Microalgae Lipid Case Study

Most people are surprised to learn that their bodies are contaminated with heavy metals. This is a little-known problem that has grown into a widespread issue. There are many different ways your body becomes contaminated with heavy metals, such as through the type of cookware you use, the tap water you drink and the fillings you have in your teeth. Fortunately, there are natural ways to cleanse your body of these harmful toxins, such as with chlorella. This is an algae found in nature and is oftentimes used in integrative medicine by naturopathic doctors in Arizona.

Most of the microalgal species, the main chemical component is protein with lower amount of carbohydrate and lipid. Lower percentage of protein is observed when cells were cultured at the highest temperature. The optimum temperature range for the protein production in the Australian species was 27-300C. Isochrysis sp. had higher protein content when cultured at 25-270C. There is no apparent change of percentage of protein with the growth

P. oceanica meadows are met in transparent and pure waters of Mediterranean area. The prevalence of Posidonia meadows in clear water is a useful tool for biomonitoring the clearness of the desired area. Along with Mytilus galloprovincialis, the Mediterranean mussel, Posidonia is a natural reservoir of different metals acquired from the environment. These metals are released from industrial, agricultural and urban activities in the coastal area and are one of the most persisting pollutants in the environment (Bethoux et al. 1990). Due to its sessile property, Posidonia is an ideal organism for biomonitoring. In a study conducted to compare the bioaccumulation level between M. galloprovincialis and P. oceanica, for cadmium, cobalt, chromium, nickel and lead, P. oceanica

Lakes and other bodies of water across the country are being affected by a blue-green algae. This is causing officials to close swimming bodies of water for the safety of the populace as blue-green algae can be very harmful to the health of humans as well as pets.

Half of the world's top ten worst pollution problems are mining related. This report will investigate the extraction processes of high demand metals, such as zinc, iron and aluminium, and the energy demands, chemical processes and costs of each metal. It will also discuss which metal is the most environmentally healthy, and find possible alternative extraction techniques.

The Water Pollution Acts (1977 and 1990) and the EPA Act 1992 were licenced, which outline the control of discharge of various materials in industrial activities. They enforce industrial companies to use various technologies to remove or recover the metals from wastewater before released to sewer. Most of the companies are unable to treat the waste themselves due to cost effective treatment to remove these metals, therefore they send their wastewater to companies such as RILTA environmental. There are many technologies available for recovery of heavy metals from wastewater such as electrodialysis, ion exchange and reverse osmosis. However these techniques may be expensive and ineffective especially when the metals are present in the wastewater

Currently, the environmental pollution is becoming a significant issue which caused by factories waste and nuclear waste. This pollution has increased around the world since the wide application of nuclear energy in 20th century. The harmful substances in factories wastes like toxic materials can dissolve easily in water and this leads to negative effects on lives. There are many resources of these substances such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which contain hydrogen, carbon and chlorine, pesticides, ammonium and dioxins. According to Mole (2015) many researchers found that ammonium and iodide have high levels in many waste water sample in the New York and Arkansas. The most popular process used to remove toxic metals from wastewater

Water contamination due to increased population and industrial activities is one of the most challenging issues to the researchers, because it is continuously increasing threats to both human health and the environment. With the rapid development of industries such as metal plating facilities, mining operations, fertilizer industries, tanneries, batteries, paper industries and pesticides, etc.,(1,2) heavy metals wastewaters are directly or indirectly discharged into the environment increasingly, especially in developing countries. Unlike organic contaminants, heavy metals are not biodegradable and tend to accumulate in living organisms. Many heavy metal ions are known to be toxic or carcinogenic and cause high blood pressure, anemia, cancer, renal kidney disease, nervous system

Inorganic arsenic is highly toxic and a significant public health threat throughout the world. Long-term exposure to arsenic through contaminated water can lead to arsenic poisoning and a variety of adverse health effects, including skin lesions, cancer, and respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. However, arsenic is highly abundant in the Earth’s crust and is naturally present across the world in the air, water, and soil. Arsenic integrates into the environment with natural processes including weathering reactions and volcanic activity, and through anthropogenic processes such as mining, fossil fuel combustion, and utilization of pesticides.

