Sustainable Treatment of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) by Integrated Algal–bacterial Photobioreactor

Volatile organic compounds’ (VOCs) emissions in the atmosphere are among the gases that can affect the health of the exposed population and can be harmful to the environment. One possible solution to control the VOCs’ emissions is the application of algal-based technology like photobioreactor (PBR). In this paper, advanced algal–bacterial PBR was assessed and evaluated in terms of the degradation of toluene. Chlorophyll content and total suspended solids (TSS) were also measured to analyze the potential of the investigated technology as a source of biomass production for energy. The results showed high toluene removal efficiency, ranging from 87.42% to 99.74%. Correspondingly, TSS and chlorophyll contents increasing, from 560 mg/L to 760 mg/L and from 1.21 mg/L to 4.06 mg/L, respectively, was observed. The high removal efficiency of toluene and concentration of biomass produced from the proposed biological-based technology, proving its sustainability for the control of VOC emissions and production of alternative energy. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.