A sustainable vanadium bioremediation strategy from aqueous media by two potential green microalgae

Vaibhav Sunil Tambat; Anil Kumar Patel; Chiu-Wen Chen; Tirath Raj; Jo-Shu Chang; Reeta Rani Singhania; Cheng-Di Dong

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121247

A sustainable vanadium bioremediation strategy from aqueous media by two potential green microalgae

Environ Pollut. 2023 Apr 15:323:121247. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121247. Epub 2023 Feb 8.

Authors

Vaibhav Sunil Tambat¹, Anil Kumar Patel², Chiu-Wen Chen³, Tirath Raj⁴, Jo-Shu Chang⁵, Reeta Rani Singhania², Cheng-Di Dong⁶

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, College of Hydrosphere, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung City, 81157, Taiwan.
² Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, College of Hydrosphere, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung City, 81157, Taiwan; Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, Lucknow, 226 029, Uttar Pradesh, India.
³ Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, College of Hydrosphere, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung City, 81157, Taiwan; Sustainable Environment Research Centre, College of Hydrosphere, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung City, 81157, Taiwan; Department of Marine Environmental Engineering, College of Hydrosphere, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung City, 81157, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1304 West Pennsylvania Avenue, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Tunghai University, Taiwan; Research Center for Smart Sustainable Circular Economy, Tunghai University, Taiwan; Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.
⁶ Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, College of Hydrosphere, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung City, 81157, Taiwan; Sustainable Environment Research Centre, College of Hydrosphere, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung City, 81157, Taiwan; Department of Marine Environmental Engineering, College of Hydrosphere, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung City, 81157, Taiwan. Electronic address: cddong@nkust.edu.tw.

PMID: 36764381
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121247

Abstract

Globally, environmental concerns are rapidly growing due to increasing pollution levels. Vanadium is a hazardous heavy metal that poses health issues with an exposure concentration of about 2 ppm. It is regularly discharged by some industries and poses an environmental challenge. There are no sustainable green treatment methods for discharged effluents to mitigate vanadium threats to humans and the environment. In this study, the goal was to develop a green, sustainable method for removing vanadium and to utilize the produced biomass for biofuels, thus offsetting the treatment cost. Microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana SU1 and Picochlorum oklahomensis were employed for vanadium (III) treatment. The maximum removal was 25.5 mg L^-1 with biomass and lipid yields of 3.0 g L^-1 and 884.4 mg L^-1 respectively after 14 days of treatment. The vanadium removal capacity by microalgae was further enhanced up to 2-2.7 folds while optimizing the key parameters, pH, and temperature before removing biomass from the liquid phase. FTIR is used to analyse the reactive groups in algal cell walls to confirm vanadium adsorption and to understand the dominant and quantitative interactions. Zeta potential analysis helps to find out the most suitable pH range to facilitate the ionic bonding of biomass and thus maximum vanadium adsorption. This study addresses regulating external factors for enhancing the removal performance during microalgal biomass harvesting, which significantly enhances the removal of vanadium (III) from the aqueous phase. This strategy aims to improve the removal efficiency of microalgal treatment at an industrial scale for the bioremediation of vanadium and other inorganic pollutants.

Keywords: Adsorption; Bioremediation; Chlorella; Microalgae; Removal; Vanadium.

MeSH terms

Biodegradation, Environmental
Biomass
Chlorella*
Humans
Microalgae*
Vanadium
Wastewater

Substances

Vanadium
Wastewater