Kinetic modeling and experiments on removal of COD/nutrients from dairy effluent using chlorella and co-culture

A sustainable and cost-effective approach of waste water management is biological treatment for reducing organic carbon, nitrate, and phosphate content. Co-culturing of algae with bacteria in wastewater leads to higher biomass yield and improvement in COD/nutrients removal compared to the single strain counterparts. In this study, a mathematical modeling framework is proposed to predict the dynamic behavior of microbial co-culture in dairy waste water. Initially, the model has been developed to predict the biomass growth and COD/nutrients removal with discrete cultures (algae and bacteria). As an extension of the single strain kinetic model, Lotka–Volterra model was formulated to explore the symbiotic relationship between algae and bacteria in a co-culture and the impact of the interactions on the COD/nutrients removal efficiency and growth dynamics. Supporting experiments were carried out in 6 parallel sets (3 sets with triplicates) with standalone algae (Chlorella vulgaris, CV), bacteria (activated sludge), and co-culture in real-time dairy liquid effluent in lab flasks and predicted values from modeling were validated against experimental findings. Statistical analysis confirms reasonably good agreement between the model predictions and experimental findings indicating a positive synergistic effect of the algae–bacterial co-culture on COD removal.