The critical utilization of active heterotrophic microalgae for bioremoval of Cr(VI) in organics co-contaminated wastewater

Liang Shen; Shaila Akter Saky; Zheng Yang; Shih-Hsin Ho; Cuixue Chen; Lei Qin; Guoliang Zhang; Yuanpeng Wang; Yinghua Lu

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.04.152

The critical utilization of active heterotrophic microalgae for bioremoval of Cr(VI) in organics co-contaminated wastewater

Chemosphere. 2019 Aug:228:536-544. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.04.152. Epub 2019 Apr 24.

Authors

Liang Shen¹, Shaila Akter Saky², Zheng Yang², Shih-Hsin Ho³, Cuixue Chen², Lei Qin⁴, Guoliang Zhang⁴, Yuanpeng Wang², Yinghua Lu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The Key Lab for Synthetic Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, PR China. Electronic address: shenliang@xmu.edu.cn.
² Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The Key Lab for Synthetic Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, PR China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, PR China.
⁴ Institute of Oceanic and Environmental Chemical Engineering, State Key Lab Breeding Base of Green Chemical Synthesis Technology, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, PR China.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The Key Lab for Synthetic Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, PR China. Electronic address: ylu@xmu.edu.cn.

PMID: 31051357
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.04.152

Abstract

Considering the importance of removing toxic Cr(VI) from practical wastewater containing complex pollutants, this study presented for the first time the utilization of the live heterotrophic microalgae (Botryocossuss sp. NJD-1) to achieve a concurrent abatement of Cr(VI), TOC, NO₃-N and PO₄-P, through a comprehensive biochemical process. The experimental results showed that the Cr(VI) removal efficiencies in the culture with different types of organic descended in the order of sodium acetate, ethanol and methanol. The highest removal efficiencies were achieved as 94.2%, 98.2%, 66.9% and 99.2% for Cr(VI), TOC, NO₃-N and PO₄-P, respectively, in the culture with 5 mg L^-1 Cr(VI) and sodium acetate of equivalent to 2.92 g C L^-1. Through mass balance calculation and characterization, the fate of Cr(VI) and Cr(III) was tracked and quantified in the culture system, which indicates that 87.17% of initial Cr(VI) were reduced to Cr(III) and then adsorbed in algal biomass for the optimal removal case. Consequently, the mechanism demonstrating the correlation among the removal process of Cr(VI), the biological activity of microalgae and the effect of organic compounds was proposed.

Keywords: Bioremoval; Cr(VI); Heterotrophic; Microalgae; Organics; Wastewater.

MeSH terms

Adsorption
Biodegradation, Environmental
Chromium / isolation & purification
Chromium / metabolism*
Culture Media
Microalgae / metabolism*
Organic Chemicals / pharmacology
Wastewater / chemistry*
Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical / isolation & purification
Water Pollutants, Chemical / metabolism

Substances

Culture Media
Organic Chemicals
Waste Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Chromium
chromium hexavalent ion