The phycoremediation of textile wastewater discharge by Chlorella pyrenoidosa H. Chick, Arthrospira platensis Gomont, and Chaetoceros calcitrans (Paulson)

Textile wastewater discharge is one of the big aquatic pollution problem in Indonesia. Although treatment had been applied to reduce the concentration of pollutants, the textile wastewater discharge often still keep the concentration of pollutant that is above the limit for the usage of the river water. Phycoremediation, the use of microalgae to clean up the wastewater, had been developed and appplied successfully according to several research. This study was conducted in order to compare the ability of three species of microalgae from different divisions, i.e. Chlorella pyrenoidosa, Arthrospira platensis, and Chaetoceros calcitrans on removing total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorous (TP), heavy metal of Cr, Cu, Pb, and Cd from wastewater, and their acccumulation. Batch mode was used to compare their ability of wastewater remediation. The results show that C. pyrenoidosa has excellent performance on removal Cr, Cu, Pb, and Cd more than 80%, and has Bio Concentration Factor (BCF) higher than S. platensis and C. calcitrans. According to our study, C. pyrenoidosa can be suggested as a very good phycoremediator of Cd from textile wastewater discharge. The establishment of phycoremediation for the textile industries can make the discharge treatment process easier and cheaper. Neverthelless, the biomass production from phycoremediation process can be converted into biofuel. This way, a sustainable environmental friendly textile industry will work together with producing alternative energy.