Bioremediation of complex contaminated Yamuna River India by using selected cyanobacteria

Abstract

River Yamuna serves as a major lifeline in Delhi and the people living along its banks rely on it for their livelihoods. However, it faces severe contamination due to anthropogenic activities, such as industrial and domestic waste discharge through various drains. Bioremediation emerges as a promising approach to mitigate such contamination, offering environmentally friendly solutions. This study focuses on the remediation potential of Nostoc, Anabaena, Phormidium, and Oscillatoria, which represent a better solution than traditional wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). BOD (120 ± 4.31 mg/L) and COD (241 ± 5.6 mg/L) were found in water samples collected from the Najafgarh drain at Wazirabad and BOD (90 ± 3.56 mg/L) and COD (180 ± 5.1 mg/L) were recorded in a water sample collected from the Wazirabad wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Phycoremediation analysis shows that Oscillatoria removes 72.4 ± 4.11% of BOD and 63.90 ± 3.67% of COD, while Nostoc removes 59 ± 5.1% of BOD and 68.46 ± 3.87% of COD. In comparison, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) only removes 25 ± 3.12% of BOD and 25.13 ± 2.92% of COD. The biosorption activity showed that Nostoc absorbed a maximum of 3.07 µg/ml (30.7 ± 2.13%) of chromium (Cr (VI)), followed by Phormidium at 2.27 µg/ml (22.7 ± 1.9%) only 3 days of incubation. This is the first study to examine how selected cyanobacteria can reduce pollution in the Yamuna River by treating both drain and treated water. The results show cyanobacteria are better at removing chromium and other pollutants than conventional WWTPs. This highlights the need to combine biological solutions with traditional methods for sustainable river restoration and effective environmental management.

Keywords:

• Bioabsorption
• chromium
• cyanobacteria
• Najafgarh drain
• phycoremediation
• wastewater treatment plant (WWTP)

Author contributions

DK: Validation, data curation, formal analysis, writing- reviewing and editing, methodology. SQ: Methodology, software; writing- original draft preparation. DS: Supervision, conceptualization, project administration, funding acquisition.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.