Physiochemicals and Heavy Metal Removal from Domestic Wastewater via Phycoremediation

¹ Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia
² Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia

^a Corresponding author : rafiqrazak@yahoo.com

Abstract

The common sources of water pollution in Malaysia are domestic sewage and industrial waste. Therefore, domestic wastewater quality effluent should be improved before discharged through the outlets. The alternative method of treatment uses microalgae for water remediation which is known as phycoremediation was applied. This technique is to remove or reduce nutrients and harmful pollutants in domestic wastewater. Thus, objective of the present study is to bioremediate the physiochemical and heavy metal from domestic wastewater using freshwater green microalgae Botryococcus sp. A photobioreactor is used to treat the wastewater by employing the microalgae Botryococcus sp. as a vital part of the treatment system. The results show that several nutrients have been reduced successfully such as phosphate and total phosphorus of 100% removal, inorganic carbon of 99% removal, total carbon of 42% removal, and nitrate of 10%. The most prominent heavy metal content that has been removed is Aluminium of 41%. At the same time, the growth of microalgae Botryococcus sp. in this wastewater has achieved the maximum value at Day 4 with 2.58 × 10⁵ cell/ml only. These results show the potential of Botryococcus sp. cultivation as an alternative method to treat domestic wastewater and any other biotechnology works in the future.