Biosorption of Cr and Pb by the Metal Resistant Bacterial Isolates Immobilized in Calcium Alginate Coated with PHBV

The bacterial isolates of matchworks industrial wastes viz. , Bacillus spp. MI1 and Micrococcus spp. MI2 which exhibited resistance to heavy metals, Cr and Pb in terms of Zero Zone size, prepared in suspension and immobilized in calcium alginate matrices were subjected to biosorption studies. The immobilized beads of the bacterial isolates were uniformly 3 mm in size. These smaller sized particles are seemed to play vital role in biosorption because they have higher surface area to bind. The metal uptake experiments carried out at the pH ranging from 2.0 and 4.0 (32 C) with the immobilized beads in calcium alginate. Irrespective of the organisms and metals studied, maximal adsorption effiency was reported at pH 3 for Cr and pH 4 for Pb. As for the impact of temperature on metal adsorption, irrespective of the organisms immobilized in Calcium Alginate, the optimal values were reported at 32 C for both Cr (pH 3) and Pb ( pH 4). The biosorption potential of the immobilized bacterial isolates resistant to metals, coated with PHBV exhibited optimum results for Cr ( 81.1 mg/L, 57.4 mg/L) and Pb ( 76.4 mg/L, 58.4 mg/L). Further, the desorption studies were carried out with dilute 0.1 N HCl. The results revealed that the beads are seemed to be very effective upto the 3rd cycle. There after desorption studies did not show much promising results.