Biosorption Capacity of Dried Spirogyra on Heavy Metals Ankita Chatterjee and Jayanthi Abraham* Microbial Biotechnology Laboratory, School of Biosciences and Technology, VIT University, Vellore-632014, Tamil Nadu, India. Abstract: An increasing number of hazardous heavy metals are discharged into the environment through natural and anthropogenic activity, creating serious environmental problems. The toxicity of chromium and copper affects soil and water, which further harms microbes, animals and plants. Biosorption has proved to be an effective method in expulsion of heavy metals from environment. Accumulation of heavy metals by algae has been observed by earlier works. In this study, Spirogyrahas been examined for biosorption capacity of copper and chromium in different conditions. Various parameters, such as, initial metal concentrations; biomass and pH were considered for the experiment. The biosorption capacity was checked by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The optimum metal concentrations were 10 mg/L for chromium and 20 mg/L for copper. 2.5 g/L biomass was observed to show the maximum biosorption at pH 6. The contact time throughout the experiment was maintained for 1 h. Keywords: chromium, copper, biosorption, Spirogyra. Introduction Metals having a specific gravity of 5 g/cm 3 or more are considered as heavy metals. Almost sixty heavy metals are known in Earth 1 . Although heavy metals are essential for human body as trace elements, they become hazardous in high concentration. Major heavy metals, such as, copper, lead, chromium, nickel, zinc, arsenic harms humans and animals as well as plants when exposed in excessive concentrations 2 . The release of heavy metals in the environment mainly occurs through various anthropogenic activities including fossil fuel burning, smelting processes, mining, industrial effluents and transport sectors. The presence of heavy metals in environment has negative impact on both micro and macro organisms and in turn affecting human health 3 . Despite having various physical and chemical methods of removal of metal, the metal concentrations in environment, specifically water and soil is showing an increasing pattern. This brings to the need for efficient biological techniques to improve heavy metal removal from environment 4 .The utilization of living organisms, such as, plants and microbes in biologically removal of toxic organic wastes have gained importance gradually. The process of degrading wastes at controlled conditions using living organisms are termed as bioremediation 5 . Phytoremediation along with bioaugmentation plays an effective role in removal of heavy metals like arsenic, chromium, copper and magnesium. Jatropha multifida along with microorganisms such as Pseudomonas, Azotobacter and Rhizobium remove heavy metal contamination in soil 6 . Biosorption and bioaccumulation are two emerging processes in removal of heavy metals. Biosorption requires identification of proper adsorbents that are able to remove the heavy metals with high efficiency. The first biosorption study of heavy metals was done by Adams and Holmes in the year 1935 where they used tannin resin and Acacia mollissima. Several fungi and brown algae are able adsorb heavy metals. International Journal of ChemTech Research CODEN (USA): IJCRGG ISSN: 0974-4290 Vol.8, No.9 pp 387-392, 2015