Pilot Scale Cultivation of Microalgae in highly saline byproduct of Desalination

Communities worldwide are increasingly reliant on desalination to meet their freshwater needs, but all desalination processes produce a highly saline byproduct called desalination concentrate. Current options for concentrate disposal are environmentally damaging and expensive–they can increase the cost of desalination by up to 33% , but growing microalgae in concentrate could safely manage concentrate while providing valuable products and diversifying rural economies. Previous work at New Mexico State University (NMSU) has demonstrated that Chlorella sorokiniana (UTEX 1230) can be grown in concentrate. The concentrate can serve as a growth media for the algae, while the algae remove contaminants from the growth media. The majority, if not all, published research in this field has been completed at the lab scale. In this project, a pilot scale cultivation of microalgae in concentrate (brine) was conducted to investigate how well Chlorella sorokiniana (UTEX 1230) grows in brackish water desalination concentrate and to what extended it can remove contaminants from water. UTEX 1230 was cultivated in two indoor raceway ponds with different concentrations of brine. The experiment was repeated once. Cell population growth, contaminant removal, and evaporation rates of each pond were studied.

Keywords:

Algae , Brackish water , Contaminants removal , Salinity