Patent ID: 8101080

Claim:
A method for advanced water treatment, the method comprising: a) receiving a continuous flow of water; b) pre-filtering the received flow of water to reduce suspended solids; c) conditioning the pre-filtered flow of water to increase bio-availability of nutrient constituents in the pre-filtered flow; d) blending in a blending vessel the conditioned flow with a dense live microalgae flow (RAA) to produce a mixture flow; e) passing the mixture flow once through an enclosed tube photobioreactor (PBR) so that microalgae in the mixture flow reproduce and take up nutrients and trace metals in the mixture flow; f) continuously separating microalgae from the mixture flow exiting the photobioreactor to produce a treated flow (permeate) and the dense live microalgae flow (RAA) wherein continuously separating of the microalgae comprises filtering the mixture flow exiting the photobioreactor using cross-flow filtration; and g) continuously returning the dense live microalgae flow (RAA) to the blending vessel.