Determinacion De Metales Por Medio De La Biosorcion De Plantas Acuaticas

Bioresource Technology 98 (2007) 2243–2257

Review

Microbial and plant derived biomass for removal of
heavy metals from wastewater
Sarabjeet Singh Ahluwalia, Dinesh Goyal

*

Department of Biotechnology & Environmental Sciences, Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala 147 004, Punjab, India
Received 12 July 2005; received in revised form 29 November 2005; accepted 2December 2005
Available online 19 January 2006

Abstract
Discharge of heavy metals from metal processing industries is known to have adverse effects on the environment. Conventional treatment technologies for removal of heavy metals from aqueous solution are not economical and generate huge quantity of toxic chemical
sludge. Biosorption of heavy metals by metabolically inactive non-living biomassof microbial or plant origin is an innovative and alternative technology for removal of these pollutants from aqueous solution. Due to unique chemical composition biomass sequesters metal
ions by forming metal complexes from solution and obviates the necessity to maintain special growth-supporting conditions. Biomass of
Aspergillus niger, Penicillium chrysogenum, Rhizopus nigricans, Ascophyllumnodosum, Sargassum natans, Chlorella fusca, Oscillatoria
anguistissima, Bacillus firmus and Streptomyces sp. have highest metal adsorption capacities ranging from 5 to 641 mg gÀ1 mainly for
Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Cu and Ni. Biomass generated as a by-product of fermentative processes offers great potential for adopting an economical metal-recovery system. The purpose of this paper is to review theavailable information on various attributes of utilization of microbial and plant derived biomass and explores the possibility of exploiting them for heavy metal remediation.
Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Biosorption; Non-living microbial biomass; Wastewater; Heavy metals

1. Introduction
Increased use of metals and chemicals in process industries has resulted in generation oflarge quantities of effluent that contain high level of toxic heavy metals and
their presence poses environmental–disposal problems
due to their non-degradable and persistence nature. In
addition mining, mineral processing and extractive-metallurgical operations also generate toxic liquid wastes. Environmental engineers and scientists are faced with the
challenging task to develop appropriatelow cost technologies for effluent treatment. Conventional methods for
removing metals from aqueous solutions include chemical precipitation, chemical oxidation or reduction, ion
exchange, filtration, electrochemical treatment, reverse
osmosis, membrane technologies and evaporation recov*

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: d_goyal_2000@yahoo.com (D. Goyal).

0960-8524/$ - see front matter Ó2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2005.12.006

ery. These processes may be ineffective or extremely expensive especially when the metals in solution are in the range
of 1–100 mg lÀ1 (Nourbakhsh et al., 1994). Another major
disadvantage with conventional treatment technologies is
the production of toxic chemical sludge and its disposal/
treatment becomes a costlyaffair and is not eco-friendly.
Therefore, removal of toxic heavy metals to an environmentally safe level in a cost effective and environment
friendly manner assumes great importance.
In light of the above, biological materials have emerged
as an economic and eco-friendly option. Biomaterials of
microbial and plant origin interact effectively with heavy
metals. Metabolically inactive deadbiomass due to their
unique chemical composition sequesters metal ions and
metal complexes from solution, which obviates the necessity to maintain special growth-supporting conditions.
Metal-sorption by various types of biomaterials can find
enormous applications for removing metals from solution
and their recovery.

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