Use of the industrial yeast Candida utilis for cadmium sorption.

The sorption ability of Candida utilis biomass for cadmium ions with accumulating competence of dried cells and cells in alginate was compared. After an optimization of process conditions (pH 5.5, biomass concentration 1 g/L and c0 50 mg/L), the cadmium sorption capacity of dried yeast biomass was perceptibly higher than that of the other tested adsorbents. Considering the sorption of the dried yeast biomass equal to 100 %, the cells in alginate reached 86 % while native cells showed only 42 %.