Abstract
POTENTIAL USE OF CHLORELLA VULGARIS ALGAE IN RAPID BIOLOGICAL DESALINATION
Louye B.1,*, El Nadi M. H., Nasr N. A. H., E. l. Monayeri O. D.
ABSTRACT
Currently, there is a limited availability of fresh water all over the globe. Conventional desalination methods are energy-consuming and air-polluting. Bio-desalination is an appealing, clean yet non-feasible solution compared to desalination using fossil fuel burning. This study, for the first time, attempted to use the fresh water algae Chlorella vulgaris in desalination.400 ml solutions of different salinities were prepared and added to each container to simulate different kinds of salt water starting from 38 ppt (parts per thousand) which represents sea water, going through 20 ppt as in brackish waters and ending with 5 ppt similar to that in low salt water. Chlorella vulgaris succeeded in removing salts from all specimens with a maximum of 3 ppt (in the first hour) from the highest salinity specimen. However, the salts in higher salinity specimens were found to rebound after 3-4 hours, which indicates that filtration time is critical when using Chlorella vulgaris in desalination. This study provides a new rapid approach in bio-desalination indicating that rapid small removal of salts can be achieved by using the algal species Chlorella vulgaris.This rapid desalination technique helps in plant area minimization and decrease cost compared to former studies using Scenedesmus Obliqus.
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