Environmental Engineering and Management Journal

June 2011, Vol.10, No. 6, 729-732

http://omicron.ch.tuiasi.ro/EEMJ/

Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania

BIOSORPTION OF LEAD FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTION BY USING CHEMICALLY TREATED Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Ying Zhang1,2, Yingjie Dai1,2, Baiyin Liu3, Fang Ma2, Ru Zheng1, Limin Dong1
2

School of Resource and Environment, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, P. R. China State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, P. R. China 3 Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, P. R. China

Abstract
Biosorption of lead (II) onto the biosorbent, represented by untreated S. cerevisiae and NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae was examined and the effects of contact time were investigated. The lead (II) biosorption was fast and equilibrium was attained within 90 mins. The maximum removal ratios of lead (II) for untreated S. cerevisiae and NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae after 3 h were 48.6% and 92.5%, respectively, with initial lead (II) concentration of 40 mg/L and optimum pH of 5.0. Data obtained from batch studies tted well with the Langmuir isotherm model. Maximum adsorption capacity of lead (II) onto NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae was 21.6 mg/g at biosorbent dosage of 2 g/L at 25 C. The nature of functional groups (i.e. amino, carboxyl and hydroxyl) and metal ion interactions was examined by the FT-IR technique.

Key words: biosorption, isotherm, lead, mechanism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Received: March, 2011; Revised final: July, 2011; Accepted: July, 2011

1. Introduction The pollution of the environment with toxic heavy metals has become a problem through the world along with industrial develop. Heavy metals are major pollutants in marine, ground industrial and soils. The specic problem associated with heavy metals in the environment is their accumulation in the food chain and their persistence. If these discharges are emitted without treatment, it may have an adverse impact on the environment. Lead is widely used in many important industrial applications, such as storage battery, manufacturing, printing pigments, fuels, photographic materials, and explosive manufacturing. Lead, one of the most toxic heavy metals, accumulates mainly in bones, brain, kidney and muscles and may cause many serious disorders like anaemia, kidney diseases, nervous disorders and

sickness even death. The current EPA and WHO drinking water standard for lead are 0.05 mg/L and 0.01 mg/L, respectively. For this reason, the discharge of industrial wastewaters containing lead (II) to waterways is stringently regulated in order to reduce environmental impact. Several different conventional methods applied to remove excessive heavy metals from aqueous solutions include chemical or electrochemical precipitation, ion exchange, adsorption on minerals and reverse osmosis. However, these methods are either inefcient or expensive when heavy metals exist in low concentrations (Hlihor and Gavrilescu, 2009; Wilde and Benermann, 1993). A search for a low-cost and easily available adsorbent has led to the investigation of materials of agricultural and

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: zhangyhrb@neau.edu.cn; Phone: +86 451 5519 0825; Fax: +86 451 5519 1170 Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: dai5188@hotmail.com; Phone: +86 451 5519 0825; Fax: +86 451 5519 1170

Zhang et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 10 (2011), 6, 729-732

biological origin as potential metal sorbents (Hammaini et al., 1991; Kicsi et al., 2010). Biosorption is the ability of certain types of microbial biomass to accumulate heavy metals from aqueous solutions. Microbial biomass could be considered as an ion exchanger of a biological origin (Volesky 1999). A large number of microorganisms belonging to various groups, such as bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and algae have been reported to bind a variety of heavy metals to dierent extents (Volesky and Holan, 1995). Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) is widely used in food and beverage production, is easily cultivated using cheap media, is also a by-product in large quantity as a waste of the fermentation industry, and is easily manipulated at molecular level (Wang and Chen, 2006). S. cerevisiae is easy to cultivate at large scale and generally regarded as safe. S. cerevisiae can be obtained from various food and beverage industries. Therefore, the biosorbent for heavy metal biosorption made from S. cerevisiae can be easily accepted by the public when applied practically. Some studies of biosorption of heavy metals from aqueous solution by using S. cerevisiae have been reported. Among them, Wang determined S. cerevisiae, waste biomass originated from beer fermentation industry, was used to remove copper ion from aqueous solution (Wang, 2002). However, few investigations of biosorption of lead from aqueous solution by using NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae had been reported. The objective of this research was to investigate the removal of lead ion from aqueous solution by using untreated S. cerevisiae and NaOHtreated S. cerevisiae. The inuence of several parameters, such as time, initial pH, initial lead (II) concentrations were investigated. The kinetics and adsorption equilibrium of lead (II) for NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae were obtained from batch experiments. The FT-IR spectrum of the biosorbent with that loaded with lead (II) was analyzed. 2. Case studies 2.1. Materials The biosorbent S. cerevisiae (dead beer yeast powder) used in this work was obtained from Harbin Brewing Group Co. Ltd. Before use, it was washed several times with distilled water to eliminate the nutrimental materials and impurities. It was dried in an oven at 60 C until its weight did not change. Then it was crushed (smashed) and refined through a 0.25 mm griddle, and put into a cool and dry place. In order to investigate the effect of functional groups on the surface of S. cerevisiae, it was treated with NaOH (0.1 mol/L) according to the reported method by Selatnia et al., (1991). S. cerevisiae (20 g) was maintained for 24 h in 500 m L NaOH (0.1 mol/L) solution with a stirring speed of 150 rpm and at ambient temperature. After decantation and filtration, the NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae was obtained and then this biosorbent was once again 730

