Influence of salinity on microalgae-bacteria symbiosis treating shrimp farming wastewater

Shrimp farming has strongly developed in recent years, and became an important economic sector that helps create jobs and increase incomes for Vietnamese. However, the aquatic environment has also been greatly affected by the development due to the amount of wastewater discharged from shrimp farms. Among biological processes used for treating shrimp farming wastewater, the application of microalgae-bacteria co-culture is considered high potential due to its treatment and energy saving. Consequently, a photobioreactor operated with microalgae-bacteria co-culture was employed to treat shrimp farming wastewater. The salinity of wastewater and the operating condition (ratio of biomass retention time and hydraulic retention time, BRT/HRT) are the major factors affecting pollutant removal. Thus, this study investigated the effects of salinities of 0.5–20 ppt and BRT/HRT ratios of 1.5–16 on the removal performance. The results indicated that the nutrient removal was reduced when PBR operated under salinity over than 10 ppt and BRT/HRT over 5.5. Particularly, the nitrogen and phosphorus removal rates were achieved 6.56 ± 1.33 gN m−3 d−1 and 1.49 ± 0.59 gP m−3 d−1, and the removal rates decreased by 2–4 times under a salinity >10 ppt and 2–6 times under a BRT/HRT ratio >5.5. Whereas, organic matter treatment seems not to be affected when the removal rate was maintained at 28–34 gCOD m−3 d−1 under various conditions. [Display omitted] •Microalgae-bacteria co-culture system successfully treated shrimp wastewater.•Effect of salinity was examined from 0.5 to 2.0 ppt in co-culture system.•Ratios of biomass retention time over hydraulic retention time were investigated.•Salinity over 10 ppt and BRT/HRT over 10 had adverse effects on nutrients removal.