https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/99507
type: CreativeWork
name: Community structure and function of mixed microalgal communities for nutrient recovery and the selection of lipid and carbohydrate accumulators for enhanced feedstock production in wastewater treatment
description: Phototrophic systems are uniquely positioned to meet 21st century nutrient removal needs from wastewater – they have the potential to offer low-cost, low-input nitrogen and phosphorus recovery with effluent nutrient concentrations below the current limit-of-technology while simultaneously producing carbon-rich biomass. Despite this potential, current systems are operated empirically and suffer from unpredictable community dynamics that hinder performance. In order to create engineered systems that experience reliable and predictive behavior, there is a critical need to understand how design and operational parameters influence community structure, nutrient, and carbon (i.e., carbohydrate and lipid) dynamics. In addition to systematic process performance evaluations, elucidating this relationship requires a comprehensive examination of algal community structure, the molecular tools for which are underdeveloped. This works used process design to target specific functions in microalgae, with a focus on creating selective environments that recover nutrients and produce biomass rich in carbohydrates and lipids. Specifically, this work leveraged solids residence time (SRT) as a parameter that influences system wide performance and examined (1) nutrient (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus) recovery via microalgal biomass assimilation, (2) eukaryotic and bacterial community structure, and (3) carbon dynamics of mixed algal-bacterial communities treating secondary effluent from a water resource recovery facility (a.k.a., wastewater treatment plant). Results are presented from long-term experiments using continuously-fed photobioreactors performed to test the efficacy of nutrient uptake in microalgal-wastewater systems and to elucidate the complex relationship between nutrient uptake, community structure and function, and carbon dynamics across long- term and diel time scales. Additionally, in order to overcome a core barrier to innovation in algal technology development, 18S rRNA…
abstract: Phototrophic systems are uniquely positioned to meet 21st century nutrient removal needs from wastewater – they have the potential to offer low-cost, low-input nitrogen and phosphorus recovery with effluent nutrient concentrations below the current limit-of-technology while simultaneously producing carbon-rich biomass. Despite this potential, current systems are operated empirically and suffer from unpredictable community dynamics that hinder performance. In order to create engineered systems that experience reliable and predictive behavior, there is a critical need to understand how design and operational parameters influence community structure, nutrient, and carbon (i.e., carbohydrate and lipid) dynamics. In addition to systematic process performance evaluations, elucidating this relationship requires a comprehensive examination of algal community structure, the molecular tools for which are underdeveloped. This works used process design to target specific functions in microalgae, with a focus on creating selective environments that recover nutrients and produce biomass rich in carbohydrates and lipids. Specifically, this work leveraged solids residence time (SRT) as a parameter that influences system wide performance and examined (1) nutrient (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus) recovery via microalgal biomass assimilation, (2) eukaryotic and bacterial community structure, and (3) carbon dynamics of mixed algal-bacterial communities treating secondary effluent from a water resource recovery facility (a.k.a., wastewater treatment plant). Results are presented from long-term experiments using continuously-fed photobioreactors performed to test the efficacy of nutrient uptake in microalgal-wastewater systems and to elucidate the complex relationship between nutrient uptake, community structure and function, and carbon dynamics across long- term and diel time scales. Additionally, in order to overcome a core barrier to innovation in algal technology development, 18S rRNA…
author: Bradley, Ian M.
language: en
keywords: Wastewater, Algae, 18S rRNA, Sequencing, Solids residence time (SRT)
date published: 2018-03-13T17:35:45Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:37Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/99507