Kinetics of Nutrient Uptake and Growth of a Bloom of Microalgae in a High Rate Algae Pond (HRAP) Photobioreactor

Abstract

In the present work, a bloom of microalgae was cultured in a pilotscale high rate algae pond (HRAP) photobioreactor with a volume of 450 l. This was performed in batch with synthetic media under natural light and temperature conditions. The objective was to predict the kinetics of biomass growth, nitrogen and phosphorus removal, and the evolution of the biomass content in these nutrients. The results show a reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus contents of over 80% with synthetic wastewater and that the model was useful to predict nutrient uptake by microalgae which, along with experimental data related to nutrient contents of biomass, indicates the existence of other processes that compete with microalgae in the removal of nutrients in a photobioreactor.