Phycoremediation of artificial bathroom greywater in village houses using microalgae botryococcus sp.

Abstract

The sources of water pollution in Malaysia are domestic sewage and industrial waste. Direct discharge of household bathroom greywater into drains cause euthrophication into the water bodies. Phycoremediation of bathroom greywater effluent to meet a certain level of discharge limit using microalgae Botryococcus sp. is suggested. The objectives of this study is to asses quality of nutrients in raw bathroom greywater, produce artificial bathroom greywater (ABGW) recipe with Response Surface Methodology, to study biokinetic absorption of microalgae through phycoremediation. To optimize Botryococcus sp. cell concentration, pH and the efficiency of laboratory scale treatment system with Botryococcus sp. was observed. The first objective results shown that NO3-N and PO4-P were 1.03-7.54 & 0.12-22.7 mg/L respectively and 63 L/c/day was discharged to drains as raw bathroom greywater. Secondly, ABGW recipe for soap, detergent, shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste were 0.13, 0.97, 0.88, 0.34, 0.37 mg/L respectively and pH= 6.55. The optimum concentration of Botryococcus sp. was 106 cells/mL and pH 7 for the third objective. Fourthly, the efficiency of Botryococcus sp. in removing NO3-N was 97% and PO4-P 87% in ABGW on the 30th day of phycoremediation, while biokinetic absorption rate using Michaelis-Menten coefficient were K =0.46 mgNO3-N mg/chl a/day & mK =12.501 mg/L (R2 = 0.83) and PO4-P coefficients were K =8.53 mgPO4-P mg/chl a/day & Km =176.88 mg/L (R2 = 0.94). Lastly, the efficiency of Botryococcus sp. in laboratory scale treatment system was 90.98% and 93.88% for NO3-N while 80.9% and 83% for PO4-P on the 13th day of phycoremediation in ABGW and raw bathroom greywater respectively. Statistically, algal days of culture, growth of algae, pH, temperature and light correlated well (p<0.05 & 0.01) influencing high nutrient removal in the system. Therefore, this proves that Botryococcus sp. has high potential to absorb NO3-N and PO4-P from household bathroom greywater. Hence, the system of this study represents an effective solution for remediation of bathroom greywater

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