Removal of Nutrients and Pesticides from Agricultural Runoff Using Microalgae and Cyanobacteria
Open accessAbstract
The use of pesticides in agriculture has ensured the production of different crops. However, pesticides have become an emerging public health problem for Latin American countries due to their excessive use, inadequate application, toxic characteristics, and minimal residue control. The current project evaluates the ability of two strains of algae (Chlorella and Scenedesmus sp.) and one cyanobacteria (Hapalosyphon sp.) to remove excess pesticides and other nutrients present in runoff water from rice production. Different concentrations of wastewater and carbon sources (Na2CO3 and NaHCO3) were evaluated. According to the results, all three strains can be grown in wastewater without dilution (100%), with a biomass concentration comparable to a synthetic medium. All three strains significantly reduced the concentration of NO3 and PO4 (95 and 85%, respectively), with no difference between Na2CO3 or NaHCO3. Finally, Chlorella sp. obtained the highest removal efficiency of the pesticide (Chlorpyrifos), followed by Scenedesmus and Hapalosyphon sp. (100, 75, and 50%, respectively). This work shows that it is possible to use this type of waste as an alternative source of nutrients to obtain biomass and metabolites of interest, such as lipids and carbohydrates, to produce biofuels.
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Chlorella sp. and Spirulina (Arthrospira) sp. can treat many types of wastewaters, including municipal, aquaculture, swine, olive oil milling, distillery, confectionary, brine tapioca, tofu, rubber, paper mill, dye wastewaters, agricultural run-offs, and groundwaters.
“Many examples of wastewater treatment by Chlorella sp. and Spirulina (Arthrospira) sp. have been published, as these can treat many types of wastewaters, including municipal, aquaculture, swine, olive oil milling, distillery, confectionary, brine tapioca, tofu, rubber, paper mill, dye wastewaters, agricultural run-offs, and groundwaters [203,209,210,211,212].”
From Emerging Applications of Chlorella sp. and Spirulina (Arthrospira) sp. (2023) · cites this paper as [211]
The Conclusions (page unavailable) report that Chlorella sp. grew in agricultural runoff and removed nutrients; the Introduction also discusses microalgae treating domestic, industrial, and agricultural wastewater. The paper does not establish the claimed range of specific wastewater types for Chlorella and Spirulina (Arthrospira); its studied strains did not include Spirulina. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Gothandam, K.M., Ranjan, S., Dasgupta, N., Lichtfouse, E., Eds.; Springer International Publishing: Cham, Switzerland, 2020; Volume 1, pp. 71-86. [CrossRef] · DOI
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Emerging Applications of Chlorella sp. and Spirulina (Arthrospira) sp.
Abreu, A. P., Martins, R., & Nunes, J. (2023) · Bioengineering · doi:10.3390/bioengineering10080955 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
El-Sheekh, M. M., El-Kassas, H. Y., & Ali, S. S. (2025) · Microbial Cell Factories · doi:10.1186/s12934-024-02638-0 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
- Authors
- Castellanos-Estupiñan, M., Carrillo-Botello, A., Rozo-Granados, L., Becerra-Moreno, D., García-Martínez, J., Urbina-Suarez, N., López-Barrera, G., Barajas-Solano, A., Bryan, S., & Zuorro, A.
- Affiliations
- Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander (CO)
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander, Av. Gran Colombia, No. 12E-96, Cucuta 540003, Colombia
- University of Nottingham (GB)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Zuorro, Antonio
- ORCID
- Venue
- Water
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2022-02-12
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 558
- ISSN
- 2073-4441 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4212885732
- Cited by
- 64
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 2.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Water (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Repository@Nottingham (University of Nottingham) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Repositorio Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Wastewater Treatment and Reuse
- Keywords
- agricultural runoff, pesticide removal, nutrient removal, microalgae, cyanobacteria, Chlorella, Scenedesmus, chlorpyrifos, nitrate removal, phosphate removal, sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, biofuel feedstock, water reuse
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