Bioaccumulation of Chromium(III) from Aqueous Solutions of a Leather Wastewater Treatment Plant by Saccharomyces cerevisiae Yeast

Abstract

With many industries discharging heavy metals into natural water resources, heavy metals have been found to accumulate in various living organisms which can ultimately threaten human life and pose a big threat to the environment. Thus, in the pursuit of a solution to the above mentioned problem, bioaccumulation has emerged as an interesting option for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater. In this paper, the effectiveness of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the bioaccumulation of Cr3+ has been tested. Also, different factors influencing Cr3+ uptake have been discussed. This work has demonstrated that Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an effective Cr3+ biosorbent for tannery wastewater. The conditions of use of this yeast to achieve optimal chromium (III) absorption are: i) when a growth of the biosorbent equivalent to a similar concentration of Cr3+ is obtained, which contains the residual water that needs to be treated; ii) the smaller the biosorbent is the better the biosorption; iii) the uptake of Cr3+ is more efficient when no extra growth medium is added to the wastewater; iv) the longer the exposure period of the yeast to Cr3+ , the bigger the Cr3+ reduction. Since Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an inexpensive, readily available source of biomass, this discovery could be of great use for a low-budget and efficient wastewater treatment system