Optimization of Growth Medium and Biosorption of Chromium Using Micro Algae and Cyanobacteria

Industrial effluents are one of the major sources of heavy metal contaminations and cause significant environmental problems to the aquatic life. Some heavy metals are easy soluble and unable to separate easily using conventional chemical methods. Hence biological methods like biosorption/bioaccumulation were carried out for the removal of heavy metals from the environment. The objective of the present study is to optimize algal growth in various growth media. Additionally the ability of three species of blue green algae, Chlorella sp. and Neochloris sp. and an unidentified isolate to adsorb chromium was tested. The presence of chromium in the samples was analyzed using AAS, SEM-EDX and FT-IR. The results showed that highest algal growth rate was observed in BG11 medium with solution B. The unidentified cyanobacterial isolate exhibited higher chromium removal capacity (75.63%) followed by Chlorella sp. (44.37%) and Neochloris sp. (72.5%).