A comparative study on the removal and recovery of hexavalent chromium from tannery wastewater using an isolated strain Aspergillus proliferans LA and a known strain Aspergillus terreus

Isolation of a potent microorganism from the soil near tanneries and a comparative analysis of the removal and recovery of different concentrations of hexavalent chromium using known strain Aspergillus terreus and isolated strain Aspergillis proliferansLA are done. The isolated fungal species from the chromium contaminated soil sites located in the industrial area of Kanpur, U.P. were tested for its potential for the removal of hexavalent chromium from wastewater streams. The experiments were conducted comparing the biosorption efficiency of the isolated species Aspergillus proliferansLA and Aspergillus terreus by varying the initial Cr (VI) concentration and media constituents. The highest removal efficiency of 99.19% was shown by the isolated species Aspergillus proliferansLA for an initial Cr (VI) concentration of 10ppm followed by increasing the concentration to 50ppm whereas Aspergillus terreus showed 78.43% removal of hexavalent chromium. This was then followed by desorption using 0.8M NaOH and 75.12% hexavalent chromium was desorbed from the cells. The isolated strain Aspergillus proliferansLA was seen to show better removal and recovery results than the known strain Aspergillus terreus.