Sustainable cultivation of Chorella Vulgaris using winery effluents: a study on mixotrophic growth in photobioreactors

• Autor(a) principal: Dias, Catarina Rodrigues
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/54533
• topic: Chlorella vulgaris; Microalgae; Mixotrophic; Photobioreactor; Red Wine Effluents; Sustainability

Every year millions of hectoliters of wastewater are produced in the wine industry, which translate into high organic loads and high risk of contaminations. This production of waste conveys a big environmental issue, that can be attenuated via microalgal treatment. This study, included in the REDWine project, intends to investigate the valorization of these effluents, by including them in the production of Chlorella vulgaris biomass, that can have several applications. For this, four experimental setups were conducted, using different types and designs of photobioreactors (PBR), including a 1700 mL flat panel PBR, 800 mL Bubble Columns and 400 mL Erlenmeyer flasks. The results of these four assays showed that, not only it is clear the implementation of red wine effluents has a positive impact on Chlorella vulgaris, increasing its growth rate (the addition of sugar from effluent on the medium allows a mixotrophic growth), it also is efficient on its treatment, due to the decrease on organic load, polyphenolic and mineral composition. These experiments also helped with the optimization of the growth medium, as they aid to demonstrate the best effluent concentration (optimal growth at 10% (v/v) and overwhelming contamination at 30% (v/v)) and the best medium composition with nitrate, phosphate and magnesium supplementation. Overall, this study encourages the promotion of sustainable practices, improving and highlighting the importance of transforming red wine production effluents into high value products.