is highly suitable
for liquid bio-fuel production
such as ethanol and
biocrude/biodiesel.
• The technology is robust, and
the algae can withstand high
range of pH.
• Even though high-efficiency
organisms are used, most of them
remove organic load.
• Energy consumption can be high,
e.g. in sur-face aeration or
indiffused aeration system.
• Bacterial biomass usually
undergoes anaerobic digestion.
• The systems are very
sensitive to pH ranges.

7. APPLICATION OF PHYCOREMEDIATION
• Nitrogen and phosphorus removal
• Removal of organic load
• Removal of anions /cations
• PH correction
• Pesticide removal

8. PHYCOREMEDIATION OF VARIOUS WASTES
• Domestic wastewater treatment
• Industrial wastewater treatment
• DOMESTIC WASTE WATER TREATMENT
• Domestic wastewater is a combination of water and other wastes
originating from homes, commercial and industrial facilities and
institutions.
• Untreated wastewater generally contains alarming levels of organic
matter, numerous pathogenic microorganisms as well as nutrients
and toxic compounds.

9. • The untreated domestic wastewater represents an ideal medium for
microalgal growth.
It contains high concentrations of all necessary nutrients such as
organic carbon, ammoniacal nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, phosphorus,
etc.
• Microalgae offer a low-cost and effective approach to remove excess
nutrients .
• Many microalgae have been reported to be suitable for domestic
wastewater treatments such as C. vulgaris,Micratinium sp,
Desmodesmus sp., Scenedesmus obliquus, Scenedesmus acutus

10. POLLUTED RIVER WATER TREATMENT

11. POND WASTEWATER TREATMENT

12. • INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT
• Phycoremediation has been gaining attention due to its mutual
benefit in wastewater treatment and for valuable algae biomass
production. Wastewater, especially sewage and industrial effluents,
is rich in pathogenic organisms, organic and inorganic compounds
and heavy metals.
• Industrial waste water treatment describe the process used for
treating waste water that is produced by industries as an undesirable
by product.
Industrial wastewaters from,
- Textile/Dyeing industry
- Food Industry
- Tanneries / chemical Industry
- Pharmaceutical Industry etc.

13. Characteristics of Industrial Wastewater
:
1. Physical characteristics
• Total solids
• Odors
• Temperature
• Color
Turbidity
2. Chemical Characteristics
Organic Matter :
Presence of these substances has complicated industrial
wastewater treatment,
- Fats, oils and grease
-Phenols
-Pesticides & agricultural chemicals

14. Parameters of organic content
- Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)
- Chemical oxygen demand (COD)
Inorganic matter
- Nitrogen & phosphorus
- Sulfur
- Heavy metals
3 . Biological characteristics
Some industries have certain pathogenic organisms like
slaughterhouses others have mold and fungi as starch and yeast
factories. Biological information is needed to assess the degree of
treatment of the waste water before its discharge to the environment.

15. • Textiles/Dyeing Industry
• Textile and dyeing industry effluents have been increasing proportionally
making it one of the main sources of severe pollution problems across the
globe.
• The wastewater is generated from the various processing units of textile
industries such as ,
- desizing, scouring,
- bleaching, mercerizing,
- dyeing, printing and packing units.
• The major parameters that need to be removed/reduced in the textile industry
effluent are ,

16. - pH, electrical conductivity,
- Chloride, sulphate, phenols,
- Dissolved solids BOD & COD and other toxic
Substance.
• 2005 reported the algae have very high potential to degrade dye effluents
and the reduction appears to be related to the molecular structure of dyes
and the species of algae used.
• It was also reported that more than 30 azo compounds were biodegraded
and decolorized by C. pyrenoidosa,C. vulgaris and Oscillatoria tenuis.
• Colour removal of textile dyeing wastewater using Chroococcus sp.,
Chlorococcum sp., Desmococcus sp. and cosmarium sp.

17. Tanneries and chemical industries produce huge amounts of
effluents, during production processes, which contain a wide variety of
inorganic and organic pollutants, including toxic substances.
• Microalgae-based treatment methods are preferred particularly due to
high binding affinity for heavy metals.
• Microalgae have high potential to absorb, entrap and volatilize heavy metals
from wastewaters, and the separation of metal-saturated algae from the
medium is also an economical method .
• Tanneries &chemical industries

18. • Food-processing industry is one of the rapidly growing
industries that have occupied worldwide global market in
terms of increasing economy.
• During food production/processing, tons of portable water
is used, which in turn results in huge amounts of
wastewater, apart from the water being used for washing
and sterilizing vessels.
• The effluent is rich in total organic carbon, nitrogen and
phosphate with a high range of COD, which may result in
major environmental issues.
• Food Industry

19. • Many food industries use conventional biological
treatment systems using microorganisms to reduce
parameters such as COD.
• Although bacterial systems can clean up food industry
wastewater efficiently, microalgae are considered as a
more potential alternative.
• High rates of nutrient removal by algae have been
reported with mono cultures of cyanobacteria such as
Spirulina.

20. • Pharmaceutical Industry
• Industry Pharmaceutical industries, during the drug-manufacturing
process, use lot of water,naturalraw materials such as plant extracts and
complex constituents of alkaloids,heavy metals and solvents.
• It is extremely important to use eco-friendly treatment technologies .
because of the nature of the pharmaceutical effluents.
• Vanerkar (2015) evaluated the toxicity of herbal pharmaceutical
wastewater after its treatment with the green microalga Scenedesmus
quadricauda.

21. • Physico-chemical characteristics such as pH, COD, BOD, total solids,
sodium, potassium and heavy metals were significantly reduced after the
treatment.
• Based on the experimental result of a pharmaceutical industry that the
waste water treatment using Spirulina was very effective.
• There was a massive reduction in BOD and COD by 73% and 70%
respectively.

22. THANK YOU