In the present work four algae were tested for their biomass production potential in neat livestock wastewater.
Chroococcus sp.1 was found to be the best for biomass production under controlled (2.13 g L–1) and
outdoor conditions (4.44 g L–1) with >80% of nutrients removal. The produced biomass was then digested
with cattle dung as cosubstrate. Interestingly, up to 291.83 ± 3.904 mL CH4 g–1 VSfed was produced during
codigestion studies (C/N 13.0/1). In contrast to this, only 202.49 ± 11.19 and 141.70 ± 2.57 mL CH4 g–1
VSfed was recorded with algae (C/N 9.26/1) and cattle dung (C/N 31.56/1) alone, respectively. The
estimated renewable power generation potential of the investigated coupled process was around
333.79–576.57 kWh d–1 for a dairy farm with 100 adult cattle. However, further scale-up and testing is
needed to make this process a reality.