New insights into rare earth element-induced microalgae lipid accumulation: Implication for biodiesel production and adsorption mechanism

Abstract

A coupling technology for lipid production and adsorption of rare earth elements (REEs) using microalgae was studied in this work. The microalgae cell growth, lipid production, biochemical parameters and lipid profiles were investigated under different REEs (Ce3+, Gd3+and La3+). The results showed that the maximum lipid production was achieved at different concentrations of REEs, with lipid productivities of 300.44, 386.84 and 292.19 mg L−1 d−1 under treatment conditions of 100 μg L−1 Ce3+, 250 μg L−1 Gd3+ and 1 mg L−1 La3+, respectively. Moreover, the adsorption efficiency of Ce3+, Gd3+ and La3+exceeded 96.58 %, 93.06 % and 91.3 % at concentrations of 25–1000 μg L−1, 100–500 μg L−1 and 0.25–1 mg L−1, respectively. In addition, algal cells were able to adsorb 66.2 % of 100 μg L−1 Ce3+, 48.4 % of 250 μg L−1 Gd3+ and 59.9 % of 1 mg L−1 La3+. The combination of extracellular polysaccharide and algal cell wall could adsorb 25.2 % of 100 μg L−1 Ce3+, 44.5 % of 250 μg L−1 Gd3+ and 30.5 % of 1 mg L−1 La3+, respectively. These findings indicated that microalgae predominantly adsorbed REEs through the intracellular pathway. This study elucidates the mechanism of effective lipid accumulation and adsorption of REEs by microalgae under REEs stress conditions. It establishes a theoretical foundation for the efficient microalgae lipid production and REEs recovery from wastewater or waste residues containing REEs.