Influence of pathogenic bacterial activity on growth of Scenedesmus sp. and removal of nutrients from public market wastewater.

The present study aims to investigate the influence of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis in public market wastewater on the removal of nutrients in terms of ammonium (NH) and orthophosphate (PO) using Scenedesmus sp. The removal rates of NH and orthophosphate PO and batch kinetic coefficient of Scenedesmus sp. were investigated. The phycoremediation process was carried out at ambient temperature for 6 days. The results revealed that the pathogenic bacteria exhibited survival potential in the presence of microalgae but they were reduced by 3-4 log at the end of the treatment process. The specific removal rates of NH and PO have a strong relationship with initial concentration in the public market wastewater (R = 0.86 and 0.80, respectively). The kinetic coefficient of NH removal by Scenedesmus sp. was determined as k = 4.28 mg NH 1 log cell mL d and k = 52.01 mg L (R = 0.94) while the coefficient of PO removal was noted as k = 1.09 mg NH 1 log cell mL d and k = 85.56 mg L (R = 0.92). It can be concluded that Scenedesmus sp. has high competition from indigenous bacteria in the public market wastewater to remove nutrients, with a higher coefficient of removal of NH than PO.