Potential of Human Urine as a Nutrient Medium for the Biomass Production of Microalga Scenedesmus sp
Abstract
Microalgae have value-added chemicals, but their biomass production is costly due to the expensive nutrient chemicals. Meantime human urine (HU) is considered wastewater and has basic nutrients for autotrophs. This study tested the potentials of being cheaply available in HU as a nutrient source for the biomass production of microalga Scenedesmus sp. HU was collected, sterilized, and made different dilutions. Microalga of Scenedesmus sp., was isolated from the urine contaminated site, purified, inoculated into the HU medium, and incubated under Sunlight for 7 days at 25 °C. The maximum growth was observed in 15 % HU as 0.795 OD670nm with 0.57 g/L biomass production with a significant difference (p<0.01). The productivity of 81 mg/L/day was reached. The concentrated urine of more than 20 % was not supporting the growth of microalga. This study concluded that human urine can be used as a nutrient medium for microalgae growth at certain dilution.
Downloads
References
Adamsson, M. (2000). Potential use of human urine by greenhouse culturing of microalgae (Scenedesmus acuminatus), zooplankton (Daphnia magna), and tomatoes (Lycopersicon). Ecological Engineering, 16(2), 243-254.
Chang, Y., Wu, Z., Bian, L., Feng, D., & Leung, D. Y. (2013). Cultivation of Spirulina platensis for biomass production and nutrient removal from synthetic human urine. Applied energy, 102, 427-431.
Cordell, D., Drangert, J. O., & White, S. (2009). The story of phosphorus: global food security and food for thought. Global environmental change, 19(2), 292-305.
Erisman, J. W., Sutton, M. A., Galloway, J., Klimont, Z., & Winiwarter, W. (2008). How a century of ammonia synthesis changed the world. Nature Geoscience, 1(10), 636-639.
Fasaei, F., Bitter, J. H., Slegers, P. M., & van Boxtel, A. J. B. (2018). Techno-economic evaluation of microalgae harvesting and dewatering systems. Algal Res 31: 347–362.
Feng, D. L., & Wu, Z. C. (2006). Culture of Spirulina platensis in human urine for biomass production and O 2 evolution. Journal of Zhejiang University Science B, 7(1), 34-37.
Gelebo, G. G., Tessema, L. H., Kehshin, K. T., Gebremariam, H. H., Gebremikal, E. T., Motuma, M. T., ... & Suresh, A. (2020). Phycoremediation of synthetic dyes in an aqueous solution using an indigenous Oscillatoria sp., from Ethiopia. Ethiopian Journal of Sciences and Sustainable Development, 7(2), 14-20.
Jaatinen, S., Lakaniemi, A. M., & Rintala, J. (2016). Use of diluted urine for cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris. Environmental technology, 37(9), 1159-1170.
Kirchmann, H., & Pettersson, S. (1994). Human urine-chemical composition and fertilizer use efficiency. Fertilizer research, 40(2), 149-154.
Levasseur, W., Perré, P., & Pozzobon, V. (2020). A review of high value-added molecules production by microalgae in light of the classification. Biotechnology advances, 41, 107545.
Liu, C. H., Han, M. Y., & Zhang, L. X. (2008). The effects of fertilizer application at early summer on growth, yield, and quality of Fuji apple in Weibei Highland. Agricultural Research in the Arid Areas, 26(1), 124-137.
Suresh, A., & Benor, S. (2020). Microalgae-based biomass production for control of air pollutants. In From Biofiltration to Promising Options in Gaseous Fluxes Biotreatment (pp. 345-372). Elsevier.
Suresh, A., Tamilvanan, S., Harini, K., Seventhi, H. V., Deepan Guna, R., Mahalakshmi, R., ... & Thenmozhi, M. (2019). Feasibility of cattle urine as nutrient medium for the microalgal biomass production. Global Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 5(4), 441-448.
Tuantet, K., Temmink, H., Zeeman, G., Janssen, M., Wijffels, R. H., & Buisman, C. J. (2014). Nutrient removal and microalgal biomass production on urine in a short light-path photobioreactor. Water research, 55, 162-174.
Van Vuuren, S. J. (2006). Easy identification of the most common freshwater algae: a guide for the identification of microscopic algae in South African freshwaters. Resource Quality Services (RQS).
Viskari, E. L., Grobler, G., Karimäki, K., Gorbatova, A., Vilpas, R., & Lehtoranta, S. (2018). Nitrogen recovery with source separation of human urine—preliminary results of its fertiliser potential and use in agriculture. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2, 32.
Wilkie, A. C., Edmundson, S. J., & Duncan, J. G. (2011). Indigenous algae for local bioresource production: Phycoprospecting. Energy for sustainable development, 15(4), 365-371.
Xin, C., Addy, M. M., Zhao, J., Cheng, Y., Cheng, S., Mu, D., ... & Ruan, R. (2016). Comprehensive techno-economic analysis of wastewater-based algal biofuel production: A case study. Bioresource technology, 211, 584-593.
Yang, C., Li, M., Yu, C., & Liu, H. (2008). Consumption of nitrogen and phosphorus in human urine by Spirulina platensis. International journal of biotechnology, 10(1), 45-54.
Yang, C., Wei, D., & Zhuang, F. Y. (2008). The force induced by organelles’ weight in the microfilament is in the range of 0.1–1 pN. Acta Astronautica, 63(7-10), 923-928.
Yang, J., Xu, M., Zhang, X., Hu, Q., Sommerfeld, M., & Chen, Y. (2011). Life-cycle analysis on biodiesel production from microalgae: water footprint and nutrients balance. Bioresource technology, 102(1), 159-165
Copyright (c) 2021 Abebe Muluye, Berhanu Sali, Blien Bahta, Birtukan Melese, Bethel Girma, Misrak Kebede, Muluken kebede, Arumuganainar Suresh, PhD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
