TY - THES ID - 137182859 TI - Wastewater as a nutrient source for Arthrospira production AU - Depraetere, Orily AU - Foubert, Imogen. AU - Muylaert, Koenraad. AU - KU Leuven. Faculty of bioscience engineering. Department of microbial and molecular systems. PY - 2015 PB - Kortrijk KU Leuven. Faculty of bioscience engineering DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:137182859 AB - Arthrospira, and microalgae in general, have a high content of nitrogen and phosphorus, almost 3 times higher than that of terrestrial plants. This resultsin a high nutrient requirement which is unsustainable and results in a high production cost. Since many agricultural wastewaters contain high amountsof phosphorus and nitrogen, they have a potential to be used as a nutrient source for Arthrospira cultivation and can replace the high amount of syntheticfertilizers needed. The goal of this thesis was to investigate the potential of using wastewater as a nutrient source for Arthrospira production. However,many wastewaters from agricultural origin have a dark color which may result in light limitation of the microalgae and hence, a lower productivity. Therefore,different methods to decolor the wastewater prior to Arthrospira cultivation were investigated as well as the potential of using decolored wastewater as anutrient source for Arthrospira production. Furthermore, wastewaters have variable N:P ratios which can result in nutrient limitation of Arthrospira andaffect the growth and biomass composition. Therefore, we evaluated the effect of nutrient limitation on the biomass composition and metabolism of Arthrospira.Moreover, nutrient limitation can lead to spontaneous settling of the biomass. The cause of this spontaneous settling and its potential as a low-cost harvestingtechnique was investigated. Since many wastewaters have high concentrations of nutrients and to avoid the loss of nutrients at the moment of harvesting, thepotential of reusing the water was determined. ER -