[CCoE Notice] MS Thesis Presentation

Wed Apr 17 10:03:14 CDT 2013

MS Thesis Defense

Application of Bacterial Biomass for Heavy Metal Bioremediation

Jingjing Fan

Date: Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

Location: Civil & Environmental Engineering Conference Room, Engr Bldg 1
Time: 10:30 am - 12:30 pm

Committee Members:
Dr. Debora Rodrigues
Dr. Bill Rixey
Dr. Cumaraswamy Vipulanandan

Heavy metals at high concentrations are toxic to the environment and living organisms. The present study aims to investigate the best condition for the removal of Cu2+ and Cr6+ by two bacterial strains: Ochrobactrum intermedium and Cupriavidus metallidurans. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of C. metallidurans and O. Intermedium were determined to be 750 and 300 ppm for Cu2+, and 100ppm and 1000ppm for Cr6+, respectively for each microorganism. Biosorption experiments were also performed with dead and live biomasses of C. metallidurans and O. intermedium. The results showed that dead biomass presented better Cu2+ biosorption capacity than live cells. Chromium was removed more efficiently by live cells of O. Intermedium than dead biomass; while C. metallidurans dead biomass biosorbed better than live biomass. The biosorption results fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm model. The main mechanism of biomass adsorption was determined to be carboxylic, hydroxyl and amino functional groups for live biomasses.

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