Pilot‐scale investigations on phosphorus recovery from municipal wastewater

As a result of the implementation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, more stringent tertiary wastewater treatment is being implemented in more and more catchments throughout Europe. Limited supplies of naturally occurring phosphorus resources and their decreasing purity, coupled with legislative pressure on water‐service companies to remove phosphorus from both their effluent and waste streams, have focused considerable attention on recycling phosphorus recovered from domestic wastewater in existing phosphorus markets. Microalgae have proven efficient in recovering nutrients from different effluents such as municipal waste, agricultural waste, and industrial wastewater, avoiding nutrient runoff and eutrophication. Cultivation of extremophilic microorganisms has gained interest due to the ability of these microorganisms to accumulate and produce valuable compounds such as metabolites, enzymes, and surfactants. Chlamydomonas acidophila has been shown to be a promising agent for the removal of nutrients from different wastewaters, as it has high phosphorus and nitrogen uptake rates.