Microalgae Biotechnology, Algae physiology, Biomaterials, Microalgal Biofuel, Renewable energy, Biomass conversion, Mass cultivation of microalgae, Artificial photosynthesis, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Cyanobacterial Biology, Pyrolysis, Gasification, Kinetics, Biosorption, Waste to wealth, Bioremediation, Biogas, Bioethanol, Biohydrogen, Anaerobic Digestion, Anti-oxidant, Bioenergy

Clean water (Sanitation) and energy are two out of seventeen global goals of sustainable development which are set by the United Nations. To achieve these two goals, microalgae are a potential candidate and feedstock for the renewable biofuels, food, feed and chemicals. In order to support clean water and energy supply, valorization of wastewater resources is of core interest worldwide. Treatment of industrial wastewaters is not always trivial, as many times the extreme conditions (e.g., pH, salinity, inhibitors) do not allow implementation of conventional water treatment technologies based on bacteria. Microalgae are a wide group of microbes that can be cultivated in many different conditions and can overcome the extreme conditions imposed by industrial wastewater. In this regard, the water-energy nexus may be exploited so that industrial wastewater after complete valorization resulted in biofuels along with other value added products. In the past various studies have confirmed that microalgae based wastewater treatment can be coupled with bio-energy generation in an integrated bio-refinery mode.

Industrial wastewater usually contain various nutrients required for the growth of microalgae. It proposes to produce sustainable biofuels and other value added products towards complete valorization of industrial wastewater. Different industrial wastewater from aquaculture, diary, potato processing and pulp paper industries will be used to grow algae with minimum addition of fresh nutrients. We use the dairy wastewater (DWW) collected from Guwahati based WAMUL dairy for microalgae cultivation. Initially, the culture conditions will be optimized at lab-scale followed by up-scaling in pilot-scale using photobioreactors (PBR) as well as high rate algal ponds (HRAP). Physico-chemical parameters of the collected DWW will be characterized to know it’s nutrient status under standard protocols. Various experiments will carry out to screen the various microalgal strains under different conditions to get maximum biomass. After screening, optimize the culture conditions for the potential microalgal strain to absorb maximum nutrients from DWW. The generated microalgal biomass further characterize to evaluate its potential.  After cultivation of microalgae, the left DWW further characterized to assess the entire cultivation process. This developed optimize process will further up-scaling in pilot-scale using PBR and HRAP. Apart from this, two most important aspects of any process development i.e., life-cycle assessment and techno-economic evaluation for the entire process will be carried out.