Cultivation of Scenedesmus acuminatus in different liquid digestates from anaerobic digestion of pulp and paper industry biosludge

Different undiluted liquid digestates from mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digesters of pulp and paper industry biosludge with and without thermal pretreatment were characterized and utilized for cultivating Scenedesmus acuminatus. Higher S. acuminatus biomass yields were obtained in thermophilic digestates (without and with pretreatment prior to anaerobic digestion (AD): 10.2 ± 2.2 and 10.8 ± 1.2 g L⁻¹, respectively) than in pretreated mesophilic digestates (7.8 ± 0.3 g L⁻¹), likely due to differences in concentration of sulfate, iron, and/or other minor nutrients. S. acuminatus removed over 97.4% of ammonium and 99.9% of phosphate and sulfate from the digestates. Color (74–80%) and soluble COD (29–39%) of the digestates were partially removed. Different AD processes resulted in different methane yields (18–126 L CH₄ kg⁻¹ VS), digestate compositions, and microalgal yields. These findings emphasize the importance of optimizing each processing step in wood-based biorefineries and provide information for pulp and paper industry development for enhancing value generation.