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Abstract
Persistent heavy metal pollution poses a major threat to all life forms in the environment due to its toxic effects. These metals are very reactive at low concentrations and can accumulate in the food web, causing severe public health concerns. Remediation using conventional physical and chemical methods is uneconomical and generates large volumes of chemical waste. Bioremediation of hazardous metals has received considerable and growing interest over the years. The use of microbial biosorbents is eco-friendly and cost effective; hence, it is an efficient alternative for the remediation of heavy metal contaminated environments. Microbes have various mechanisms of metal sequestration that hold greater metal biosorption capacities. The goal of microbial biosorption is to remove and/or recover metals and metalloids from solutions, using living or dead biomass and their components. This review discusses the sources of toxic heavy metals and describes the groups of microorganisms with biosorbent potential for heavy metal removal.
Highlights
Industrialization and technological advancement have put an increasing burden on the environment by releasing large quantities of hazardous waste, heavy metals and metalloids, and organic contaminants that have inflicted serious damage on the ecosystem
Bioremediation is an innovative technique for the removal and recovery of heavy metal ions from polluted areas, and involves using living organisms to reduce and/or recover heavy metal pollutants into less hazardous forms, using the activities of algae, bacteria, fungi, or plants
This review revealed the contributions of the various biosorbents which are potentially effective and readily available for heavy metal removal
Summary
Industrialization and technological advancement have put an increasing burden on the environment by releasing large quantities of hazardous waste, heavy metals (cadmium, chromium, and lead) and metalloids (elements with intermediate properties between those of typical metals and non-metals, such as arsenic and antimony), and organic contaminants that have inflicted serious damage on the ecosystem. The technique utilizes inherent biological mechanisms to eradicate hazardous contaminants using microorganisms and plants, or their products, to restore polluted environments to their original condition [2,6,8] It is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective technique for heavy metal removal/recovery, when compared to the conventional chemical and physical techniques, which are often more expensive and ineffective, especially for low metal concentrations. Microorganisms possess astonishing metabolic pathways which utilize various toxic compounds as a source of energy for growth and development, through respiration, fermentation, and cometabolism Due to their characteristic degradative enzymes for a particular contaminant, they have evolved diverse mechanisms for maintaining homeostasis and resistance to heavy metals, in order to adapt to toxic metals in the ecosystem [12,13]. This article presents insights into the use of microbial biosorbents for removing heavy metals from industrial waste and contaminated environments, as well as the sources and toxicity of these metals in the food web
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