Bioremediation of Ni, Al and Pb by the living cells of a resistant strain of microalga

Abstract

The microalgae treatment system is an economically and environmentally friendly option for wastewater treatment. However, the effects of heavy metal toxicity on microalgae cells can limit the use of microalgae in the treatment of industrial effluents rich in heavy metals. In this work, we studied the effect of Ni, Cu, Al, Hg and Pb, added as single-metal solutions to the microalgae culture medium, on the growth of 20 indigenous strains belonging to a wide variety of microalgae genera. Ni and Cu were the most toxic to the strains tested. A highly tolerant strain of the Phacus genera was selected. We determined the effect of multiple combinations of Ni, Al and Pb on the cell growth of the selected strain and on the removal capacity of each metal from the microalgae culture medium. Phacus was able to grow in the multi-metal solution (Ni, 5.00 mg/L; Al, 9.94 mg/L and Pb 1.00 mg/L) and to efficiently remove the metals, with removal capacities of 8.82 ± 0.16 mg/g for Ni, 2.09 ± 0.05 mg/g for Pb and 16.90 ± 0.53 mg/g for Al. The reductions of Ni, Al and Pb concentrations were 66.67, 64.28 and 79.17% respectively.