Bioremediation of Heavy Metals and Toxic Chemicals from Muttukadu Lake, Chennai by Biosurfactant and Biomass Treatment Strategies

Bioremediation is the promising strategy of bringing back the environment to the natural stage by means of biological treatment. Biosurfactants are microbial products which possess many applications over traditional methods. Hence biosurfactants can be widely used for bioremediation process. In this study, a novel biosurfactant- rhamnolopid was applied for bioremediation of heavy metals, environmental toxic pollution removal and stain decolorizer. For this, water sample was collected from Muttukadu lake to check the amount of heavy metals present in it by Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and also to screen the toxic functional groups in the water sample by FTIR analysis. In additional to this stain removal application of rhamnolipid type of biosurfactant was also revealed. Pseudomonas aeroginosa was isolated from the metal contaminated automobile industry at Kandigai. Selected strain was subjected to phenotypic characterization and following that biosurfactant was produced by acid precipitation method. The produced biosurfactant was subjected to preliminary assays and FTIR for structural confirmation of rhamnolopid type of biosurfactnt. Before the treatment of heavy metals and after the treatment of heavy metals and toxic functional groups were examined by Atomic absorption spectroscopy and FTIR respectively. After the treatment of biosurfactant the amount of Chromium and Lead was decreased. Toxic compounds like Chlorofluro alkanes and alkanes were completely removed. To this treatment, a comparitive study was carried out with respect to biosurfactant and biomass treatment strategy. Stain removal application was evaluated using commercially available Azo dye. Stain removal was noticed by physical examination after the treatment of biosurfactant to the stained cloth pieces.