%0 Journal Article
%T Cultivating photosynthetic microorganisms in cooling water waste and urban effluents as a strategy of water regeneration and valorization.
%A Ortíz-Sánchez E
%A Solís-Salinas C
%A Okoye PU
%A Guillén-Garcés RA
%A Arias DM
%J Environ Technol
%V 45
%N 7
%D Mar 2024 30
%M 36282279
%F 3.475
%R 10.1080/09593330.2022.2140077
%X Contaminants from cooling water waste (CWW) generated by industries represent an environmental hazard if discharged into aquatic bodies and soil without treatment. Most treatment strategies are energy-demanding and costly; hence, low-cost and sustainable treatment alternative technologies are needed. The present study proposed cyanobacteria culture as a low-cost biological method to treat cooling water waste (CWW) while simultaneously producing carbohydrates. For this purpose, CWW from a cooling tower was evaluated in different dilutions with domestic wastewater (DW) (DW25% -CWW75%, DW50% -CWW50%, DW25% -CWW75%, DW100%, and CWW100%) (v/v). The CWW provided a high content of inorganic carbon and low content of N and P, which resulted in a high C/N ratio promoting a fast carbohydrate accumulation but low biomass production. In contrast, cultures with higher DW concentrations achieved similar results in 14 days. The best results were obtained with DW25% -CWW75%, achieving up to 52 ± 18% carbohydrate content on day 8, with the highest biomass concentration of 1.7 ± 0.12 g L-1 on day 14. This culture removed >94% of TAN, N-NO3- and P-PO43-, and 84 ± 10.82% of COD. This strategy could be a promising approach to treating CWW and DW from the same industry and producing value-added products and bioenergy.