Ricerc@Sapienza

Olive mill wastewater (OMW) was supplied to Scenedesmus sp. cultures to simultaneously achieve biomass production and wastewater biodegradation. Two OMW supply strategies were implemented to prevent the reduced growth performances that are attained, compared to photoautotrophic cultivation, when OMW is supplied at the beginning of cultivation (batch strategy). A fed-batch strategy including the gradual OMW supply yielded a biomass production equal to 0.86 g/L, while 1.4 g/L was attained by a two-stage strategy including OMW addition during nitrogen-starvation.

Microalgae are a promising feedstock for the future of the industrial chemistry. Among microalgae, Tetradesmus obliquus (generally known as Scenedesmus obliquus) is one of the most studied species due to its robustness and its good performances for production of lipids, proteins and carbohydrates. However, the high production costs still limit large part of the possible applications. The exploitation of the heterotrophic metabolism for microalgae cultivation may potentially improve the biomass production sustainability, especially if organic substrates are obtained from wastewaters.