Role of extracellular polymeric substances from Chlorella vulgaris in the removal of ammonium and orthophosphate under the stress of cadmium.

The interactions between the soluble extracellular polymeric substances (S-EPS), bound EPS (B-EPS) of algae and heavy metal, would affect the removal of ammonium (NH4(+)-N) and orthophosphate (PO4(3-)-P) from wastewater by algae-based techniques. This study investigated the role of Cd(2+)-mediated EPS from Chlorella vulgaris on NH4(+)-N and PO4(3-)-P removal. The results showed that the removal efficiencies of NH4(+)-N and PO4(3-)-P still separately remained 62.6% and 64.9% under 1.0mg/L Cd(2+), compared to those without Cd(2+), mainly attributing to enhanced S-EPS and B-EPS contents of the algae. The increased of PS (polysaccharides) and PN (proteins, e.g., tryptophan-like and tyrosine-like components) led to accelerated interactions of Cd(2+) with PS and PN in EPS fractions, especially for B-EPS, due to a higher detected distribution of Cd(2+) (e.g., about 55.4% in B-EPS). Thus, algae-based techniques are stable treatment methods for wastewater in which NH4(+)-N and PO4(3-)-P coexist with heavy metals.