Laboratory investigation of reducing two algae from eutrophic water treated with light-shading plus aeration

The occurrence of harmful algal bloom in water source poses a serious water safety problem to local water supply systems. In order to ensure the raw water quality, the feasibility of reducing harmful algae by light-shading plus aeration was investigated. The batch test showed that algal biomass reduced rapidly under light-shading condition, and the reduction efficiency was further increased when light-shading was accompanied by aeration. The continuous flow experiment showed that the algal reduction efficiency increased with the increase of residence time. At residence time of 5 d, when treated with light-shading plus aeration, algal biomass could be reduced by more than 65%, with raw water quality improved simultaneously. Furthermore, considering that some harmful algae such as Microcystis tend to float upwards under light-limited condition, an integrated light-shading system consisting of pre-separation process and light-shading plus aeration treatment was suggested to treat naturally high algal water. The result showed that pre-separation process could remove more than 40% of algal biomass, and the total reduction efficiency of the integrated system increased to above 80%.