Diclofenac removal by the microalgae species Chlorella vulgaris, Nannochloropsis oculata, Scenedesmus acutus, and Scenedesmus obliquus.

In this work, we evaluated the removal efficiency of diclofenac by Chlorella vulgaris OW-01, Nannochloropsis oculata CCAP 849/7, Scenedesmus acutus UTEX 72, and Scenedesmus obliquus CCAP 276/2. Each microalga was grown in media with different concentrations (50 and 100% of the original formulation) of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, to evaluate their effect on the removal of diclofenac. We also evaluated the photodegradation of diclofenac under the same conditions. The diclofenac removed from the media ranged from 59 to 92%, obtaining the highest removal with S. obliquus. The diclofenac adsorbed on the cell walls ranged from 12.2 to 26.5%, obtaining the highest adsorption with S. obliquus. The diclofenac degraded by light ranged from 15 to 28%. The nutrient deficit showed no influence on the removal of diclofenac in any of the microalgae under study. These results indicate that S. obliquus is the best alternative for the bioremediation of diclofenac. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-022-03268-2. © King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.