REMOVAL PERFORMANCE OF NITROGEN AND PHOSP HORUS-COMPOUNDS BY A PHOTOBIOREACTOR USING A BIOMASS OF CYANOBACTERIA PHORMIDIUM-BOHNERI

The use of solar biotechnology could prove interesting for the removal of nutrients found in domestic wastewaters. A culture of cyanobacteri a, P. bohneri, was grown on synthetic and wastewater media to study th e removal performance of that process, and also to look at the dynamic behaviour of nitrogen and phosphate. Eight experiments were performed during the summer of 1993 using small batch reactors of 24 liters. Ea ch experiment lasted between two and five days. Very good removal effi ciencies were observed for all pollutants (N,P). Shipping of ammonia a nd precipitation of phosphate were found to be very important phenomen a in the removal mechanisms, i.e. between 50 and 60% of the total remo val.