Feasibility of Chlorella vulgaris to waste products removal from cheese whey

The cheese whey generation has become an environmental concern due to high levels of pollutants that can significantly impact on the ecosystem. Microalgae are known to eliminate nutrients/contaminants from wastewater, such as nitrogen, phosphorous, carbon and among others. The current work aims to evaluate dairy wastewater (such as cheese whey) treatment using Chlorella vulgaris. Several concentrations of coagulated and non-coagulated cheese whey and different inoculum sizes (0.1, 0.2, 0.4 and 1.0 g L-1) were used. Carbon (7-56%), nitrogen (0-71%) and phosphorous (11-46%) were removed. The final effluent containing coagulated cheese whey had lower levels of waste products compared to the non-coagulated cheese whey. Increments in the inoculum size lead to better results. In the assays with 0.2, 0.4, and 1.0 g L-1 of inoculum were removed 54, 56, and 41% of carbon, 71, 49, and 40% of nitrogen and 16, 31, and 46% of phosphorous, respectively.

Automated summary

The study found that microalgae can effectively treat cheese whey, removing harmful substances like carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous, and also discovered that using larger inoculum sizes can lead to better treatment results.