The Efficiency of some locally Isolated Fungi on Removing Pb, Cd, Cr and Ni and their Mixture from Wastewater

Abstract

Resources reuse has become an important feature of wastewater management. Wastewater mainly from paint, leather, metal, and tanning industries contain huge amounts of heavy metals. As conventional methods to remove metals from aqueous solutions are not effective enough mainly at low metal concentration and too expensive, alternative methods are required. Microorganisms including fungi have been reported to remove heavy metals from wastewater through bioaccumulation and biosorption at low cost and in eco-friendly way. Aspergillus terreus, A. niger, A. flavus and Talaromyces purpurgenus were isolated from different wastewater samples in Egypt. These isolates exhibited high efficiency in removal of Pb, Cd, Cr and Ni from wastewater, respectively and they can tolerate up to 400 ppm concentration of Pb, Cd, Cr, and Ni. Aspergillus niger showed high efficiency in removing mixture of these heavy metals, this was confirmed by scanning electron microscope coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy that showed a high amount of metals inside fungal mycelium.