Heavy metal biosorption by dried powdered mycelium of Fusarium flocciferum

Abstract

The biosorption capacity of dead biomass of Fusarium flocciferum for copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), and nickel (Ni) was studied with the aim of developing the basis for an industrial effluent treatment. It was verified that a Langmuir isotherm describes well the biosorption of cadmium and nickel, whereas copper showed a more irregular behavior. Estimated maximum uptake, Qmax expressed as mg metal/100 mg biosorbent, was 19.2 for cadmium and 5.2 for nickel. Maximum reproducible values for copper biosorption were between 4 and 6 mg/100 mg. In this case, it was verified that process efficiency depends on the balance between biosorbent and metal initial concentrations. Studies with different contact times showed that the process was completed within a few minutes. No difference in biosorbent metal affinity was found for cell incubation periods ranging from 24 hours to 4 days, but the biosorbent obtained from older cultures showed a decrease in metal removal capacity. This biosorbent is prepared from a fast‐growing fungus with low nutritional and physical requirements. It can be used to remove metals from very dilute solutions at neutral pH values, as in the final steps of heavy metal removal from industrial wastewaters.

Heavy Metal Contaminants Removal from Wastewater Using the Potential Filamentous Fungi Biomass: A Review

“…The mycelium of Rhizopus is an excellent biosorbent towards lead, cadmium, copper, zinc and uranium [4]. Mucorales species is described as good biosorbents [65] and Fusarium flocciferum is used to remove cadmium and nickel from industrial effluents [66].…”

Modification of surface properties of mycelia by physical and chemical methods: evaluation of their Cr removal efficiencies from aqueous medium

“…Even a very small amount can cause severe physiological or neurological damage. One of the most dangerous metal ions for human life is Cr 6+ which is found in industrial wastewater because of the extensive use of chromate and dichromate in electroplating, leather tanning, metal finishing, nuclear power plant, textile industries and chroexisting methods as a result of the search low cost, innovative methods [7,8].…”

Measurement of Donnan potentials in gels by in situ microelectrode voltammetry

“…They have also been widely used in the modeling of metal speciation in combination with the non-ideal competitive adsorption model (NICA) extended for electrostatic interactions (i.e., NICA-Donnan) [5][6][7][8][9] and the Windermere humic acid models IV-VI (i.e., WHAM) [10,11]. Other similar approaches have been used to model the binding of metal ions to the cell walls of bacteria [12][13][14][15] and varying types of biomass in biosorption studies [16][17][18][19][20][21]. Accordingly, successful modeling of such systems currently relies upon the accurate acquisition of data (e.g., potentiometric titration, conductimetry), or knowledge a priori, which quantifies the Donnan potential due to structural charges present in the colloid, hydrogel, membrane, or biological matrix.…”