Bioremediation of wastewater with microalgae and biofuel production

[deleted-885194]

Hello,
For my science project, my topic revolves around bioremediation of wastewater. My purpose is to argue that biological wastewater treatment should be implemented instead of conventional wastewater treatment.

When researching, I found that microalgae is very effective in remediating wastewater, and, the products that is created through this process is bioactive and can be used for biofuel (I may be wrong about this). However, I am not sure how I would make an experiment that could test the effectiveness of microalgae with bioremediation. And how do I know if the products can be used for biofuel? How do you cultivate microalgae? Where would I access it? Where can I get more information about this?

Hope someone can help!

Thanks.

[pharrast]

I attached a paper you may have seen the abstract of. Here is the whole thing.

[deleted-885194]

I've seen thousands of these research papers. My question was how I am supposed to plan a feasible method, and access microalgae.

[pharrast]

For buying organisms, Science Buddies has a page of approved vendors for projects:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... -suppliers

For example, this paper used Chlorella vulgaris for their bioremediation study

https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 015-0495-1,

which can be purchased here:

https://www.carolina.com/browse/product-search-results Ntt=chlorella+vulgaris&Nr=OR%28product.type%3AProduct%29&tab=p&question=chlorella+vulgaris&searchExecByFormSubmit=true

As far as putting together a procedure, it depends on what tools you have access to. Different algae and bateria/archaea degrade different pollutants/harmful stuff, so if you have a way of sensing the presence of something you'd want removed from your water (, use that! The paper that I attached describes tons of experiments, one example (72) used a spectrophotometer to measure changes in dye presence. If you have access to a machine like that, you could try showing the algae degrading dye solution (and making it clearer). However, most home science projects rely on generally available tools, so you could look into using a proxy like pH, pressure, temperature.
Sorry I can't make this an easy project, people have been trying to show the effectiveness, with all the most sophisticated tools, for decades! Best of luck,
--P

[deleted-885194]

Hello!
I am doing an experiment to test the potential for microalgae to be cultivated in a way to remove nutrient inputs (specifically Nitrogen) in wastewater before it reaches the ocean, changing their role from the source of eutrophication to a possible solution.

I have a basic structure for my method of how I plan to test this, which basically involves cultivating algae (species Arthrospira Platensis; Spirulina) in a growth medium and then increasing the concentration of Nitrogenous fertilizer, and testing the nitrogen content of the water after a period of days with a nitrate testing kit, as well as measuring the dry biomass of the algae to see its growth increases.

However, I was wondering if someone could help me with the specifics of conducting such an experiment; is there anything I may need to take into consideration when working with algae? does this method seem feasible? where can I understand how to properly cultivate algae in a small scale? any observable issues with my method structure? will it provide me with results?

I have read many research papers with large-scale approaches to this sort of experiment, but I came to science buddies so someone can explain this to me clearly, so I can understand it at a high school science project level; as well keeping in mind I am writing my own method so I truly need to have a deep understanding.

Thanks in advance!

[MadelineB]

Hello Stefanievdm,

I've combined your most recent post with the thread from your previous posts on bioremediation, so the experts who were helping you can more easily see your new questions. Thanks for keeping the thread together!

Madeline
Moderator

[pharrast]

Some answers: Here are a couple unscientific site for people who want to grow at home http://spirulinaacademy.com/grow-your-own-spirulina/
https://www.organiclifestylemagazine.co ... na-at-home (I am not voicing an opinion on eating it)
Here is a paper on different growth media labs have shown to work if you cannot afford the ingredients listed in the first link https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... wastewater

Some things to consider:
If you are using a nitrate testing kit, keep in mind that will only tell you the amount of nitrate specifically, not the total nitrogen atoms in all different molecules.
If you are trying to cultivate only very small amounts, you may have trouble weighing without expensive scales. Maybe consider just using volume as your measurement of growth
Make sure you follow the scientific method carefully: think about how you will make a controlled experiment (growth with different amounts of and without fertilizer? nitrate in solution with different amounts of and without algae?)