1. Introduction
Biosorption properties of Spirulina have been adapted in
many techniques related with metal pollution control [1–3].
Industrial wastewater treatment or, generally, bioremediation
of aquatic systems was the subject of several investigations
[4–9], including smelter and refinery effluents processing
[10]. Besides heavy metal ions, removal of inorganic contaminants
[11, 12] and toxic organics was investigated [13], as
well. Despite proven efficacy of Spirulina biomass, Chlorella
species were reported as the most commonly used in current
treatment technologies [14]. Nevertheless, other potential
applications of Spirulina adsorptive capacity, such as livestock
feeding and human dietary supplementation, have been
already discussed in the literature [15–18]. Further studies
on using this microalga as versatile biosorbent are therefore
justified, since they may provide insights into both the process
pathways and the mechanism of sorption.
Strong molecular interactions, in particular electrostatic
attractions, determine the quality of biosorbents and depend
on chemical state and composition (type and quantity) of
surface functional groups. The state of surface moieties,
their ionization or protonation, results directly from dissociation
constant (pK