Microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus dimorphus co-cultivation with landfill leachate for pollutant removal and lipid production

In this study, landfill leachate was pre-treated with NaClO, and then diluted to 5%, 10% and 15% for microalgae growth of Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus dimorphus in the mono- and co-culture modes to investigate the nutrient removal and growth characteristics of microalgae. The results revealed that landfill leachate with the 10% dilution rate was conducive for microalgae growth and exhibited robust biomass growth and the highest nutrient removal efficiency. The co-culture biomass in 10% landfill leachate achieved 0.266 g/L within 10 days and demonstrated the improved nutrient utilisation efficiency of microalgae. In addition, the chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, total nitrate and total phosphorus removal efficiencies accordingly reached 81.0%, 80.1%, 72.1% and 86.0% in 10% landfill leachate. Meanwhile, both the enzyme activity and fluorescence parameters proved that the cell activity of co-culture was higher than that of mono-culture.