Abstract

One of the recent developments in biotechnology is the identification of a new type of adsorbents of biological origin which have high sequestering capacity for organic or inorganic pollutants. The effect of pretreatment on the heavy metal biosorption capacity of Penicillium lanosa-coeruleum biomass was investigated as a new biosorbent. The biomass was subjected to heat and chemical treatments including sodium hydroxide, formaldehyde, gluteraldehyde, acetic acid, hydrogen peroxide, detergent and dimethyl sulfoxide to study their effects on biosorption of copper, lead and nickel. It was found that heat, sodium hydroxide and detergent pretreatments significantly improved biosorption of lead (27%) and copper (106%, 95%, 162%) whereas gluteraldehyde increased nickel biosorption (72%) in comparison with the living biomass. The fungal biomass of P. lanosa-coeruleum may be applied to develop an inexpensive, effective biosorbent for removing lead, copper and nickel from waste waters.