2,686
Views
4
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Primary Research

Natural freshwater microalgae biofilm as a tool for the clean-up of water resulting from mining activities

ORCID Icon, , , , , & show all
Pages 644-657 | Received 14 Jun 2020, Accepted 26 Oct 2020, Published online: 15 Nov 2020
 

ABSTRACT

Pollutants in aquatic environment tends to alter the community composition and activities of biofilm cells. The stress induced by these pollutants leads to the production of excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) which play a key role in the degradation of pollutants in aquatic environment. This mini-review is aimed at forecasting the efficiency of the use of natural freshwater microalgae biofilm in the treatment of water resulting from mining activities. Moreover, it summarises the concept of mining by concisely stating the stages involved in mining and how the pollutants produced during mining can cause deleterious effects to aquatic flora and fauna. Environmental issues resulting from mining activities and how they hindered the progress of biodiversity were concisely discussed. Freshwater microalgae play an important role in the mitigation of the impact of pollution resulting from mining activities. The process of pollutants removal in freshwater by microalgae biofilm is by degradation and biosorption. However, it is an unestablished fact that the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were responsible for the biosorption of heavy metals from mining wastewater. It is also important to know the kinetic model that best explains the chemical and physical reactions of heavy metal absorption by the surface of microalgae biofilm.

Acknowledgment

The first author appreciates the support rendered by the PTDF 2018 PhD scholars of Jilin University Changchun, China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province: [Grant Number 20170101079JC]; Petroleum Technology Development Fund: [Grant Number PTDF/ED/PHD/APY/54/18]; National Natural Sciences Foundation of China: [Grant Number 42077343].