In this study was developed a natural process using a biological system for the biosynthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) and possible removal of copper from wastewater by dead biomass of the yeast Rhodotorula mucilaginosa. Dead and live biomass of Rhodotorula mucilaginosa was used to analyze the equilibrium and kinetics of copper biosorption by the yeast in function of the initial metal concentratio...

The ex-situ bioremoval of U(VI) from contaminated water using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans strain 8455 and 13538 was studied under a range of pH and uranium concentrations. The effect of pH on the growth of bacteria was evaluated across the range 1.5–4.5 pH units. The respiration rate of At. ferrooxidans at different U(VI) concentrations was quantified as a measure of the rate of metabolic ac...

The contamination of groundwater by heavy metal, originating either from natural soil sources or from anthropogenic sources is a matter of utmost concern to the public health. Remediation of contaminated groundwater is of highest priority since billions of people all over the world use it for drinking purpose. In this paper, thirty five approaches for groundwater treatment have been reviewed an...

The micro-fungal flora of heavy metals contaminated peri-urban agricultural fields of Pakistan were investigated in terms of their diversity by soil serial dilution method. A total of 30 micro-fungi were isolated from 6 sampling sites. Of these isolates 24 belong to phylum Ascomycota, 3 to phylum Zygomycota, 2 to phylum Basidiomycota and 1 to phylum Deuteromycota. The most widespread genus was ...

The biosorption of copper by inactivated biomass of the brown seaweed Sargassum baccularia, immobilized onto polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel beads, was investigated using a laboratory-scale packed bed column. Continuous-flow column tests were performed to determine breakthrough curves at two different column lengths. In both cases, a very broad trailing edge of the breakthrough curve was observed, ...

Synthetic dyes released by various industries pose a real concern to the environmental safety. Existing physico-chemical methods of dye removal from effluents suffer from severe constraints like low efficiency, high operational cost and large amount of sludge generation. Over the last two decades, considerable work has been done with the goal of using microorganisms as bioremediation agents in ...

The biosorption of arsenic (V) on nine chemically modified biomasses (with iron oxide coated) of mycelia fungi: Aspergillus flavus III, IV and V, Aspergillus fumigatus I-II, Paecilomyces sp., Cladosporium sp., Mucor sp-1 and 2 was studied in this work. This study provides evidence that the biomasses of the fungi A. flavus, IV, III and V, Paecilomyces sp., and A. fumigatus I were very efficient ...

Depending on speciation, U environmental contamination may be spread through the environment or inversely restrained to a limited area. Induction of U precipitation via biogenic or non-biogenic processes would reduce the dissemination of U contamination. To this aim U oxidation/reduction processes triggered by bacteria are presently intensively studied. Using X-ray absorption analysis, we descr...

Investigations were carried out to isolate microbial strains from soil, mud and water samples from metallurgically polluted environment for bioremediation of toxic heavy metals. As a result of primary and secondary screening various 72 acidothermophilic autotrophic microbes were isolated and adapted for metal tolerance and biosorption potentiality. The multi-metal tolerance was developed with h...

Chromium is a highly toxic non-essential metal for microorganisms and plants. Due to its widespread industrial use, chromium (Cr) has become a serious pollutant in diverse environmental settings. The hexavalent form of the metal, Cr(VI), is considered a more toxic species than the relatively innocuous and less mobile Cr(III) form. The presence of Cr in the environment has selected microbial and...