Evaluation of actinide biosorption by microorganisms

Abstract

Conventional methods for removing metals from aqueous solutions include chemical precipitation, chemical oxidation or reduction, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, electrochemical treatment and evaporation. The removal of radionuclides from aqueous waste streams has largely relied on ion exchange methods which can be prohibitively costly given increasingly stringent regulatory effluent limits. The use of microbial cells as biosorbants for heavy metals offers a potential alternative to existing methods for decontamination or recovery of heavy metals from a variety of industrial waste streams and contaminated ground waters. The toxicity and the extreme and variable conditions present in many radionuclide containing waste streams may preclude the use of living microorganisms and favor the use of non-living biomass for the removal of actinides from these waste streams. In the work presented here, we have examined the biosorption of uranium by non-living, non-metabolizing microbial biomass thus avoiding the problems associated with living systems. We are investigating biosorption with the long term goal of developing microbial technologies for the remediation of actinides.