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Production of Chlorella vulgaris using urban wastewater: Assessment of the nutrient recovery capacity of the biomass and its plant biostimulant effects

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Abstract

The microalga Chlorella vulgaris UAL-1 was produced using urban wastewater that was either left untreated or sterilised. The biomass productivity achieved when using the untreated wastewater was comparable to that of the control, which was freshwater supplemented with synthetic chemicals (0.58 g·L−1·day−1). The microalga C. vulgaris UAL-1 was able to recover up to 93.8, 73.1, 80.5, and 85.2% of the N-NH4+, N-NO3−, P-PO43− and COD present in the unprocessed wastewater. The thermal treatment (120 ºC, 10 min) and covering the reactors led to lower biomass productivities and nutrient recoveries. The biomass was then disrupted by sonication (280 W, 24 kHz) and assessed for biostimulant effects. Overall, although the germination index of watercress seeds was improved with the microalgal extracts (p < 0.05), the observed increase was around 1.0%. All the microalgal extracts significantly promoted the development of roots in soybeans, especially those generated from the biomass produced using freshwater and unprocessed wastewater (p < 0.05). The percentage increase was close to 200%. Moreover, the results from the cucumber cotyledon expansion test revealed that the microalgal extracts led to a greater weight gain; no major differences were observed between the biomass produced using freshwater and unprocessed wastewater while the autoclaved media and the biomass produced in the dark led to a lower weight gain (p < 0.05). The microalga C. vulgaris UAL-1 is adaptable, robust, and can be produced using wastewater; the biomass shows potential for evaluation in field trials as a plant biostimulant.

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Data availability

The data are available, on reasonable request, from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank José Escánez, José Peña and Ismael Martin-Cara for their technical assistance.

Funding

The present project was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities (GREENFARM, PDC2021-121861-C21) and the Government of Andalusia (VALIMA, P20_00800 and ALGA4FF, P20_00812). T. Lafarga would like to thank the Government of Andalusia (POSTDOC_21_00463).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Almería, 04120, Almería, Spain

    Gema Amaya-Santos, Ángela Ruiz-Nieto, Ana Sánchez-Zurano, Martina Ciardi, Cintia Gómez-Serrano, Gabriel Acién & Tomás Lafarga

  2. CIESOL Solar Energy Research Centre, Joint Centre University of Almería-CIEMAT, 04120, Almería, Spain

    Ana Sánchez-Zurano, Martina Ciardi, Cintia Gómez-Serrano, Gabriel Acién & Tomás Lafarga

Authors
  1. Gema Amaya-Santos
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  2. Ángela Ruiz-Nieto
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  3. Ana Sánchez-Zurano
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  4. Martina Ciardi
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  5. Cintia Gómez-Serrano
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  6. Gabriel Acién
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  7. Tomás Lafarga
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Contributions

G. Amaya-Santos: Investigation, Formal analysis; A. Ruiz-Nieto: Investigation; A. Sánchez-Zurano: Investigation; M. Ciardi: Investigation; C. Gómez-Serrano: Supervision; G. Acién: Supervision, Funding acquisition; and T. Lafarga: Formal analysis and Writing – Original Draft.

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Correspondence to Tomás Lafarga.

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Amaya-Santos, G., Ruiz-Nieto, Á., Sánchez-Zurano, A. et al. Production of Chlorella vulgaris using urban wastewater: Assessment of the nutrient recovery capacity of the biomass and its plant biostimulant effects. J Appl Phycol 34, 2971–2979 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-022-02843-7

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