Bioremediation Prospects for Removing Pollutants from River Waters
The present study addresses the problem of pollution in the Sumgayit River, which has been exposed to technogenic impacts for many years, and proposes new approaches to enhance its selfpurification capacity. To purify river water from organic and inorganic pollutants, the feasibility of selecting active strains from the native microbiota and applying them in bioremediation was investigated. According to the research results, river waters subjected to anthropogenic pollution exceeded the maximum permissible concentrations (MPCs): the phenol concentration was 0.50 mg/L (MPC = 0.001 mg/L), while the copper concentration was 0.96 mg/L (MPC = 0.01–0.1 mg/L). It was established that the active microbial strains isolated from these water samples belonged to the genera Rhodococcus, Penicillium, and Aspergillus. The obtained results demonstrated that the fungal strains were more effective than the bacterial strain. Under the influence of Rhodococcus sp., the phenol concentration decreased by 62%; Penicillium sp. achieved a 100% reduction, while Aspergillus sp. reduced the phenol concentration by 86%. The copper concentration decreased by 58.4% with Rhodococcus sp., 64.8% with Penicillium sp., and 68.7% with Aspergillus sp. These results indicate that these microorganisms are effective candidates for application in bioaugmentation.