AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Volume 21 / Issue 6 / DOI: 10.3233/AJW240078
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Wastewater Treatment by the Cyanobacterium Species: Synechococcus elongatus as Biosorption Material for Pb, Cr and Ni Heavy Metals

Saba S.B. Alshididi1* Mahmood K.H. Al-Mashhadani2 Ibrahim J. Abed1
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1 Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
2 Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
AJWEP 2024, 21(6), 111–118; https://doi.org/10.3233/AJW240078
Received: 4 September 2024 | Revised: 21 October 2024 | Accepted: 21 October 2024 | Published online: 11 December 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

This research studies the effect of carbon dioxide on microalgae during the biological treatment of wastewater. Synechococcus elongatus was cultivated to eliminate heavy metal pollutants (lead, chromium and nickel) at different concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0 and 10.0ppm) under rich-CO2 environment. 50 ml of microalgae cultural medium were bubbled with 2 liters/ minute of CO2 gas, three times a week for two weeks. The results demonstrate that the effectiveness of microalgae growth and pollutant removal is directly impacted by CO2 gas dosages, as quickly and efficiently cell adaption in comparison to control groups. The highest pollutant removal was 100% (during day 10 of cultivation) with the presence of CO2 and 99.93% (during day 14 of cultivation) without the presence of CO2 for Pb at 0.5 ppm.

Keywords
Bioremedation
carbon dioxide
wastewater
heavy metal
pollutants
removal efficiency
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing