Nutrients removal and lipids production by Chlorella pyrenoidosa cultivation using anaerobic digested starch wastewater and alcohol wastewater

•Microalgae culture used anaerobic starch wastewater and alcohol wastewater.•Addition of alcohol wastewater obviously improved biomass and lipids production.•Pollutants in wastewater were efficiently removed.

The cultivation of microalgae Chlorella pyrenoidosa (C. pyrenoidosa) using anaerobic digested starch wastewater (ADSW) and alcohol wastewater (AW) was evaluated in this study. Different proportions of mixed wastewater (AW/ADSW = 0.176:1, 0.053:1, 0.026:1, v/v) and pure ADSW, AW were used for C. pyrenoidosa cultivation. The different proportions between ADSW and AW significantly influenced biomass growth, lipids production and pollutants removal. The best performance was achieved using mixed wastewater (AW/ADSW = 0.053:1, v/v), leading to a maximal total biomass of 3.01 ± 0.15 g/L (dry weight), lipids productivity of 127.71 ± 6.31 mg/L/d and pollutants removal of COD = 75.78 ± 3.76%, TN = 91.64 ± 4.58% and TP = 90.74 ± 4.62%.