Phycoremediation of waste water and dairy effluents using Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Scenedesmusabundans

Wastewater is the spent or used water containing dissolved or suspended solids, microbes. Organic and inorganic substances which are released into the environment as a result of domestic, agricultural and industrial activities which leads to organic and inorganic pollution.Dairy industry plays a major role in nation economy with a share of 13.1% total milk produce in the world. About 286 large and several small dairy industries in India are producing large quantities of wastes and polluting the water bodies. The present study focuses on the use of microalgae to remove pollutants and nutrients from the wastewater by phycoremediation.Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Scenedesmusabundans are the chosen algal species for the study. To observe the efficiency of nutrient uptake by these algal species in sewage water and dairy industrial effluents. To compare the ability of the algal species to reduce the nutrients. To estimate the biochemical constituents of harvested algal biomass for further applications such as bio fuel production.The collected sewage and dairy samples were tested for the following standard physico-chemical parameters as per APHA-1998 and BIS 14543.About 35-90% reduction in different nutrients was noted though out the experiment, further the nutrients were utilised by these to strains to produce sugars 18-30%, protein 12.6-20% and lipids7.5-23.5% of dry cell mass,the gradual reduction in various physical and chemical parameters gives the evidence that Chlorellapyrenoidosa showed best removal capacity when compared to that of Scenedesmus abundans. These experiments confirm that Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Scenedesmus abundans may be considered efficient nutrient removers.