Treatment of rose oil processing wastewater with Acutodesmus obliquus and investigation of the production potential of biodiesel, biochar and biofertilizer from the microalgal mass, energy analysis and water footprint of the processes

While the wastewater resulting from distillation in rose oil processing plants is stored in collection pits without undergoing any treatment, this situation causes pollution in terms of environment and human health. In this thesis, it was aimed to use rose processing wastewater, which has no economic value, as a nutrient for Acutodesmus obliquus microalgae strain in canal pond aquaculture, and then to investigate the potentials for chemical removal, microalgal biomass production, biodiesel, biofertilizer and biochar. Experiments included three treatments, named as R1 R2 and R3, open pond application with the same operating characteristics at 3 treatment periods. At the end of the trials, the highest COD removal was obtained with 94.9% in R2-3 applications. When evaluated in terms of ions, the highest removal was achieved with the process of R2. Fatty acid components of microalgal biomass obtained from the applications were examined and possible biodiesel parameters such as DU, SV, IV, CN, LCSF, CFPP, OS, CP, HHV were calculated. It was concluded that the biodiesel parameters of R1, R2 and R3 products at the end of the 3 application periods are in line with the international standards. In the study, water footprint (WF) calculations were also made for the data whose system boundaries were determined, suggesting that the R2 pond, which used 50% rose processing wastewater, is the most suitable among the applications in terms of both chemical load removal of rose processing wastewater, biomass efficiency, carbon dioxide removal, and characteristics of biodiesel, biofertilizer and biochar.