Phycoremediation of pesticides using microalgae

TL;DRAbstract

Every year, pesticides are found in surface and ground waters in Sweden. Fungicides are in common usage and applied in high amounts against potato late blight. The present thesis examined the possible removal of four fungicides (metalaxyl, cyprodinil, propamocarb and
\nmandipropamid) from water using the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris. Microorganisms are capable of decomposing a range of organic pollutants and the main focus in previously published studies has been on bacteria and fungi. Microalgae are mostly studied due to their high capacity
\nin biosorbing heavy metals. Removal of organic pollutants such as pesticides has been reported, however in fewer studies. The work was divided into two main experiments; one short-term experiment (60 min) using dead and living cells, and one long-term experiment (4 days) using
\ngrowing cells. In the long-term experiment, the presence of growing algae resulted in around 50% lower propamocarb concentration in the medium compared with

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