Removal of selected pharmaceuticals from aqueous solutions by cyanobacteria and aquatic macrophytes

Abstract

The aim of the work was to study the bioaccumulation of paracetamol (PRC) and ibuprofen (IBF) by living biomass of cyanobacteria Synechococcus bigranulatus, freshwater plant Egeria densa or moss Vesicularia dubyana. In the case of PRC bioaccumulation by cyanobacterial biomass, it was found that in the first minutes of exposure, rapid, probably sorption processes were subsequently replaced by a slower uptake of PRC. From this point, the bioaccumulation showed a linear dependence, reaching almost 32 % removal of PRC (3.12±0.03 mg·g^–1; w.w.) from 10 % Hoagland medium with an initial concentration of PRC 50 mg·dm^–3 and after 14 d of exposure. Sorption processes played a minor role in the binding of PRC by E. densa biomass. In the first 2 h of exposure, we did not observe the uptake of PRC, and more significant bioaccumulation at the level of 17 % removal of PRC (0.066±0.010 mg·g^–1; w.w.) from a medium containing 5 mg·dm^–3 of PRC was occurred later and during the 24 h of exposure. Also, it was shown that with increasing concentration of E. densa biomass the percentage of PRC binding increased, but the specific uptake of PRC (in mg·g^–1) decreased. Similar to PRC and E. densa biomass, we found that the sorption contributed minimally to IBF uptake by moss biomass. However, further bioaccumulation was characterized by a significant removal of IBF at the level of 22 % (0.052±0.040 mg·g^–1; w.w.) from a medium containing 12.5 mg·dm^–3 of IBF.