dried. A stock solution of Pb (II) used in this study was prepared by dissolving an accurate quantity of Pb(NO3)2 in deionized water. All chemicals used in this study were of analytical grade. Solutions were prepared using deionized and distilled water. Standard solution of Pb (II) (1000 mg/L) for ame atomic adsorption spectrometry was obtained from Beijing NCS Analytical Instruments Co. Ltd. The pH, 0.1 mol/L HNO3 and NaOH solutions were used. FT-IR spectra of NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae and NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae loaded with Pb (II) were examined by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer (Nicolet Magne 750). 2.2. Adsorption experiments Kinetic experiments were performed in continuously stirred flask containing 50 mL Pb(II) solutions (pH 5.0) at 40 mg/L concentrations and 0.1 g of untreated S. cerevisiae and NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae for 0 to 3 h at 25 C and 150 rpm. Subsequently, the mixture was filtered using an acidcleaned 0.45 m Millipore lter, and the concentration of Pb (II) in the filtrate was analyzed by ame atomic absorption spectrometry at 283.3 nm (Model AA6800, Shimadzu Japan). For equilibrium studies, the concentrations of Pb (II) solutions varied from 10 mg/L to 100 mg/L and biosorbent (NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae) dosage was 2 g/L. The pH was adjusted to 5.0 using solutions of 0.1 mol/L HNO3 or NaOH respectively, throughout the experiment. The mixture was shaken for 24 h at 25 C and 150 rpm, then it was filtered and the concentration of Pb (II) in the filtrate was determined by ame atomic absorption spectrometry. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Effect of contact time on adsorption efficiency Fig. 1(a) shows the effect of contact time on the extent of adsorption of Pb (II) by biosorbent. The adsorption ratios of Pb (II) for untreated S. cerevisiae and NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae after 3 h were 48.6% and 92.5%, respectively, under the same experimental conditions. The removal ratio of Pb (II) ion was rather fast in the rst 90 min, but then the ratio signicantly decreased and eventually reached a plateau after 120mins. The data obtained from this experiment was further used successfully to evaluate the kinetics of the adsorption process. 3.2. Adsorption isotherm for NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae The equilibrium biosorption isotherm is one of the most important data to understand the mechanism of the biosorption. As indicated in Fig. 1 (b), the isothermal curve of Pb (II) for NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae showed a typical Langmuir-type pattern.

Biosorption of lead from aqueous solution

Fig. 1. (a) Kinetics of Pb (II) biosorption by untreated S. cerevisiae and NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae (Pb (II) concentration: 40 mg/L; biosorbent dosage of 2 g/L; at 25 C; pH 5.0). (b) Adsorption isotherms of Pb (II) by NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae (biosorbent dosage of 2 g/L; at 25 C; pH 5.0)

The relationship between the reciprocal of the amount of Pb (II) adsorbed on NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae and the reciprocal of the equilibrium concentration of Pb (II) in the solution was linear. The parameters in equation (1) were determined from adsorption isotherms for NaOHtreated S. cerevisiae.

qe

Q0 K LCe 1 K LCe

(1)

where, qe is the amount adsorbed (mg/g); Q0, the saturated adsorption amount (mg/g); KL, the adsorption equilibrium constant (L/mg); and Ce, the adsorption equilibrium concentration (mg/L). Fig. 1 (b) shows the values of parameters obtained from the Langmuir isotherm. Q0 and KL were 21.6 mg/g and 0.998 L/mg, respectively. The FT-IR absorbance spectrum of NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae and NaOHtreated S. cerevisiae loaded with Pb (II) were shown in Fig. 2.

