Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Microorganisms have an important role in bioremediation which is evolving method for the removal and degradation of many environmental pollutants. Heavy metals and hydrocarbons are hazardous chemical for nature; many waste effluents contain heavy metals like lead, arsenic, chromium, copper, etc. These heavy metals need to be removed before discharging to natural water bodies. The property of some bacterial species to adsorb or absorb these metals, have been utilized to purify industrial waste. PbNO3 is an industrial hazard produced from dye, petrochemicals and electronics industry. It comes out with factory effluent and spread to environment. Excess exposure of PbNO3 is harmful to skin, kidney and respiratory system. Lead causes several types of cancer. We have isolated a bacterial strain from industrial sewage that can accumulate a fair amount of Pb from these effluents. These types of bacteria produce exopolysaccharide (EPS) which is confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscopy study of bacterial samples. This bacteria have been grown in LB media (0.5% yeast extract, 1.0% beef extract and 1.0% NaCl) containing 1mM PbNO3 solution. EPS have been separated from media by isopropanol extraction method and subjected to lyophilization. The Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) result shows presence of Pb molecule in EPS sample. EPS is further characterized by FTIR to know the functional groups presence in the sample. These results show that this bacterial strain may use potentially to remove Pb contamination from industrial effluents.

Biography

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