Lowry reagent

The influents used in this work were produced from a hot water treatment of hardwood chips at 80 °C for 1 h before a thermomechanical pulping process, and they were received from a pulping company in Northern Ontario, Canada. Fly ash was collected from the bark boiler of the same pulping company, in which wastewater sludges, sawdust and barks from softwood and hardwood species were burned for heat generation, and fly ash was produced as a by-product. Activated sludge was obtained from the secondary wastewater treatment system of the same pulping company. Potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH₂PO₄), ammonium chloride (NH₄Cl), sodium hydroxide (NaOH, >99.0%) and sodium chloride (NaCl) were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich Inc., USA and sodium hydroxide was diluted to 1 mol/L prior to use. The protein standard bovine serum albumin and polysaccharides standard glucose were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich company, USA. The protein assay kit including Lowry reagent and folin-ciocalteu reagent were purchased from Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., USA. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) kits (K-7365) were purchased from CHEMetrix Inc., USA. The biological oxygen demand (BOD) nutrient buffer solution was purchased from HACH Company, USA.

D. tertiolecta (CCAP 19/30) was obtained from the culture collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP, Scotland, UK). Modified Lowry assay kit (Lowry reagent and 2 N Folin-Ciocalteu reagent) was obtained from Thermo Scientific (UK), and all other reagents and enzymes were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (UK).