Abstract
Direct discharge of anaerobic digestate, which is the effluent that comes out from the anaerobic digestion process, can cause several environmental problems due to the high concentration of phosphorus and nitrogen. This study aims to propose a system that can allow cow manure digestate treatment through microalgae cultivation with no digestate dilution. A novel open reactor system with microfiltration membranes that separate the digestate tank and the cultivation tank was proposed. Two configurations of reactors were tested. First a circular reactor equipped with one membrane that could allow vertical transfer of nutrients was tested. The system was scaled up with a new rectangular reactor that was equipped with three membranes that could allow horizontal nutrients transfer. Nutrients transfer from the digestate tank into the cultivation tank was confirmed. Light transmittance of 99.9% of the culture solution after 7 days of continuous equilibration with the digestate could be maintained. Microalgae could be successfully cultivated using undiluted digestate; where microalgae growth productivity and nitrogen removal of around 45 mg/L/day and 32.1% could be achieved, respectively. Our proposed microfiltration membrane open reactor system was shown to be promising for integrating microalgae cultivation with digestate treatment without the need for digestate dilution.
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs10163-023-01769-7/MediaObjects/10163_2023_1769_Fig1_HTML.jpg)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs10163-023-01769-7/MediaObjects/10163_2023_1769_Fig2_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs10163-023-01769-7/MediaObjects/10163_2023_1769_Fig3_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs10163-023-01769-7/MediaObjects/10163_2023_1769_Fig4_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs10163-023-01769-7/MediaObjects/10163_2023_1769_Fig5_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs10163-023-01769-7/MediaObjects/10163_2023_1769_Fig6_HTML.png)
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Li X, Shen S, Xu Y, Guo T, Dai H, Lu X (2021) Application of membrane separation processes in phosphorus recovery: a review. Sci Total Environ 767:144346
Al-Mallahi J, Sürmeli RÖ, Çalli B (2020) Recovery of phosphorus from liquid digestate using waste magnesite dust. J Clean Prod. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122616
Chen KT, Bai MD, Yang HY, Chen YC, Lu WJ, Huang C (2020) Removal of ammonia from leachate by using thermophilic microbial fuel cells equipped with membrane electrode. Sustain Environ Res 30(1):1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42834-020-0045-0
Cheng C, Wang Y, Ishak S, Kee M, Wei J, Shi I, Loke P, Teong K (2022) Anaerobic digestate as a low-cost nutrient source for sustainable microalgae cultivation: a way forward through waste valorization approach. Sci Total Environ 803:150070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150070
Pinto LFR, Ferreira GF, Tasic M (2021) Cultivation techniques. In: Galanakis CM (ed) MICROALGAECultivation, recovery of compounds and applications, 1st edn. Elsevier Inc
**a A, Murphy JD (2016) Microalgal cultivation in treating liquid digestate from biogas systems. Trends Biotechnol 34(4):264–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2015.12.010
Al-mallahi J, Ishii K (2022) Attempts to alleviate inhibitory factors of anaerobic digestate for enhanced microalgae cultivation and nutrients removal: a review. J Environ Manag 304(November 2021):114266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114266
Cheng J, Ye Q, Xu J, Yang Z, Zhou J, Cen K (2016) Improving pollutants removal by microalgae Chlorella PY-ZU1 with 15 % CO2 from undiluted anaerobic digestion effluent of food wastes with ozonation pretreatment. Biores Technol 216:273–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.05.069
Ayre JM, Moheimani NR, Borowitzka MA (2017) Growth of microalgae on undiluted anaerobic digestate of piggery effluent with high ammonium concentrations. Algal Res 24:218–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2017.03.023
Vadiveloo A, Foster L, Kwambai C, Bahri PA, Moheimani NR (2021) Microalgae cultivation for the treatment of anaerobically digested municipal centrate (ADMC) and anaerobically digested abattoir effluent (ADAE). Sci Total Environ. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145853
Cheng J, Xu J, Huang Y, Li Y, Zhou J, Cen K (2015) Growth optimisation of microalga mutant at high CO 2 concentration to purify undiluted anaerobic digestion effluent of swine manure. Biores Technol 177:240–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2014.11.099
Wang M, Yang Y, Chen Z, Chen Y, Wen Y, Chen B (2016) Removal of nutrients from undiluted anaerobically treated piggery wastewater by improved microalgae. Biores Technol 222:130–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.09.128
