PJB-2007-68
BIOSORPTION OF LEAD BY INDIGENOUS FUNGAL STRAINS
RANI FARYAL1, AMBREEN SULTAN2, FAHEEM TAHIR3, SAFIA AHMED2 AND ABDUL HAMEED2
Abstract
Industrial effluent is a major environmental threat in Pakistan due to contaminant loads, especially of heavy metals. Bioremediation is a process that is in use to remediate effluents and is ecologically sound. In the present study, fungal strains isolated from effluent and adjacent contaminated soil of Koh-i-noor Textile Mills, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, were explored for the potential to remove lead from aqueous solution. A. niger RH 17 and A. niger RH 18 strains were tested for metal resistance on Pb-amended plates, which showed maximum resistance up to 6000 and 7000 mg/L, respectively. In media containing 1000 mg/L Pb, maximum lead removal exhibited by A. niger RH 17 was 92.04% and that by A. niger RH 18 was 93.09%, after three days incubation. The optimum pH for Pb detoxification was 9.0 and 9.5 for A. niger RH 17 and A. niger RH 18 respectively, with respective removal percentage being recorded as 93.8% and 94.2%. Pb biosorption was also assessed at different temperatures, in media having 1000 mg/L Pb at pH 9.0 and 9.5, for both strains. Maximum removal for both strains was seen at 28˚C. A. niger RH18 biosorbed 209.33 mg Pb per gram of the fungal biomass at pH 9.5. These newly isolated fungal strains offer the potential of being used as an effective biosorbent of Pb and bringing about its removal from industrial wastewaters.
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