Algal Turf Scrubber (ATS) : avaliação das variáveis para operação do sistema e das propriedades físico-químicas e biológicas da biomassa perifítica em diferentes concentrações de nutrientes.

Abstract

Eutrophication is a phenomenon that occurs due to the enrichment of water bodies with nutrients, mainly phosphorus and nitrogen, coming from human activities such as agricultural drainage waters, industrial and urban effluents. Ecological engineering solutions that consider the ability of living organisms to treat and remedy contaminated waters and effluents have been widely studied. An example of this is the algal turf scrubber technology that uses phytoplanktonic communities. The objective of the present work was to evaluate an ATS system's behavior, analyzing the periphytic biomass produced under different concentrations of nutrients. For this, a bibliographic review was carried out on the ATS systems developed, considering the main parameters involved for the construction of equipment, followed by the system's operational conditions. It was found that the ability to remove nutrients in ATS systems is related to a series of variables such as system feed flow, species present in the biomass, and turbulence of the water when passing through the system. For the experiments, a fertilizer solution containing NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) in the concentration of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 g L-1 was used. The highest biomass productivity, 13.3 ± 2.5 g m-2 d-1, was using 5 g L-1 of NPK. The maximum lipid content was 9.6 ± 1.45% (w/w), with the potential for oil productivity estimated at 2,865 L ha- 1 year-1. The carbohydrate concentration was 23 ± 2.5% (w/w), and among the fatty acids found, palmitic acid is in greater abundance, 35.14 ± 9.35%. The productivity of the periphyton showed a positive correlation with the concentration of nutrients that enter the system. In contrast, the concentration of carbohydrates in the biomass remains stable during all the studied nutrient rates.