Bioadsorption of lead(II) from aqueous solution by fungal biomass of Aspergillus niger.

The removal of lead by waste fungal biomass of Aspergillus niger, originated from citric acid fermentation industry, was investigated. The experimental results indicated that the bioadsorption achieved equilibrium within 4 h. The kinetic analysis of lead adsorption onto the fungal biomass revealed that the bioadsorption process followed the first-order reaction kinetics. The adsorption isotherm can be simulated by Freundlich model, which gave a correlation coefficient equal to 0.93. The lead-loaded biomass can be effectively regenerated by 0.1 M nitric acid. This research demonstrated that the waste biomass of A. niger is a potential bioadsorbent for the removal of lead from aqueous solution.