Exploring the potential of Diplosphaera mucosa VSPA for the treatment of petroleum effluent with simultaneous lipid production

The discovery of unexplored, robust microalgal strains will assist in treating highly polluted industrial effluent, including petroleum effluent. In the current analysis, a newly isolated microalgal strain, Diplosphaera mucosa VSPA, was used to treat petroleum effluent in a lab-scale raceway bioreactor. Its treatment efficiency was compared with a well-known species, Chlorella pyrenoidosa. The D. mucosa VSPA strain proliferated in petroleum effluent at a high growth rate, with final biomass, and lipid concentrations reaching 6.93 g/L and 2.72 g/L, respectively. Treatment efficiency was calculated based on the final removal efficiency of ammonium nitrogen, phosphate phosphorus, and chemical oxygen demand, which was more than 90%. Control experiments suggested that the maximum removal of pollutants from petroleum effluent was due to microalgae growth. Some growth models, including the Gompertz, Logistic, Stannard, Richard, and Schnute, were used to simulate the experimental data, verifying the results. Good fitting of all models was obtained, with the R2 value reaching more than 0.90. The development of a suitable model can help in decreasing the efforts required for the scale-up of the process.