Microbial Biosorption of Metals

Heavy metals always pose serious ecological risks when released into the environment due to their elemental non-degradable nature, regardless of their chemical form. This calls for the development of efficient and low-cost effluent treatment and metal recuperation technologies for contaminated waste water, not only because regulatory limits need to be met but also because the waste itself can be a resource for certain precious metals.
�Biosorption is a general property of living and dead biomass to rapidly bind and abiotically concentrate inorganic or organic compounds from even very diluted aqueous solutions. As a specific term, biosorption is a method that utilizes materials of biological origin - biosorbents formulated from non-living biomass - for the removal of target substances from aqueous solutions. Recent research on biosorption provides a solid understanding of the mechanism underlying microbial biosorption of heavy metals and related elements.
�This book gathers review articles analyzing current views on the mechanism and (bio)chemistry of biosorption,� the performance of bacterial, fungal and algal biomass, and the practical aspects of biosorbent preparation and engineering.� It also reviews the physico-chemical evaluations of biosorbents and modelling of the process as well as the importance of biosorption during heavy metal removal using living cells.
It is a reference work for scientists, environmental safety engineers and R&D specialists who wish to further promote biosorption research and use the accumulated knowledge to develop and build industrial applications of biosorption in heavy metal separation technologies.