Biosorption of heavy metals from wastewater using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a biosorbent: A mini review

Abstract

Waste water is the primary source of most of the heavy metals like Cd, Cr (VI), Pb, As, Hg, Cu, Ni, Zn, etc. The recent implementation of bioremediation methods has drastically outsmarted all other methods in removal of toxic heavy metals from waste water. Several organisms in micro and macro scale are being used as biomaterials for biosorption of heavy metals. The aim of this review is to assess the credibility of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for biosorption of toxic heavy metals, which has large surface area and budded structure, porous cell wall, ability to undergo meiosis, metal specificity and potential genetic modifications. S. cerevisiae is inoculated with its culture media into contaminated water where biosorption of heavy metals occurs. The optimum temperature, pH and contact time for heavy metal biosorption as found from literatures are 20 °C to 30 °C, 5.0 to 7.0 and 60 min respectively. The maximum biosorption can range up to 99.5 %. Hence, waste water can be decontaminated from toxic heavy metals using biosorption by S. cerevisiae.