Analyzing Algae Growth and Oil Production in a Batch Reactor under High Nitrogen and Phosphorus Conditions

The feasibility for simultaneous local fresh water oleaginous algae cultivation and wastewater nitrogen removal were discussed in this study. The operation factors including illumination intensities, carbon source, initial nitrogen source, and retention time were fixed. The results indicated that the algae biomass increased from 28.3 mg/L to 254 mg/L at the 7th day. The oil weight increased from 5.75 mg/L to 85.34 mg/L at the 7th day. The percentage of algae oil increased from 20.4 % to 33.6 %, or by 13.2 %. The first-order equation was found to be the excellent fit model for describing the growth of algae biomass and production of oil content. The values of growth rate constant of algae and production rate constant were 0.3095 1/day and 0.3738 1/day, respectively. The value of production rate constant was about 1.2 times as that of the value of growth rate constant of algae, indicating an unbalance growth of algae biomass and oil content. The removal efficiency for ammonia nitrogen and phosphate was 84.8 % and 36.2 %, respectively.