Phycoremediation of water contaminated with arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) from a mining site in Minna, Nigeria

This study was designed to remediate water contaminated with heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium and lead) using two green macroalgal species, Spirogyra and Cladophora. The results obtained from this study indicate that both macroalgae can be employed to adsorb and detoxify any of the three heavy metals from aqueous solution. However, it was also discovered from the study that Cladophora adsorbed and detoxified more of the cadmium and lead than arsenic as the organism had removal efficiency for cadmium and lead as 88.78% and 94.85% respectively meanwhile for arsenic it was only 23.10%. On the otherhand however, Spirogyra adsorbed more of arsenic than cadmium and lead as the organism had a record of 82.76% of arsenic compared to the 28.97% and 47.43%absorption forcadmium and lead respectively. It is therefore concluded based on the results of the present study that reclamation and reuse of water from public or industrial wastewater, or even from water contaminated as a result of precious metal mining is a huge possibility through the application of phycoremediation, using different species of micro and macroalgae