Abstract
The metallurgical industry is one of the main sources of heavy metal pollution, which represents a severe threat to life. Metals can be removed from aqueous solutions by using microbial biomasses. This paper analyses the heavy metal biosorption capacity of Serratia marcescens strain 16 in single and multimetallic systems. The results obtained show that Co(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) biosorption in monometallic systems is two to three times higher than in the presence of bi-metallic and multimetallic solutions. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed that carbonyl, carboxyl and hydroxyl were the main functional groups, as well as the amide bands I and II involved in metal uptake, which are present in external structures of the bacterial cell. The results obtained demonstrated the viability of S. marcescens strain 16 as a biosorbent for the design of eco-friendly technologies for the treatment of waste liquor.
Highlights
Heavy metals are considered to be among the most hazardous pollutants and represent a severe threat to life and ecological balance
The comparison between metal biosorption performances of a biosorbent in the presence of different sorbates should be made in similar conditions, including its initial concentration (Volesky 2007)
It is possible that only under this low Cu(II) concentration, do the rest of the metal cations have access to binding sites on the biomass, which could explain the increase in their q values. All these results suggest that the biosorption capacity of S. marcescens strain 16 for Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) decreases when these metal cations are present in multimetallic systems compared with values obtained for each ion in monometallic solutions
Summary
Heavy metals are considered to be among the most hazardous pollutants and represent a severe threat to life and ecological balance. The deleterious effects of heavy metals on biological systems are complex and usually dependent on their chemical form, solubility and concentration, which determine their availability to organisms (Gikas 2008). Cuba owns one of the largest lateritic Ni(II) and Co(II) deposits in the world (Kuck 2013; Shedd 2013) located in the region of Moa. Industrial processing of the lateritic minerals through acid pressure technology generates considerable amounts of a liquid waste known as waste liquor (WL). Industrial processing of the lateritic minerals through acid pressure technology generates considerable amounts of a liquid waste known as waste liquor (WL) This WL contains toxic metals such as Ni(II) (25–28 mg L-1), Co(II) (0.2–5.6 mg L-1), Zn(II) (15–19 mg L-1) and Cu(II) (3–9 mg L-1) (Sosa 2006; Sosa and Garrido 2009).
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