Importance of algae in biological treatment and kinetic modelling of their behavior

Recently, due to agricultural practices, urbanization, industrialization and other factors, environmental pollution has increased significantly and water resources are also affected by this situation. Biological treatment methods are widely used in the treatment of wastewater. Since microalgae use organic matter in wastewater as nutrients for growth, they help in the treatment of wastewater. Kinetic modeling is a mathematical approach used to understand how a chemical process progresses over time. This study aims to mathematically model nitrogen and phosphorus removal from domestic wastewater and surface water using Chlorella Vulgaris algal culture. Experimental studies were carried out in the batch reactor and nitrate nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen and phosphate phosphorus removals were investigated by measurements. The specific growth rates of microalgae based on nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients were compared under both single and multiple nutrient conditions using the modified Monod equation (Silva and Cerqueira model) for growth kinetics. The comparisons made under both single and multiple nutrient conditions allowed for the evaluation of the effects of nutrient availability on algal growth. The agreement between the model parameters and the measurement results was found to be quite high. This agreement was assessed using the Sum of Squared Errors (SSE) value. The results provide valuable data for understanding the dynamics of nutrient interactions under different substrate concentrations and environmental conditions.