Nutrient Removal from Aquaculture Saline Wastewater using Tetraselmis tetrathele
Background
Treatment of saline wastewater from shrimp farm has always been an expensive process. It is well known that microalgae has myriads of uses including nutrient recovery and use as aquaculture feed. This study therefore looks into the potential for use of Tetraselmis sp., a microalgae known for salinity tolerance and potential for nutrient removal (Borges et al 2005). The study performed several generations of acclimation and found Tetraselmis tetrathele to grow well, and thus was chosen. Saline wastewater taken from a Pacific White Shrimp aquaculture farm (picture) was used for the study.
Reference
Borges, M.T., Silva, P., Moreira, L. and Soares, R., 2005. Integration of consumer-targeted microalgal production with marine fish effluent biofiltration–a strategy for mariculture sustainability. Journal of applied phycology, 17(3), pp.187-197.
Findings
The study observe both biomass growth and nutrient reduction potential in flasks and lab size 1.3 liter bioreactors. Microalgae was grown under fluorescent lighting and monitored for 7 days. Phototrophic and mixotrophic growth regimes were experimented.
Reference
Pechsiri, J., 2019. Nutrient Recovery as an Added Benefit to Harvests of Photosynthetic Marine Biomass: A Holistic Systems Perspective on Harvesting Marine Microalgae, Cyanobacteria, and Macroalgae (Doctoral dissertation, KTH Royal Institute of Technology).