Biosorption of Rhenium by New Strain of Bacillus sp. MGG-83

One of the most important application of rhenium is its use in nuclear medicine.The recovery of rhenium via biosorption by micro-organisms, in contrast to other methods, has not been investigated yet. In the present study the biosorption of rhenium on Bacillus sp. MGG-83 in a batch of stirred system is reported, and its optimum condition has been determined. The optimum pH-value of the medium was found to be 2 for rhenium. The maximum biosorption of rhenium was obtained at a temperature between 35–40 0C. The rhenium take up increases by increasing the rhenium concentration, and for 250 mg/l the take up was 146.3 mg/g dry wt. The uptake of rhenium within 5 min of incubation is relatively rapid and the continuation of absorption behaves slowly thereafter. The reduction in the V/X0value causes an increase of the adsorbed rhenium and that is due to the increase of the adsorption surface area. The desorption of rhenium which has been carried out with 0.1 M sodium hydroxide at 25 0C was 55%.