Enzymatically mediated bioprecipitation of heavy metals from industrial wastes and single ion solutions by mammalian alkaline phosphatase.

The study was aimed at investigating the potential use of calf intestinal alkaline phosphatase (CIAP) enzyme in the removal of heavy metals (Cd2+, Ni2+, Co2+ and Cr3+/6+) from single ion solutions as well as tannery and electroplating effluents. CIAP mediated bioremediation (white biotechnology) is a novel technique that is eco-friendly and cost effective unlike the conventional chemical technologies. Typical reactions containing the enzyme (CIAP) and p-nitrophenyl phosphate (pNPP) as substrate in Tris-HCl buffer (pH 8 and 11) and either single ion metal solutions (250 ppm and 1000 ppm) or effluents from tannery or electroplating industry were incubated at 37°C for 30 min, 60 min and 120 min. The inorganic phosphate (Pi) generated due to catalytic breakdown of pNPP complexes free metal ions as metal-phosphate and the amount of metal precipitated was derived by estimating the reduction in the free metal ion present in the supernatant of reactions employing atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Better ...