Acid precipitation followed by microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) cultivation as a new approach for poultry slaughterhouse wastewater treatment

Abstract Poultry slaughterhouse wastewater (PSW) contains high organic matter and nutrients requiring thus a special treatment before its final disposal. In this way, acid precipitation (H2SO4) followed by microalgae “Chlorella vulgaris” cultivation both in batch and continuous processes was studied as an alternative method for PSW treatment. By reducing the pH value of PSW from 6-7 to 4, about 80 % of the global chemical oxygen demand (CODT) was removed as sludge. In the supernatant, the COD residual was efficiently removed (83 %) by microalgae in the batch process, using an internal-loop concentric tube photobioreactor (4.5 L). Moreover, in continuous process, after 89h, the COD value resulted lower than 200 mg L-1 and 1.2 g L-1 of microalgae in the output line. The proposed PSW treatment method is promising from economic and environmental viewpoints, since the microalgal biomass can be valued in a biorefinery context.