TY - JOUR AU - Rakić, Irena Z. AU - Kevrešan, Žarko S. AU - Kovač, Renata AU - Kravić, Snežana Ž. AU - Svirčev, Zorica AU - Đurović, Ana D. AU - Stojanović, Zorica S. PY - 2023/06/04 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - BIOACCUMULATION AND BIOSORPTION STUDY OF HEAVY METALS REMOVAL BY CYANOBACTERIA NOSTOC SP.: Original scientific paper JF - Chemical Industry & Chemical Engineering Quarterly JA - Chem. Ind. Chem. Eng. Q. VL - 29 IS - 4 SE - Articles DO - 10.2298/CICEQ220511002R UR - https://www.ache-pub.org.rs/index.php/CICEQ/article/view/1099 SP - 291-298 AB - <p><em>Nowadays, various industrial and urban activities result in discharging enormous quantities of various pollutants and their accumulation in the environment. Considering that heavy metals in wastewater are a serious threat to the environment and human health and that conventional methods for their removal are not highly efficient, the current study mainly focuses on estimating cyanobacterial capability to accumulate different heavy metals from water and comparing bioaccumulation and biosorption processes. Cyanobacteria Nostoc sp. was used, and five heavy metals were selected for this experiment (Cd<sup>2+</sup>, Cu<sup>2+</sup>, Pb<sup>2+</sup>, Ni<sup>2+</sup>, Zn<sup>2+</sup>). Examined concentrations of HMs were 20 mg/dm<sup>3</sup>, 80 mg/dm<sup>3</sup>, and 200 mg/dm<sup>3</sup> for the bioaccumulation study, while 20 mg/dm<sup>3</sup> and 80 mg/dm<sup>3</sup> of each HMs were used for biosorption experiments. Living cells of Nostoc sp. have the highest affinity for Pb<sup>2+</sup> (98.15%) and Cu<sup>2+</sup> (95.14%) removal from the solution by bioaccumulation. During the biosorption process, dried biomass of Nostoc sp., besides Pb<sup>2+</sup> (92.27%) and Cu<sup>2+</sup> (96.00%), shows a high affinity for Cd<sup>2+</sup> (91.00%) removal. Living cyanobacterial cells of Nostoc sp. could accumulate 82% of Zn, while dried biomass adsorbs 87% of Zn<sup>2+</sup>. Although the highest bioaccumulation of Ni<sup>2+ </sup>was only 38% while using the biosorption process, it was significantly higher (63.80%). These results could provide a preliminary study for further investigation in the direction of the development of immobilized biosorbents which could be used for industrial effluent treatment.</em></p> ER -