Aquatic Plants, Landoltia punctata , and Azolla filiculoides as Bio-Converters of Wastewater to Biofuel

• Published in: Plants (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 4; p. 437
• Main Authors: Miranda, Ana F, Kumar, N Ram, Spangenberg, German, Subudhi, Sanjukta, Lal, Banwari, Mouradov, Aidyn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.04.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Algae; Aquatic plants; Azolla filiculoides; Biodiesel fuels; Biofuels; Biomass; Bioremediation; Carbohydrates; Carbon sources; Climate change; Converters; duckweed; Enterobacter cloacae; Fatty acids; Fermentation; Ferns; hydrogen; Laundry; Lipids; Nitrogen; Nutrients; Palmitic acid; Phytoremediation; Raw materials; Reduction; Shrimps; Terrestrial environments; Toxicity; Washing powders; Wastewater treatment; Water treatment; hydrogen; phytoremediation; wastewater treatment; duckweed
• ISSN: 2223-7747; 2223-7747
• DOI: 10.3390/plants9040437

The aquatic plants, , and , were used as complementing phytoremediators of wastewater containing high levels of phosphate, which simulates the effluents from textile, dyeing, and laundry detergent industries. Their complementarities are based on differences in capacities to uptake nitrogen and phosphate components from wastewater. Sequential treatment by followed by led to complete removal of NH , NO , and up to 93% reduction of PO . In experiments where treatment was followed by fresh , PO concentration was reduced by 65%. The toxicity of wastewater assessed by shrimps, , showed a four-fold reduction of their mortality (LC value) after treatment. Collected dry biomass was used as an alternative carbon source for heterotrophic marine protists, thraustochytrids, which produced up to 35% dry weight of lipids rich in palmitic acid (50% of total fatty acids), the key fatty acid for biodiesel production. The fermentation of treated biomass by yielded up to 2.14 mol H /mole of reduced sugar, which is comparable with leading terrestrial feedstocks. and can be used as a new generation of feedstock, which can treat different types of wastewater and represent renewable and sustainable feedstock for bioenergy production.