Heavy metal biosorption by Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) recovered from anammox granular sludge

Benedetta Pagliaccia; Emiliano Carretti; Mirko Severi; Debora Berti; Claudio Lubello; Tommaso Lotti

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126661

Heavy metal biosorption by Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) recovered from anammox granular sludge

J Hazard Mater. 2022 Feb 15;424(Pt C):126661. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126661. Epub 2021 Jul 17.

Authors

Benedetta Pagliaccia¹, Emiliano Carretti², Mirko Severi³, Debora Berti⁴, Claudio Lubello⁵, Tommaso Lotti⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Florence, Via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze (FI), Italy. Electronic address: benedetta.pagliaccia@unifi.it.
² Department of Chemistry "Ugo Schiff" & CSGI, University of Florence, Via della Lastruccia, 3-13, 50019 Sesto, Fiorentino (FI), Italy. Electronic address: emiliano.carretti@unifi.it.
³ Department of Chemistry "Ugo Schiff", University of Florence, Via della Lastruccia, 3-13, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy. Electronic address: mirko.severi@unifi.it.
⁴ Department of Chemistry "Ugo Schiff" & CSGI, University of Florence, Via della Lastruccia, 3-13, 50019 Sesto, Fiorentino (FI), Italy. Electronic address: debora.berti@unifi.it.
⁵ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Florence, Via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze (FI), Italy. Electronic address: claudio.lubello@unifi.it.
⁶ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Florence, Via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze (FI), Italy. Electronic address: tommaso.lotti@unifi.it.

PMID: 34315635
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126661

Abstract

The recovery and conversion of Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) from sewage sludge into bio-based commodities might improve the economics and environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment. This contribution explores the application of EPS from anammox granular waste sludge as biosorbent for the removal of heavy metals, specifically lead, copper, nickel, and zinc. Adsorption capacities equivalent or higher than well-established adsorbent media emerged from single-metal biosorption studies (up to 84.9, 52.8, 21.7 and 7.4 mg/gTS_EPS for Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺ and Zn²⁺, respectively). Combining spectroscopic techniques, a mechanistic hypothesis for metal biosorption, based on a combination of electrostatic interaction, ion exchange, complexation, and precipitation, was proposed. The adsorption mechanisms of extracted EPS and non-extracted EPS in the native biomass were indirectly compared by means of single-metal biosorption studies performed with pristine granules (adsorbing up to 103.7, 36.1, 48.2 and 49.8 mg/gTSgranules of Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺, and Zn²⁺, respectively). In comparison with pristine anammox granules, EPS showed lower adsorption capacities except for copper and different adsorption pathways as postulated based on the adsorption data interpretation via theoretical models. The multi-metal biosorption tests excluded significant competitions among different heavy metals for the EPS binding sites, thus opening further scenarios for the treatment of complex wastewaters.

Keywords: Anammox granular waste sludge; Biosorption; Extracellular polymeric substances; Heavy metals; Resource recovery.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't