Results demonstrated that a significant proportion of Pb and Cd
removal was mediated by surface binding of metals (85 % Pb
and 79 % Cd), rather than by intracellular accumulation (5 %
Pb and 4%Cd) at the optimum level of cyanobacterial biomass
(2.8 g L−1), metal concentration (80 μg mL−1), pH (pH 5.0–
6.0), time (15–30 min), and temperature (30–40 °C).
N. muscorum has maximum amounts of metal removal (qmax)
capacity of 833 and 666.7 mg g−1 protein for Pb and Cd,
respectively.