Wang Q, Prasad R, Higgins BT (2019) Aerobic bacterial pretreatment to overcome algal growth inhibition on high-strength anaerobic digestates. Water Res 162:420–426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2019.07.011
Marazzi F, Sambusiti C, Monlau F, Cecere SE, Scaglione D, Barakat A, Mezzanotte V, Ficara E (2017) A novel option for reducing the optical density of liquid digestate to achieve a more productive microalgal culturing. Algal Res 24:19–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2017.03.014
Sekine M, Yoshida A, Akizuki S, Kishi M, Todo T (2020) Microalgae cultivation using undiluted anaerobic digestate by introducing aerobic nitrification—desulfurization treatment. Water Sci Technol 82:1070–1080. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2020.153
Jiang Y, Pu X, Zheng D, Zhu T, Wang S, Deng L, Wang W (2018) Cultivation of lipid-producing microalgae in struvite-precipitated liquid digestate for biodiesel production. Biotechnol Biofuels 11(1):1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-018-1102-3
Xu M, Bernards M, Hu Z (2014) Algae-facilitated chemical phosphorus removal during high-density Chlorella emersonii cultivation in a membrane bioreactor. Biores Technol 153:383–387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2013.12.026
Nguyen T, Bui X, Hao H, Nguyen T, Nguyen K (2021) Nutrient recovery and microalgae biomass production from urine by membrane photobioreactor at low biomass retention times. Sci Total Environ 785:147423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147423
Singh G, Thomas PB (2012) Nutrient removal from membrane bioreactor permeate using microalgae and in a microalgae membrane photoreactor. Bioresour Technol 117:80–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2012.03.125
Chang H, Fu Q, Huang Y, **a A, Liao Q, Zhu X, Zheng Y, Sun C (2016) An annular photobioreactor with ion-exchange-membrane for non- touch microalgae cultivation with wastewater. Bioresour Technol 219:668–676. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.08.032
Chen X, Li Z, He N, Zheng Y, Li H, Wang H, Wang Y, Lu Y (2018) Nitrogen and phosphorus removal from anaerobically digested wastewater by microalgae cultured in a novel membrane photobioreactor. Biotechnol Biofuels. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-018-1190-0
Tan XB, Lam MK, Uemura Y, Lim JW, Wong CY, Ramli A, Kiew PL, Lee KT (2018) Semi-continuous cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris using chicken compost as nutrients source: growth optimization study and fatty acid composition analysis. Energy Convers Manag 164(March):363–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2018.03.020
Babiak W, Krzeminska I (2021) Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) as microalgal bioproducts: a review of factors affecting EPS synthesis and application in flocculation processes. Energies 14:4007
Zhuang L, Azimi Y, Yu D, Wu Y, Hu H (2018) Effect of nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations on the growth of microalgae Scenedesmus. LX1 in suspended-solid phase photobioreactors. Biomass Bioenergy 109(December 2017):47–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2017.12.017
Razaghi A, Institutet K, Godhe A, Albers E (2014) Effects of nitrogen on growth and carbohydrate formation in Porphyridium cruentum. Cent Eur J Biol 9:156–162. https://doi.org/10.2478/s11535-013-0248-z
Soanen N, Silva ED, Gardarin C, Michaud P, Laroche C (2016) Improvement of exopolysaccharide production by Porphyridium marinum. Biores Technol 213:231–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.02.075
Fu L, Li Q, Yan G, Zhou D, Crittenden JC (2019) Hormesis effects of phosphorus on the viability of Chlorella regularis cells under nitrogen limitation. Biotechnol Biofuels. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-019-1458-z
Cai T, Park SY, Li Y (2013) Nutrient recovery from wastewater streams by microalgae: status and prospects. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 19(November):360–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2012.11.030
Acknowledgements
We thank the Kobayashi farm and KALM cooperation, Hokkaido, Japan for kindly providing the digestate samples. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the “Research and Education Center for Robust Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Industry”.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Al-Mallahi, J., Nakashima, T., Ishii, K. et al. Applying membrane separation technology for integrating high strength cow manure digestate treatment and microalgae cultivation in an open reactor system. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 25, 3451–3461 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-023-01769-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-023-01769-7