TITLE:
A Study on Biosorption Potential of Aspergillus sp. of Tannery Effluent
AUTHORS:
Arasappan Sugasini, Kalyanaraman Rajagopal, Narasimhan Banu
KEYWORDS:
Aspergillus, Chromium, Alkali Pretreated, Biosorption, Live Biomass
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology,
Vol.5 No.10,
September
29,
2014
ABSTRACT: Chromium toxicity is one of the major environmental pollutants. As
conventional methods for heavy metal removal are very expensive, bioremediation
using fungi is extensively explored. Therefore in the present investigation,
out of 23 fungi isolated from tannery effluent, 4 Aspergillus species namely A. terreus, A. tamarii, A. flavus and A. niger were selected for evaluating chromium tolerance and
biosorption potential. Growth of the fungi was tested using various
concentrations of Potassium dichromate (Cr VI) viz., 1 mM, 3 mM and 5 mM
amended in potato dextrose agar. For all the fungi, growth was observed only in
1 mM and 3 mM. No growth was observed in 5 mM. Biosorption efficiency of both
live and alkali pretreated Aspergillus species was compared. In the present study, alkali pretreated form exhibited
highest biosorption efficiency than the live biomass in which A. terreus showed highest chromium
biosorption potential compared to the other fungi.