Water resource recovery coupling microalgae wastewater treatment and sludge co-digestion for bio-wastes valorisation at industrial pilot-scale.

This case study is part of a circular bioeconomy project for a winery company aiming to integrate a microalgae-based system within the existing facilities of the winery WWTP, promoting nutrient recovery and transformation into valuable products and bioenergy. Microalgae were used for wastewater treatment, removing N-NH (97%) and P-PO (93%). A pilot anaerobic reactor was used for batch anaerobic mono-digestion of secondary sludge (WAS) and for co-digestion of WAS and algal biomass.

Integration of enzymatic pretreatment and sludge co-digestion in biogas production from microalgae.

Integration of microalgae-based systems with conventional wastewater treatment plants provides an effective alternative to waste stream management. In this work, alkaline and enzymatic pretreatments of a microalgal culture mainly constituted by Chlorella sp. and Scenedesmus sp.