Chronic cadmium poisoning can result in nephrotoxicity, osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases, testicular necrosis, prostatic and testicular cancers, renal failure and neurodegenerative conditions (Yu et al., 2007). Moreover, it was reported that spermatogenesis is disturbed by free radical toxicity (Aruldhas et al., 2005) . It depletes many essential metal antioxidants including selenium in the body (Sato and Takizawa, 1982). Apparently, its exposure results in decreases of glutathione (GSH) levels which causes an increase in reactive oxygen species leading to increase in lipid peroxidation, change intercellular stability, damage deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), membranes and consequently inducing cell death (Stohs et al., 2000). The metal accumulates in human body affecting negatively several organs: liver, kidney, lungs, bones, placenta, brain and central nervous system (Castro-González and Méndez-Armenta, 2008). Therefore, the maximum concentration limit for cadmium (II) ions in drinking water must be strictly regulated. The World Health Organization (WHO), set a maximum guideline concentration of 0.003 mg/L for cadmium (II) in drinking water (WHO, 2008). Hence, there is great interest regarding the removal of cadmium from wastewater streams.

Recently, scientists have been noticing a quite thing occurring in the ocean that had never been seen before. Scientists have been recently finding a new type of algae in the ocean that does not have very great effects on the environment. Many say that this alga is probably a type of algae that is similar to the ones that grew millions of years ago; this alga is toxic though. It releases terrible pungent odors that can affect health. This algae was first discovered in Australia by fisherman and is now ruining Australian fishing industries by taking over the ocean. Scientist Judith O’Neil from the University of Queensland was the first scientist to discover the origins of this toxic algae. It has been considered a fireweed since it has

Phytoplankton are the basis of nearly all the Ocean’s ecosystems, and require a wide range of inorganic nutrients in order to grow; notably Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorous. They take up these nutrient elements according to the Redfield Ratio of C : N : P = 106 : 16 : 1. But phytoplankton also require less obvious nutrients such as calcium, magnesium and potassium. These are often in plentiful supply in the worlds Oceans, and other factors such as the micronutrient Iron can be the limiting Phytoplankton growth factor. Iron is not required by Phytoplankton in large amounts, but the Oceans are deficient of this micronutrient, and without it Phytoplankton cannot grow and reproduce as readily. This is because Iron is required in the biosynthesis of the pigment chlorophyll, required by Phytoplankton in order to photosynthesise. With a deficiency in Iron, Phytoplankton can suffer from a lack of chlorophyll known as chlorosis. The protein ferredoxin contains Iron and is substituted for flavodoxin as an iron-stress response (when Iron levels are low). It can be shown that Phytoplankton are Iron deficient by measuring how much of this electron transfer protein flavodoxin is present.

Research article by Kavitha and Sugirtha (2013), on a topic evaluation and sediment quality assessment of two perennial ponds revealed that the water from selected perennial ponds are fit for domestic purposes and aquatic life. The present study was conducted to determine the sediment quality of core sediment of ponds. In this study, the concentration of all parameters were analyzed. The percentage of sand, silt and clay were observed and they found that it differed in relation to depth. Mostly, sediments in an aquatic life have a high contamination capacity especially for trace and heavy metals. In this study, five variables were considered which are cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and zinc. Several of the elements are highly hazardous

ANOVA of the metal bioremoval revealed that the main (individual) effect due to the metals were highly significant (P value <0.05) on each other removal. Student ‘t’ test results revealed that both Zn(II) and Pb(II) strongly inhibited Cu(II) removal (P value <0.01). Both these metals (Zn(II) and Pb(II) similarly showed significant negative effect on Cd(II) removal (P value <0.02). However, in case of Zn(II) removal, whereas Cu(II) slightly inhibited its removal (P value = 0.053), Pb(II) showed a highly significant negative effect (P value < 0.001). Besides, Zn(II) inhibited its own removal in the mixture. The latter observation was true for Pb(II) as well with a P value of 0.001. All these results not only demonstrated a very good potential of the cyanobacteria in bioremoval of these metals but also the effect of individual metals on each other removal in mixture.

To improve the properties of microalgae as sources for biodiesel production, Nannochloropsis oceanica CCAP 849/10 was cultured in f/2 media supplemented with five different forms of nitrogen (NH4HCO3, (NH4)2SO4, NaNO3, NH4NO3 and Urea, 0.88 mmol N l−1). The growth, total lipid content, fatty acid profiles of the microalga were assayed after 15 days of cultivation. The results indicated that the growth based on cell number of N. oceanicawas lowest in medium with ammonium nitrate and increased significantly in medium with ammonium carbonate. The microalgae treated with ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate had the highest total lipid contents, which were 90 and 87 %, respectively. The fatty acid profiles of the microalgawas significantly different.The major fatty acids incultures supplemented with ammonium bicarbonate, ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate and urea, C14:0, C16:0, C16:1, C18:0, C18:1, C18:2, C20:5 and C22:6 were detected. However in culture supplemented with sodium nitrate, C16:1 had very small peak.