Studies on Biosorption of Lead by Living Biomass of Fungal Species

Heavy metal pollution of waterbodies currently becomes a major environmental problem throughout the entire world. Conventional treatment methods for the removal of heavy metal ions from wastewaters are highly expensive, time consuming, less effective and are not environmental friendly because they produced large quantity of toxic chemical compounds. Biosorption is an alternative technology to conventional treatment method for the removal of heavy metal from aqueous solution. Biosorbent (biological materials) have been used as for the adsorption of metal ions from aqueous solutions. In the present study, the efficiency of living biomass of Aspergillus niger for the adsorption of lead metal was investigated. Living biomass of Aspergillus niger (100 mg and 200 mg) and contact time of 15 minutes showed that most appropriate dose and duration for the use in adsorption of lead metal ions. For the biosorption of lead metal solution, maximum adsorption capacity of 100 mg Aspergillus niger biomass was observed as 95.715 % at 80ppm concentration.97.192 % metal removal was observed from the 80ppm metal concentration by 200 mg fungal biomass. In case of 100 mg biomass, the maximum specific uptake (Q value) was 38.286 at 80ppm concentration. In case of 200 mg biomass, the maximum Q value 19.4835 was observed at 80ppm lead concentration. This study indicates that 100 mg and 200 mg living biomass of Aspergillus niger acts as a good biosorbent for the adsorption of lead metal.