Nitrate and Phosphate Removal from Treated Dairy Wastewater using Microalgae Chlorella salina

Effluent from dairy industry has a high amount of nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate. In this work nitrate and phosphate removal from treated dairy wastewater in the presence of organic load was investigated. For this purpose, 400ml of synthetic wastewater was inoculated with 2ml of seed culture of microalgae Chlorella salina. During the growth period, nitrate and phosphate concentration in synthetic wastewater was measured for 1, 3, 5 and 7 days with the standard method (APHA). Results showed that removal of nitrate and phosphate by the microalgae from synthetic wastewater was 100% and 95%, respectively. Also, maximum biomass production in 7 days of experiment was about 0.7g/L. These values showed that Chlorella Salina could be potential candidates by showing their intrinsic merit for removal of phosphate and nitrate from dairy wastewater and can be used in treated outlet refinement from the dairy treatment plant to be used before entering to the environment.