Agricultural digestate ultrafiltrate outperforms synthetic media for microalgal biomass production while enabling biostimulant generation

Livestock digestate ultrafiltrate enabled Nannochloropsis oceanica and Chlorella sorokiniana to grow with biomass gains up to 104% and 133% versus synthetic media.

• Why it matters: Digestate is nutrient-rich but hard to use for microalgae due to turbidity and nutrient limitations, leaving nutrient-rich ultrafiltrate valorization largely unexplored.
• What they did: The study tested ammonium tolerance using ammonium bicarbonate, then varied ultrafiltrate concentrations in lab photobioreactors and compared biomass productivity, nutrient removal, composition, and biostimulant activity against synthetic media.
• The result: Ammonium removal exceeded 99% for N. oceanica and 98% for C. sorokiniana, and ultrafiltrate-derived biomass promoted tomato root development and increased root and shoot biomass under reduced nitrogen.

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