Toward Industrial Application of Cyanobacterial Biosorption: Insights From Real Electroplating Effluents

Galvanic electrodeposition is widely used in surface engineering, making the sustainable management of metal-loaded effluents a future challenge. Although cyanobacteria-based biosorption has been recognized as an eco-friendly strategy to remove metals, its application to real wastewater has not been explored. This study investigates cyanobacterial potential in the treatment of different electroplating wastewater originated from Cu, Ni, Au, and Pd-plating baths. The results revealed that pH, metal concentration, and composition of the plating bath influenced biosorption. Notably, Ni-specific uptake reached 3 mmol of Ni per gram of biomass dry weight, exceeding values reported in the literature. In contrast, for precious metals, the uptake was lower than 0.1 mmol per gram of biomass dry weight. This study represents a first step in the scaling-up of this cyanobacteria-based biotechnology, highlighting that higher biomass concentration and combined approaches are needed to improve removal efficiency while producing clean water.