Pages: 18-27

Abstract

The rapid developments of industries areposing a threat to our surroundings resulting in polluted environment. The effluent from refineries, waste treatment plants, chemical industries dischargea variety of heavy metals inlotic water systems causing hazards to human and animals. Nickel is a ubiquitous element and 24thmost abundant element in our earth’s crust. Microbes play a considerable role in the process of bioremediation of heavy metals like nickel, zinc, cadmium and chromium in contaminated waste water and soil. The passive uptake of metals by biomaterials can be defined as Biosorption. This method is cost effective, eco-friendly and highly efficient in treating the contaminated substances. Hence in the present work an attempt has been made to study the biosorption of nickel using Pseudomonas oleovorans MTCC 617.The bioremoval of nickel ions by P.oleovorans was studied for a period of eight days by exposing to selected concentrations of nickel (250, 500, 750 and 1000ppm). Atomic absorption spectrophotometric (AAS) analysis was carried out for the samples at an interval of two days to find out the amount of nickel removed.Maximum removal of nickel reached after six and eight days of treatment at 1000 ppm concentration. To study the effect of dead cells and sugar supplements on biosorption of nickel, experiments were designed. Among the tested sugars, glucose exhibited the highest biomass.The results of this study indicate the applicability of P.oleovorans in the removal of nickel contaminationin the environment caused by industrial pollutants.