Biosorption, Recovery and Reuse of Cu(II) by Penicillium sp. 8L2: A Proposal Framed Within Environmental Regeneration and the Sustainability of Mineral Resources

Antonio Jesus Muñoz Cobo (), Francisco Espinola Lozano, Manuel Moya Vilar, Celia Martin Valenzuela and Encarnación Ruiz Ramos
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Antonio Jesus Muñoz Cobo: Department of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Jaen, Campus Las Lagunillas, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Francisco Espinola Lozano: Department of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Jaen, Campus Las Lagunillas, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Manuel Moya Vilar: Department of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Jaen, Campus Las Lagunillas, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Celia Martin Valenzuela: Department of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Jaen, Campus Las Lagunillas, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Encarnación Ruiz Ramos: Department of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Jaen, Campus Las Lagunillas, 23071 Jaén, Spain

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 24, 1-15

Abstract: The copper contamination of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems is a major global environmental problem. Copper is a metal used in many industrial and agricultural processes that is bioaccumulative and highly toxic, making its elimination, recovery and reuse of great interest for environmental sustainability. At the same time, the use of ubiquitous microorganisms is presented as a crucial tool in the field of the sustainability of mineral resources, which in many cases end up as bioaccumulative pollutants, since they can allow the recovery of metallic ions present in low concentrations and, in parallel, the reconversion of these into crystalline species that can be used in other technological fields. The potential of a ubiquitous microorganism, Penicillium sp. 8L2, to retain Cu(II) ions was investigated, as well as the ability of its cellular extract to synthesize CuO nanoparticles, which were subsequently evaluated as biocidal agents against five microorganisms. A response surface methodology was used to determine the optimal operating conditions of the biosorption process, setting the pH at 4.8 and the biomass concentration at 0.8 g/L and obtaining a maximum biosorption capacity at equilibrium of 25.79 mg/g for the Langmuir model. Different analytical techniques were used to study the biosorption mechanisms, which revealed the presence of surface adsorption and intracellular bioaccumulation phenomena involving different functional groups. The fungal cell extract allowed the successful synthesis of CuO-NPs with an average size of 22 nm. The biocidal tests performed with the nanoparticles showed promising values of minimum inhibitory concentrations between 62.5 and 500 µg/mL. Penicillium sp. 8L2 showed good potential for its application in the field of heavy metal bioremediation and for the green synthesis of nanoparticles useful in biomedicine.

Keywords: biosorption; sustainability; copper recovery; CuO-NPs; green chemistry; biocide test (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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