A novel treatment system of wastewater contaminated with copper by a moss

A novel treatment system of wastewater contaminated with copper was developed by using some mosses that are demonstrably metal tolerant and accumulate heavy metals into the cells. Scopelophila cataractae could remove copper more efficiently than other mosses, i.e. Physcomitrella patens and Polytrichum formosum. One hundred milligram per liter of copper ion was removed completely for 9 d using the suspended cultivation system flowing air coupled with intermittent mechanical disruption of the protonema filaments of S. cataractae by a homogenizer.