Bioremediation of Chromium

using Bacterial Biofilm

Aafreen Fathima
Chemical Lab
 Bioremediation
• Bioremediation can be defined as any process that uses
microorganisms, fungi, green plants or their enzymes to return
the natural environment altered by the contaminants to its
original condition

Bioremediation

In-Situ Ex-Situ

• Heavy metals are bioremediated using Biosorption technique.

• Biosorption is a process that involves the use of biological

materials that form complexes with metal ions using their
 Biofilms
• Biofilms are ubiquitous in nature.

• A biofilm is an aggregate of microorganisms in which cells

are stuck to each other and/or to a surface

• These adherent cells are frequently embedded within a self-

produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS).

• In biofilms microbial cells constitute about 15% and EPS

constitute about 80%.

 Exopolysaccharides(EPS)
• Exopolysaccharides are high-molecular-weight polymers that

are composed of sugar residues and are secreted by

microorganisms into the surrounding environment

• It plays various roles in the structure and function of

different biofilm communities

• EPS consists of polysaccharides, proteins and uronic acids

etc.,

• Hence it has many functional groups like carboxyl, amine,

hydroxyl, phosphoric etc.,

• These functional groups plays a key role in biosorption by

Biofilm Development
 Biofilm formation

1. Formation of conditioning layer

2. Bacterial adhesion

3. Bacterial growth

4. Biofilm expansion
 Chromium
• Chromium is one of the widely used metals
• Chromium, a steel grey, lustrous, hard and brittle metal, occurs
in nature in bound forms that constitute 0.1-0.3 mg kg-1 of the
earth’s crust.
• Chromium has several oxidation states, the trivalent and the
hexavalent are the most stable ones. The trivalent chromium is
less soluble and less mobile when compared to hexavalent
chromium, so trivalent chromium is less toxic than hexavalent
chromium.
• The drawback of using chromium is heavy metal pollution which
is a serious problem for life in general. Chromium is a mutagen
and a carcinogen.
• Since chromium is a pollutant and a soil contaminant, after
 Aim of the Project

The aim of the present study is to remove chromium from the

effluent using biosorption, a technique which employs bio-films

developed using chromium tolerant bacterial strains

 Objective
• Isolation of chrome-tolerant bacterial strain from the sludge

• Adaptation of the strains with respect to increasing

concentration of chromium and studying the chrome uptake

capacity

• Forming an immobilized bacterial layer using the adapted

strains on different substrata

• Applying for the bioremediation of chromium

 Metal uptake studies
• To study the metal uptake potential of the bacterial strains
from the effluent

• To check the maximum absorption of the metal by the adapted

bacterial strains
 Methodology
• Batch experiments were conducted using different

concentrations of chromium- 25, 50, 75 and 100 ppm

• Substrate- Kaolin clay

• Broth- Nutrient broth

• Control – Without bacteria and/or Kaolin

• pH plays an important role in biosorption

• The culture and kaolin are added to the metal solution and

the flasks are incubated at 37⁰c with moderate stirring

• Samples of 1 ml were collected after 24, 48 and 72 hours,

centrifuged and analyzed for chromium

• Analysis of chromium in the sample can be done in 2 ways,

1. Atomic absorption spectrophotometer

2. Diphenyl carbazide method (DPC)

Results
THANK YOU