Bioremediation of Wastewater Using Yeast Strains: An Assessment of Contaminant Removal Efficiency

Nicoleta-Oana Nicula, Eduard-Marius Lungulescu, Gimi A. Rîmbu (), Virgil Marinescu, Viorica Maria Corbu and Ortansa Csutak
Additional contact information
Nicoleta-Oana Nicula: National R&D Institute for Electrical Engineering ICPE-CA, Splaiul Unirii 313, 030138 Bucharest, Romania
Eduard-Marius Lungulescu: National R&D Institute for Electrical Engineering ICPE-CA, Splaiul Unirii 313, 030138 Bucharest, Romania
Gimi A. Rîmbu: National R&D Institute for Electrical Engineering ICPE-CA, Splaiul Unirii 313, 030138 Bucharest, Romania
Virgil Marinescu: National R&D Institute for Electrical Engineering ICPE-CA, Splaiul Unirii 313, 030138 Bucharest, Romania
Viorica Maria Corbu: Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, 1-3 Aleea Portocalelor, 060101 Bucharest, Romania
Ortansa Csutak: Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, 1-3 Aleea Portocalelor, 060101 Bucharest, Romania

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 6, 1-22

Abstract: The main goal of wastewater treatment is to significantly reduce organic compounds, micronutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and heavy metals and other contaminants (pathogens, pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals). In this work, the efficiency of removing different contaminants (COD, NO 3 − , NO 2 − , NH 4 + , PO 4 3− , SO 4 2− , Pb 2+ , Cd 2+ ) from synthetic wastewater was tested using five different yeast strains: Kluyveromyces marxianus CMGBP16 (P1), Saccharomyces cerevisiae S228C (P2), Saccharomyces cerevisiae CM6B70 (P3), Saccharomyces cerevisiae CMGB234 (P4) and Pichia anomala CMGB88 (P5). The results showed a removal efficiency of up to 70% of COD, 97% of nitrate, 80% of nitrite, 93% of phosphate and 70% of sulfate ions for synthetic wastewater contaminated with Pb 2+ (43 mg/L) and Cd 2+ ions (39 mg/L). In contrast, the results showed an increase in ammonium ions, especially in the presence of Pb 2+ ions. The yeast strains showed a high capacity to reduce Pb 2+ (up to 96%) and Cd 2+ (up to 40%) ions compared to the initial concentrations. In presence of a crude biosurfactant, the removal efficiency increased up to 99% for Pb 2+ and 56% for Cd 2+ simultaneously with an increase in yeast biomass of up to 11 times. The results, which were obtained in the absence of aeration and in neutral pH conditions, proved a high potential for practical applications in the biotreatment of the wastewater and the recovery of Pb and Cd ions, with a high benefit–cost ratio.

Keywords: wastewater; yeast; bioremediation; heavy metals; pollutant removal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/4795/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/4795/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:6:p:4795-:d:1091705

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().