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Nitrate Removal From Groundwater Using Immobilized Heterotrophic Algae, Sara Mollamohammada, Ashraf Aly Hassan, Mohamed Dahab

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

The treatment efficiency of Chlorella sorokiniana and Scenedesmus species, immobilized in sodium alginate, was evaluated for removing nitrate from groundwater. The experiments were performed initially in batch mode and the best-performing conditions were replicated in sequencing batch reactor mode. S. sp. showed a higher nitrate uptake in short term than C. sorokiniana. Immobilized S. sp. and C. sorokiniana cells showed 90% nitrate removal in 9 and 12 days, respectively. The optimal ratio of algal beads/water was found to be 12.5% (v:v). Comparatively, suspended S. sp. cells were able to remove only up to 35% of nitrate in 8 …