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Fungal Biosorption and Biosorbents

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Book cover Microbial Biosorption of Metals

Abstract

The common filamentous fungi can sorb heavy metals from aqueous solutions. Fungal biosorption largely depends on parameters such as pH, metal ion and biomass concentration, physical or chemical pretreatment of biomass, presence of various ligands in solution, and to a limited extent on temperature. The cell-wall fraction of biomass plays an important role in the sorption of heavy metals. The fungal biosorbents widely used for heavy metal removal are reviewed in this chapter, mainly focusing on their performance, pretreatment, regeneration/reuse, modeling of biosorption, their potential application and future. The potential of fungal biomass as sorbents has been established by the available data, and more research and development of the fungal biosorption technology is recommended. The mismatch between strong scientific progress in the field of biosorption and lack of commercialization of research is evident.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for partial funding through a grant to the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, S4S0A2, Regina, Canada

    Thiruvenkatachari Viraraghavan & Asha Srinivasan

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  1. Thiruvenkatachari Viraraghavan
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  2. Asha Srinivasan
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Correspondence to Thiruvenkatachari Viraraghavan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technolo, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiol, Institute of Chemical Technology, Technicka 3, Prague, 16628, Czech Republic

    Pavel Kotrba

  2. Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technolo, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiol, Institute of Chemical Technology, Technicka 3, Prague, 16628, Czech Republic

    Martina Mackova

  3. Academy of Sciences of the Czech Rep., Institute of Organic Chemistry and Bioch, IOCB & ICT Joint Laboratory, Flemingovo 2, Prague, 16610, Czech Republic

    Tomas Macek

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Viraraghavan, T., Srinivasan, A. (2011). Fungal Biosorption and Biosorbents. In: Kotrba, P., Mackova, M., Macek, T. (eds) Microbial Biosorption of Metals. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0443-5_6

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