Engineering Commons^™

Impact Of Algae On Sugar Mill Effluents: Water Treatment And Added Value Assessment, Jacob Stephen Foy

LSU Master's Theses

Installations similar to Louisiana sugar mills have been proposed as potential biorefineries for sugarcane, energy cane, and sweet sorghum. The nutrient-rich wastewater generated from the milling process can be used as an algal growth medium. Simultaneously, algae can serve as a water treatment strategy to deplete these effluents of excess nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic carbon. In this research the effluents of a sugar mill were characterized for water quality and nutrient characteristics; the effluents were determined to be suitable for growth of a native Louisiana co-culture of microalgae and cyanobacteria (Chlorella vulgaris/Leptolyngbya sp.); growth rate, biomass productivity and nutrient uptake …