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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbiotechnology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1384639
This article is part of the Research Topic Microbial Regulatory Mechanisms in Remediation of Industrial Wastewater and Contaminated Soils View all 3 articles

Innovative optimization for enhancing Pb 2+ biosorption from aqueous solutions using Bacillus subtilis

Provisionally accepted
Reyad M. ElSharkawy Reyad M. ElSharkawy 1*Mohamed Khairy Mohamed Khairy 2Mohamed H. Abbas Mohamed H. Abbas 3Magdi E. Zaki Magdi E. Zaki 2Abdalla El-Hadary5 Abdalla El-Hadary5 3
  • 1 Faculty of Science, Benha University, Benha, Egypt
  • 2 Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 3 Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University, Moshtohor, Egypt

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Toxic heavy metals pollution has been considered as a major ecosystem pollution source. Unceasing or rare performance of Pb 2+ to the surrounding environment causes damage to the kidney, nervous, and liver systems. Microbial remediation has acquired prominence in recent decades due to its high efficiency, environment-friendliness, and cost-effectiveness. The lead biosorption by Bacillus subtilis was optimized by two successive paradigms, namely, a definitive screening design (DSD) and an artificial neural network (ANN), to maximize the sorption process. Five physicochemical variables showed a significant influence (P < 0.05) on the Pb 2+ biosorption with optimal levels of pH 6.1, temperature 30°C, glucose 1.5%, yeast extract 1.7%, and MgSO4.7H2O 0.2, resulting in a 96.12% removal rate. The Pb 2+ biosorption mechanism using B. subtilis biomass was investigated by performing several analyses before and after Pb 2+ biosorption. The maximum Pb 2+ biosorption capacity of B. subtilis was 61.8 mg/g at a 0.3 g biosorbent dose, pH 6.0, temperature 30°C, and contact time 60 min. Langmuir's isotherm and pseudo-second-order model with R 2 of 0.991 and 0.999, were suitable for the biosorption data, predicting a monolayer adsorption and chemisorption mechanism, respectively. The outcome of the present research seems to be a first attempt to apply intelligence paradigms in the optimization of the low-cost Pb 2+ biosorption using B. subtilis biomass, justifying their promising application for enhancing the removal efficiency of heavy metal ions using biosorbents from the contaminated aqueous systems.

    Keywords: Bacillus subtilis, optimization, Biosorption, Lead, Low-cost remediation, Definitive screening design, artificial neural network

    Received: 10 Feb 2024; Accepted: 29 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 ElSharkawy, Khairy, Abbas, Zaki and El-Hadary5. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Reyad M. ElSharkawy, Faculty of Science, Benha University, Benha, Egypt

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