Biosorption of radioactive cesium from contaminated water by microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis and Chlorella vulgaris

Keun-Young Lee; Sang-Hyo Lee; Ju Eun Lee; Seung-Yop Lee

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.12.022

Biosorption of radioactive cesium from contaminated water by microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis and Chlorella vulgaris

J Environ Manage. 2019 Mar 1:233:83-88. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.12.022. Epub 2018 Dec 17.

Authors

Keun-Young Lee¹, Sang-Hyo Lee², Ju Eun Lee³, Seung-Yop Lee⁴

Affiliations

¹ Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 989-111 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34057, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: lky@kaeri.re.kr.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering, Sogang University, 35 Baekbeom-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 04107, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sogang University, 35 Baekbeom-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 04107, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Sogang University, 35 Baekbeom-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 04107, Republic of Korea; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sogang University, 35 Baekbeom-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 04107, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: sylee@sogang.ac.kr.

PMID: 30562620
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.12.022

Abstract

The biosorption properties of water-soluble radioactive cesium (¹³⁷Cs) by microalga Haematococcus pluvialis were evaluated with different cell conditions, and its cesium-uptake rate was compared with that by other microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris and Anabaena sp. Photo-induced H. pluvialis red cyst rapidly removed radioactive cesium from the solution by bioaccumulation. We showed that the effectiveness of ¹³⁷Cs uptake is dependent on the specific cell condition of even the same microalgal species. While the H. pluvialis red cyst removed almost 95% of the soluble ¹³⁷Cs in 48 h, both H. pluvialis intermediate cells and C. vulgaris showed 90% uptake efficiency of ¹³⁷Cs with slow uptake rate. The energy dispersive spectrometer data demonstrated that the cesium uptake acceleration by inducing astaxanthin in H. pluvialis red cyst involves the cesium accumulation through the potassium transport channel. The long-term monitoring experiments of the cesium uptake showed that only 40% of ¹³⁷Cs remained in collapsed H. pluvialis cell fragments after 12 months.

Keywords: Bioremediation; Biosorption; Cesium; Chlorella vulgaris; Haematococcus pluvialis; Waste treatment.

MeSH terms

Chlorella vulgaris*
Chlorophyceae
Chlorophyta*
Microalgae*