Biosorption of Cu (II) by Metal Resistant Pseudomonas sp.

Abstract

Bioremediation of heavy metals remains a major challenge in environmental biotechnology. Biosorption is a novel technique for decreasing metal ion content in the waste water. Biosorption experiments for Cu (II) were investigated in this study using bacteria isolated from the industrial effluent. The results showed that the dead cells of Pseudomonas sp. were an efficient adsorbent of Cu (II). For analysis, Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm were considered. Both model fitted to the experimental data however the Langmuir model fitted the experimental data better than the Freundlich model for copper. Adsorption was influenced by various parameters,such as the initial metal concentration, pH, and contact time etc. Studies pertaining to the assessment of the best dsorption parameters and quantitative analysis of metal uptake revealed that maximum biosorption for Cu (II) obtained was 74.2 % at pH 7. Citric acid was used as desorbing agents in order to recover heavy metal ions from the adsorbent.