Bioremoval Of Cadmium Using Pseudomonas fluorescens

Abstract

Electroplating industries discharge heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, lead and zinc in their effluents. Cadmium in high concentration in the effluent cause direct hazards to human and animals. Pseudomonas fluorescens isolated from soil samples collected from contaminated sites was inoculated in 250, 500, 750 and 1000 ppm concentrations of cadmium for a period of eight days. Atomic absorption spectrophotometric (AAS) analysis was carried out for the samples at an interval of two days to determine the amount of cadmium removed. Maximum cadmium removal was found at 1000 ppm concentration. Experiments were also designed to study the effect of dead cells and sugars on the biosorption of cadmium ions. Among glucose, sucrose, lactose, fructose and dextrose supplemented, sucrose exhibited the highest biomass. The results of this study indicated the cadmium removal capacity of P. fluorescens and hence it can be exploited in the bioremediation of cadmium.