Role of Environmental Biotechnology in Remediation of Heavy Metals by Using Fungal-Microalgal Strains

Abstract

Bioremediation is a branch of biotechnology that employs the use of living organisms, like microalgae and fungi, in the removal of contaminants, pollutants, and toxins from soil, water, and other environments. The experiment was designed to evaluate the efficiency of microorganisms to remove heavy metals by using, two fungi (Aspegillus niger and Candida albicans) with two microalgae (Scenedesmus quadricauda and Tetradesmus nygaardi), in removing heavy metals from liquid media during study period (20 days). For this study, cadmium and lead were selected by different concentrations (5, 15, 35, and 50ppm) of such heavy metals. The results indicate that fungi and microalgae effectively removed a significant amount of heavy metals. With respect to Pb and Cd, the maximum removal of lead for all concentrations (5-50ppm) were, (94, 90, 86.28 and 81.6%) respectively, and maximum cadmium removal were (88, 86.66, 84.57 and 79%) recorded by consortium culture of Scenedesmus quadricauda and Tetradesmus nygaardi on day 20th of the experiment. Statistically there were significant difference (p≤0.05) between control and all treatments for both tested heavy metals.