The peaks at 3420.3 cm1, 1464.1 cm1 and 1081.3 cm1 were due to amino, carboxyl and hydroxyl groups existence on the cell wall of NaOHtreated S. cerevisiae. It can be seen that after adsorbing Pb (II), the peaks at 3420.3 cm1, 1464.1 cm1 and 1081.3 cm1reduced to 3391.7 cm1, 1462.3 cm1 and 1079.2 cm1, respectively, which suggested amino, carboxyl and hydroxyl groups could combine intensively with Pb(II). The analysis of the FT-IR spectrum showed the presence of ionisable functional groups (i.e. amino, carboxyl and hydroxyl) able to interact with metal ions. Kapoor and Viraraghavan (1997) had shown that esterication of carboxyl groups or methylation of amino groups of Aspergillus niger biomass severely inhibited the Pb (II) biosorption. Bai and Abraham (2002) had revealed that acetylations of amino and hydroxyl groups of Rhizopus nigricans biomass obviously reduced the chromium biosorption These facts indicated the important role played by carboxyl, amino and hydroxyl groups in the adsorption.

Fig. 2. FT-IR spectrum of (a) NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae and (b) NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae loaded with Pb (II)

731

Zhang et al./Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 10 (2011), 6, 729-732

It suggested that ion exchange should be the principal mechanism for Pb (II) biosorption by using NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae. 4. Conclusions The adsorption of Pb (II) on the biosorbent untreated S. cerevisiae and NaOH-treated S. Cerevisiae respectively, was examined. The saturated adsorption amount of Pb (II) on NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae was 21.6 mg/g at biosorbent dosage of 2 g/L at 25 C. The data of FT-IR spectrum conrmed the presence of ionisable functional groups (i.e. amino, carboxyl and hydroxyl) can be interact with Pb (II) ions. This study shows that the NaOH-treated S. cerevisiae is an inexpensive and environmentally friendly biosorbent for removal Pb (II) from aqueous solutions. Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Open Project of State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology (QAK201013)

References
Bai R.S., Abraham T.E., (2002), Studies on enhancement of Cr (VI) biosorption by chemically modied biomass of Rhizopus nigricans, Water Research, 36, 12241236. Hammaini A., Ballester A., Gonzalez F., Blazquez M.L., Munoz J.A., (1999), Activated Sludge as Biosorbent of Heavy Metals, In: Biohydrometallurgy and the

Environment Toward the Mining of the 21st Century, Proceedings of the International Biohydrometallurgy Symposium IBS, Madrid, Spain, 99, 185192. Hlihor R.M., Gavrilescu M., (2009), Removal of some environmentally relevant heavy metals using low-cost natural sorbents, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 8, 353-372. Kapoor A., Viraraghavan T., (1997), Heavy metal biosorption sites in Aspergillus niger, Bioresource Technology, 61, 221227. Kicsi A., Bilba D., Macoveanu M., (2010), Equilibrium and kinetic modeling of Zn (II) sorption from aqueous solutions by sphagnum moss peat, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 9, 341-349. Selatnia A., Bakhti M. Z., Madani A., Kertous L., Mansouri Y., (2004), Biosorption of Cd2+ from aqueous solution by a NaOH-treated bacterial dead Streptomyces rimosus biomass, Hydrometallurgy, 75, 11 24. Volesky B., Holan Z. R., (1995), Biosorption of heavy metals, Biotechnology Progress, 11, 235250. Volesky B., (1999), Biosorption for the next Century, In: Biohydrometallurgy and the Environment Toward the Mining of the 21st Century, Proceedings of the International Biohydrometallurgy Symposium IBS, Madrid, Spain, 99, 161170. Wang J., (2002), Biosorption of copper (II) by chemically modified biomass of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Process Biochemistry, 37, 847-850. Wang J., Chen C., (2006), Biosorption of heavy metals by Saccharomyces cerevisiae: A review, Biotechnology Advances, 24, 427451. Wilde E. W., Benermann J. R., (1993), Bioremoval of heavy metals by the use of microalgae, Biotechnology Advances, 11, 781812.

732

Copyright of Environmental Engineering & Management Journal (EEMJ) is the property of Environmental Engineering & Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.