An Integrated Approach of Using Polystyrene Foam as an Attachment System for Growth of Mixed Culture of Cyanobacteria with Concomitant Treatment of Copper Mine Waste Water
Cyanobacteria have tremendous applications in areas such as production of biofuels and pharmaceutically important pigments and are used as an adsorbent for the removal of toxic metabolites. However, large scale production of Cyanobacteria is not economically feasible due to high cost involved in separation of biomass. In this context, different attachment systems have been developed for the growth of Cyanobacteria on a solid support. In this study, a simple and economical attachment system using polystyrene foam for growth of Cyanobacteria has been presented. Results clearly indicate that high biomass yield can be obtained in attached system when compared to suspended system. In attachment system, the biomass yield showed 21.4%, total protein content showed 29.2%, chlorophyll content showed 11.1%, and carotenoid content showed 13.1% increase as compared to the suspended system. The attachment system can also support the growth of Cyanobacteria in presence of copper mine waste water with concomitant removal of copper ions. These results were corroborated by COD analysis, which indicated significant reduction. Further, copper removal was high in attached system as compared to suspended system. It appears that attachment system offers protection for growing Cyanobacteria and can be effectively employed for growing Cyanobacteria in presence of waste water coming from different sources. 1. Introduction Copper is considered as a persistent and ubiquitous environmental pollutant, which enters into the environment through anthropogenic and industrial activities [1, 2]. Although copper is an essential trace element in animals, higher levels of copper ingested through contaminated water may lead to disastrous consequences in humans especially in children [3]. Therefore, efficient treatment of copper containing waste water is necessary for reducing its toxicity in living systems [4]. In this regard, many treatment processes have been developed which rely on physical phenomena such as adsorption, electrodialysis, and precipitation [5, 6]. These methods have been shown to be expensive and time consuming. Therefore, biological removal of metal ions using microorganisms has been considered as a cheap and ecofriendly alternative [7, 8]. Studies have shown that exopolysaccharides synthesized by Cyanobacteria act as biological ion-exchange materials [9] and can bind and remove metal ions [8, 10–12]. A major hindrance of utilizing Cyanobacteria is the high cost involved in its harvesting. Cultivation of Cyanobacteria is usually performed in open ponds or enclosed
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