Bioremediation of Heavy Metal Contamination by Algae
Heavy metal pollution in aqueous system is certainly a big problem in today world. Conventional industrial methods to remove heavy metal from water often cost too much energy and too much money. If the heavy metal pollution happens in a big river, no conventional method can be used to recover it. Fortunately the nature gives us another choice to solve this problem. Plants, especially algae, have strong abilities to absorb and to store heavy metals. Metals uptake by algae lies at the complicate chemical groups of the constituents of cell wall, such as fibers, proteins, polysaccharides, alginate at. al.. Besides that, algae can store the heavy metals inside cells. Experiments indicated that algae can accumulate trace metals. Reports also showed nonliving alga cells maintain same abilities to absorb heavy metals as living alga cells. So, technologies of bioremediation of heavy metal contaminated water by living alga cells or nonliving alga cells have been developed, and got more and more attentions all the world. High Rate Algal Ponds and Algal Turf Scrubber have been deployed practically in some industrial countries.
Some alga species which could be used to the bioremediation of heavy metal contamination.
|
Heavy metals |
Alga species |
Uptake quantity(mg/gdw) |
|
Cu |
Ulva lactula |
65.54 |
|
|
Gracilaria fisheri |
46.08 |
|
|
Sargassum fluitans |
74.00 |
|
|
Chlorella sorokiniana |
46.40 |
|
Pb |
Fucus vesiulosus |
336.00 |
|
|
Sargassum wightii |
290.52 |
|
|
Ascopphyllum nodosum |
280.00 |
|
|
Lessonia nigresense |
362.50 |
|
|
Lessonia flavicans |
300.44 |
|
|
Durvillaea potatorum |
321.16 |
|
Cd |
Sargassum wightii |
181.48 |
|
|
Sargassum vulgaris |
123.64 |
|
|
Ascopphyllum nodosum |
100.00 |
|
|
Sargassum fluitans |
108.00 |
|
|
Fucus sp |
90.00 |
|
Ni |
Chlorella sorodiniana |
48.08 |
|
|
Sargassum vulgaris |
58.69 |
|
|
Sargassum natans |
44.02 |
|
|
Ascopphyllum nodosum |
30.00 |
|
|
Fucus vesiulosus |
40.02 |
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Reference
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