Metal bioremediation performed by native algae isolated from the Reconquista River

GISELA FERRARO; MARÍA MAR ARECO; VICTORIA PASSUCCI; CAROLINA BAGNATO; TORANZO R; CASTIGLIONI D; GUSTAVO CURUTCHET

Sonora

Simposio; The Sixth International Symposium on Environmental Biotechnology and Engineering; 2018

The contamination of freshwater systems with thousands of industrial and natural chemical compounds is one of the major environmental and human health problems worldwide. Alternative technologies for cleaning industrial effluents and body shapes are needed. Algal biomass possesses high metal binding ability, particularly at low metal concentrations. Moreover, algae strains that grow in contaminated sites have shown better remediation performances than the same commercial species (2). The Reconquista River (RR) is one of the most polluted watercourses in Argentina. In this work a bioprospection of the algae present in the RR is performed, to identify and isolate algal strains with potential for metal remediation. The isolations were performed by serial dilutions with antibiotics treatment and by capillary pipette under optical microscope. Different microalgae were identified: Chlorophytes (Chlorellaceae, Radiococcaceae, Scenedesmaceae); Euglenophytes; Bacillariophyta (centric and pennate diatoms) and Cyanobacteria (Nostocaceae, Merismopediaceae, Oscillatoriaceae). A characterization of metal (Zn 2+ ) removal capacities for 9 individual strains belonging to the Chlorellaceae and Scenedesmaceae family was performed. Changes in the morphology of the cells after metal adsorption and the identification of the main cell wall group´s involved in the metal remediation process were analyzed by SEM and FT-IR, respectively. The most efficient strains were tested for the remediation of a multimetal solution (Zn, Cu and Cr). Results demonstrate the algae ´s ability to remediate effluents and that will allow to design the scale up of this process.