Antolín Puebla Beatriz, Vega Alegre Marisol, Bolado Rodríguez Silvia, García Encina Pedro A
Institute of Sustainable Processes, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain.
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain.
Adv Biochem Eng Biotechnol. 2024;190:147-180. doi: 10.1007/10_2024_262.
Potentially toxic elements (PTE) pollution in water bodies is an emerging problem in recent decades due to uncontrolled discharges from human activities. Copper, zinc, arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and uranium are considered potentially toxic and carcinogenic elements that threaten human health. Microalgae-based technologies for the wastewater treatment have gained importance in recent years due to their biomass high growth rates and effectiveness. Also, these microalgae-bacteria systems are cost-effective and environmentally friendly, utilize sunlight and CO, and simultaneously address multiple environmental challenges, such as carbon mitigation, bioremediation, and generation of valuable biomass useful for biofuel production. Additionally, microalgae possess a diverse array of extracellular and intracellular mechanisms that enable them to remove and mitigate the toxicity of PTE present in wastewater. Therefore, photobioreactors are promising candidates for practical applications in bioremediation of wastewater containing toxic elements. Despite the increasing amount of research in this field in recent years, most studies are conducted in laboratory scale and there is a scarcity of large-scale studies under real and variable environmental conditions. Besides, the limited understanding of the multiple mechanisms controlling PTE biosorption in wastewater containing high organic matter loads and potentially toxic elements requires further studies. This chapter provides a schematic representation of the mechanisms and factors involved in the remediation of potentially toxic elements by microalgae, as well as the main results obtained in recent years.
近几十年来，由于人类活动的无节制排放，水体中的潜在有毒元素（PTE）污染已成为一个新出现的问题。铜、锌、砷、镉、铅、汞和铀被认为是潜在的有毒和致癌元素，威胁着人类健康。近年来，基于微藻的废水处理技术因其生物量高生长速率和有效性而变得重要起来。此外，这些微藻-细菌系统具有成本效益且环境友好，能利用阳光和二氧化碳，同时应对多种环境挑战，如碳减排、生物修复以及生产对生物燃料有用的有价值生物质。此外，微藻拥有各种各样的细胞外和细胞内机制，使其能够去除和减轻废水中存在的PTE的毒性。因此，光生物反应器是含毒元素废水生物修复实际应用中有前景的候选者。尽管近年来该领域的研究数量不断增加，但大多数研究是在实验室规模进行的，缺乏在真实和可变环境条件下的大规模研究。此外，对于控制含有高有机物负荷和潜在有毒元素的废水中PTE生物吸附的多种机制了解有限，需要进一步研究。本章提供了微藻修复潜在有毒元素所涉及的机制和因素的示意图，以及近年来获得的主要结果。
