Synergistic approach to industrial wastewater treatment: Combining plasmolysis and microalgae cultivation

Microalgae cultivation offers a promising alternative to conventional wastewater treatment. However, microalgae cultivation is hindered in real wastewater treatment due to the high concentration of contaminates, complex organic compounds, and non-sterilization, which reduces microalgae growth. Therefore, the current hypothesis is to integrate plasmolysis and microalgae treatment for real textile wastewater (TWW) treatment, which can provide a sustainable approach to removing pollutants without adding harmful chemicals. The air plasma produced different oxidizing species, such as ozone, superoxide, atomic oxygen, and hydroxyl radical, capable of decomposing complex organic pollutants, dyes, and toxic compounds commonly found in TWW. This pre-treatment detoxifies the wastewater, making it safer for microalgae and reducing its color content and turbidity while enhancing light penetration. Hence, this study treats real TWW by integrating plasmolysis with microalgae technology. The results show that textile wastewater using plasmolysis reduces the 89.11 % color content in 20 min using air Corona-DBD plasma at 5 kV, 26 kHz, and 10 mA. Afterward, plasma-treated wastewater (OTWW) is introduced into the bioreactor for microalgae cultivation, and the results show a significant increase in microalgae growth in OTWW compared with TWW.