Phycoremediation Of Cd And Pb Contaminated Industrial Effluents Using Cladophora Glomerata And Vaucheria Debaryana

Abstract The rapid growth of urbanization and industrialization are regarded as the main source of environmental pollution, particularly aquatic pollution. This study was conducted to evaluate the pollution load of industrial effluents (IE) and to utilize algal species Cladophora glomerata (CG) and Vaucheria debaryana (VD) as cost effective and environmentally friendly bioremediators for the heavy metal (HM) contaminated IE. Samples of IE were collected from the main sewage line of Hayatabad Industrial Estate (HIE) and analyzed for physicochemical parameters using standard methods and HM concentration by Atomic Absorption spectrophotometry. The load of electrical conductivity (EC), dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) were found 5.03 mS/cm, 186 mg/L, 168 mg/L, 336 mg/L, 46.30 mg/L, 53.72 mg/L, 0.507 mg/L and 1.211 mg/L, respectively. The IE was then treated with algal species collected from Peshawar and were transplanted in four pots for 14 days where pots labeled as CTVD and CTCG were serving as control having tap water and VD and CG containers as treatment pots provided with IE. Results found a considerable decrease in EC (49.10–81.46%), DO (3.76-8.60%), BOD (7.81–39.28%), COD (7.81–39.28%), TSS (38.09-62.21%) and TDS (38.09–62.21%), Cd (41.02-48.75%) and Pb (48.72-57.03%). The One-Way ANOVA and T-test analysis revealed that HM concentrations were significantly (p≤ 0.05) reduced by the phycoremediation. The analysis found that C. glomerata removed 48.75% of Cd and 57.027% Pb from IE. The study concluded that phycoremediation using C. glomerata and V. debaryana is one of the environmentally friendly techniques. The procedure is cost-effective and can be utilized for the remediation of IE due to the algal efficiency in terms of HMs removal.