Up-scaling aquaculture wastewater treatment by microalgal bacterial flocs: From lab reactors to an outdoor raceway pond

Sequencing batch reactors with microalgal bacterial flocs (MaB-floc SBRs) are a novel approach for photosynthetic aerated wastewater treatment based on bioflocculation. To assess their technical potential for aquaculture wastewater treatment in Northwest Europe, MaB-floc SBRs were up-scaled from indoor photobioreactors of 4 L over 40 and 400 L to a 12 m3 outdoor raceway pond. Scale-up decreased the nutrient removal efficiencies with a factor 1–3 and the volumetric biomass productivities with a factor 10–13. Effluents met current discharge norms, except for nitrite and nitrate. Flue gas sparging was needed to decrease the effluent pH. Outdoor MaB-flocs showed enhanced settling properties and an increased ash and chlorophyll a content. Bioflocculation enabled successful harvesting by gravity settling and dewatering by filtering at 150–250 μm. Optimisation of nitrogen removal and biomass valorisation are future challenges towards industrial implementation of MaB-floc SBRs for aquaculture wastewater treatment.