Due to an increase of the human population on Earth, log of pollutants to water resources has increased and this caused the more restriction of water resources for human. Limited availability of fresh water resources, especially in the Middle East that have arid and semi-arid climate increases the importance of water recycling. The main problem in many conventional wastewater treatment systems is their high content of nitrogen and phosphorus effluent, which affect the potential for reuse wastewater effluent. Solutions that today are considered in this context is the bioremediation of these substances from sewage. In the present study, for the first time, we evaluated the performance of a BIODROF system that in this system the algal biofilm are added to its bacterial part for bioremediation of nitrogen and phosphorus content from domestic wastewater. Our results showed a higher uptake of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate compared to similar studies. The uptake efficiency for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and phosphate was at least up to 96% of their initial concentration. Finally, we can say that the symbiosis of algae and bacteria with favorable conditions for gas exchange in Biodrof system could be a good reason for the better performance of our system compared to similar systems.

Keywords: Algal biofilm, Biodrof, Bioremediation, Wastewater treatment, Water recycling

Full-Text [PDF 645 kb]   (3572 Downloads)