Viability of combining microalgae and macroalgae cultures for treating anaerobically digested piggery effluent

Algal phytoremediation represents a practical green solution for treating anaerobically digested piggery effluent(ADPE). The potential and viability of combining microalgae and macroalgae cultivation for the efficient treatment of ADPE were evaluated in this study.Bioprospecting the ability of different locally isolated macroalgae species illustrated the potential of Cladophora sp. to successfully grow and treat ADPE with up to 150 mg/L NH_4~+ with a biomass productivity of(0.13 ± 0.02) g/(L·day) and ammonium removal rate of(10.23 ± 0.18) mg/(L·day) NH_4~+. When grown by itself, the microalgae consortium used in this study consisting of Chlorella sp. and Scenedesmus sp. was found to grow and treat undiluted ADPE(up to 525 mg/L NH_4~+) with an average ammonium removal rate of 25 mg/(L·day) NH_4~+ and biomass productivity of(0.012 ± 0.0001) g/(L·day). Nevertheless, when combined together, despite the different cultivation systems(attached and non-attached) evaluated,microalgae and macroalgae were unable to co-exist together and treat ADPE as their respective growth were inversely related to each other due to direct competition for nutrients and available resources as well as the negative physical interaction between both algal groups.     

Greenhouse gas emissions and poverty alleviation nexus in the Economic Commission of West African States

This paper investigates the nexus between greenhouse gas emissions and poverty alleviation in the Economic Commission of West African States between 1985 and 2020 applying autoregressive distributed lag and Granger causality techniques. The results reveal that carbon dioxide non-significantly relates to gross domestic product per capita positively while nitrous oxide and foreign direct investment impacts gross domestic product per capita positively. Methane negatively impacts gross domestic product per capita. The governments should use conventions to regulate greenhouse gas emissions’ effects on environmental degradation regionally and globally. The study underscores that countries should diversify to cleaner energy sources. This would reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Massive technological investment is required to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions’ negative impacts on the environment which create poverty. This policy implication ensures environmental sustainability and reverses the ugly trend of greenhouse gas emissions on poverty.