Heavy metal biosorption by Rhizopus sp. biomass immobilized on textiles
2014 (English)In: Water, Air and Soil Pollution, ISSN 0049-6979, E-ISSN 1573-2932, Vol. 225, no 2Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Sustainable development
The content falls within the scope of Sustainable Development
Abstract [en]
Pollution by heavy metals is at present one of the major environmental concerns. In the present study, the potential of the filamentous zygomycete fungus Rhizopus sp. to absorb/adsorb metal ions from solution was investigated. With the aim to develop a feasible process, the fungus was immobilized on 10 different textile materials during the cultivation. All immobilized biosorbents reduced the Cu2+ concentrations initially from 20 to 3.1–5.6 mg/l within 150 min, with the exception of the biomass immobilized on wool, which reduced the Cu2+ level to 10.2 mg/l. The immobilized biomass (with the exception of wool) fitted well into a pseudo-second-order model. The uptake of copper showed a slight dependence on initial metal concentration. By reapplying immobilized Rhizopus sp. to a solution containing a low concentration of Cu2+ after going through a first step of biosorption, a decrease of the concentration to below 2 mg/l was accomplished, meeting the stipulated level for Cu2+ in human drinking water. Immobilization of fungal biomass in a cushion was also successfully applied in the biosorption process. The positive results obtained in a two-step biosorption indicate that a sequential arrangement could be the foundation for a commercial product.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer , 2014. Vol. 225, no 2
Keywords [en]
Resource Recovery
National Category
Industrial Biotechnology
Research subject
Resource Recovery
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-1887DOI: 10.1007/s11270-013-1834-4Local ID: 2320/14027OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hb-1887DiVA, id: diva2:869965
2015-11-132015-11-132017-12-01Bibliographically approved