Biosorption of Heavy Metals (Chromium and Copper) using Bacillus Firmus isolated from contaminated gold mining soil of Anka in Zamfara State, Nigeria

Abstract

Soil pollution is among the major global concerns of environmental
contamination; the release of contaminants into the environment by human
activities has increased over the past decades. Soil contamination by mining
activities has attracted considerable public attention and the magnitude of
the problem in the sampling site calls for immediate action. This research
investigates the potentials of Bacillus firmus for the removal of heavy metals
from contaminated mining soils. This bacterial species was isolated from the
mining soil and the soil was analyzed for its heavy metal content. The toxic
metal of interest for biosorption in this work are copper and chromium and
the biosorbent used was Bacillus firmus. The biosorption ability was also
studied for 21 days and was calculated using Beer- Lambert’s law. The
bacterial species was tested for its ability to remove heavy metal
concentration. It was observed from the result that copper was highly
absorbed at day 21 with 98.2% removal and 96% on day 1 and 7
respectively. The least result was observed on day 14 at 78%. Chromium
was also removed most at day 21 with 90.9%, 84.9% at day 7 and the least
recorded was at day 1 with 39.3%. This study suggest that this approach
could be a very important technology for heavy metal bioremediation at
cheaper cost