Feasibility of Heavy Metals Removal from Compost by Biosurfactant

Biosurfactants have the ability to form heavy metal complexes and clean up heavy metal contaminated soils. In this work, a biosurfactant producing bacterium (Bacillus spp.) isolated from compost and Pseudomonas aeuroginosa ATCC3027 were cultured in whey in order to produce biosurfactant. Compost samples were leached by supernatant of mentioned strains. Total amount of Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd, Zn, Cu and Mn in samples were measured before and after treatment was measured. It was revealed that supernatant of P. aeuroginosa ATCC 3027 removed 52, 49, 60, 33, 25, 32 and 22% of Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd, Zn, Cu and Mn respectively. Heavy metal removal by supernatant of strain B was 45, 39, 42, 33, 40, 41 and 29% for above mentioned metals; respectively. These results indicate the potential of the biosurfactants as leaching agents for heavy metal removal from compost.