Arashiro, LT;
Josa, I;
Ferrer, I;
Van Hulle, SWH;
Rousseau, DPL;
Garfí, M;
(2022)
Life cycle assessment of microalgae systems for wastewater treatment and bioproducts recovery: Natural pigments, biofertilizer and biogas.
Science of the Total Environment
, 847
, Article 157615. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157615.
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Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess the potential environmental impacts associated with microalgae systems for wastewater treatment and bioproducts recovery. In this sense, a Life Cycle Assessment was carried out evaluating two systems treating i) urban wastewater and ii) industrial wastewater (from a food industry), with the recovery of bioproducts (i.e. natural pigments and biofertilizer) and bioenergy (i.e. biogas). Additionally, both alternatives were compared to iii) a conventional system using a standard growth medium for microalgae cultivation in order to show the potential benefits of using wastewater compared to typical cultivation approaches. The results indicated that the system treating industrial wastewater with unialgal culture had lower environmental impacts than the system treating urban wastewater with mixed cultures. Bioproducts recovery from microalgae wastewater treatment systems can reduce the environmental impacts up to 5 times compared to a conventional system using a standard growth medium. This was mainly due to the lower chemicals consumption for microalgae cultivation. Food-industry effluent showed to be the most promising scenario for bioproducts recovery from microalgae treating wastewater, because of its better quality compared to urban wastewater which also allows the cultivation of a single microalgae species. In conclusion, microalgae wastewater treatment systems are a promising solution not only for wastewater treatment but also to boost the circular bioeconomy in the water sector through microalgae-based product recovery.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Life cycle assessment of microalgae systems for wastewater treatment and bioproducts recovery: Natural pigments, biofertilizer and biogas |
| Location: | Netherlands |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157615 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157615 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Bioproducts, Environmental impact assessment, Life cycle assessment, Microalgae, Wastewater, Animals, Biofuels, Biomass, Life Cycle Stages, Microalgae, Waste Water, Water, Water Purification |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Civil, Environ and Geomatic Eng UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10157577 |
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