Biosorption Kinetics of vetiveria zizanioides Rhizobacter on Heavy Metals Contaminated Wastewater

Abstract

The burden of heavy metals pollution in the environment has increased over the last century. Consequently, concerted efforts towards addressing this menace in the environment and subsequently on health has being on the increase. A number of plants and microorganisms are currently being experimented for their potential to uptake heavy metals from both soil and water. However, the kinetics of uptake of heavy metals in wastewater which are necessary for the design of the treatment system have been largely neglected, this paper therefore investigates the kinetics of biosorption of heavy metals in contaminated wastewater using two  microorganism isolated from rhizospheric soil of Vetiveria zizanioides (vetiver) plant.The result of bioaccumulation studies showed that Bacillus cereus showsthe maximum bioaccumulation capacity of 96.75% for Lead, 23% for Cadmium and 16.98% for Zinc while Bacillus subtilis accumulated 95.2% of the Lead, 41.3% of Cadmium and 32.2% of Zinc from solution.Also, the result of kinetic studies revealed that the kinetic data agrees with pseudo-second order kinetic model.

Keywords: Biosorption, Heavy metals, Rhizospheric, Wastewater, Vetiveria zizanioides.