A Preliminary Study on Biosorption of Chromium by Rumen Consortia

ABSTRACT The present study has focused on the ability of rumen consortium to absorb the heavy metals. It is well known that the chronic inhalation of hexavalent chromium compounds increases risk of lung cancer. There has been an increase in chromium pollution in surface waters because of Electroplating, leather tanning, Coal and oil combustion and textile industries. Hence, a new method of using rumen fluid collected from slaughter house to treat chromium polluted area has been tried out in this study. The rumen consortium was inoculated in nutrient broth containing metal solutions in the concentration of 50-200ppm. The atomic absorption studies showed that the rumen consortium was able to tolerate a maximum of 150ppm chromium solution and the chromium removal was found to be 12.5 % after 48 hrs. The percentage of chromium removal decreased with increas-ing metal concentration. The absorption was also confirmed by diphenyl carbazide method which was analysed in spectrophotometer at 540nm. From the studies mentioned above, it has been confirmed that the Cr(VI) in the maximum concentration of 150ppm has been absorbed by rumen consortia. Summary of the paper: Heavy metal pollution has become a big environmental threat which slowly destroys the ecosystem in many ways either in water bodies or land. The removal of heavy metals using rumen consortia, slaughter house waste has been tried out in this study. The standard chromium solution which was prepared in the concentration of 100ppm was used for the experiments. To summarise, rumen fluid has the capacity to remove chromium solution in a maximum concentration of 150ppm. Hence this study wil