Biosorption and removal of toxic heavy metals by metal tolerating bacteria for bioremediation of metal contamination: A comprehensive review

Heavy metal pollution caused due to the industrialization has been considered as a significant public health hazard, and these heavy metals exhibit various types of toxicological manifestations. Conventional remediation methods are expensive and also yield toxic by-products, which negatively affect the environment. Hence, a green technology employing various biological agents, predominantly bacteria, algae, yeasts, and fungi, has received more attention for heavy metal removal and recovery because of their high removal efficiency, low cost, and availability. However, bacterial biosorption is the safest treatment method for the toxic pollutants that are not readily biodegradable such as heavy metals. Metal biosorption by bacteria has received significant attention due to a safe, productive, and feasible technology for the heavy metal-containing wastewater treatment. These metal tolerating bacteria can bind the cationic toxic heavy metals with the negatively charged bacterial structures and live or dead biomass components. Due to the large surface area to volume ratio, these bacterial biomasses efficiently act as the biosorbent for metal bioremediation under multimetal conditions. This review summarizes the biosorption potentials of bacterial biomass towards different metal ions, cell wall constituent, biofilm, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in metal binding, and the effect of various environmental parameters influencing the metal removal. Suitable mathematical models of biosorption and their application have been discussed to understand and interpret the adsorption process. Furthermore, different desorbing agents and their utilization in heavy metals recovery and regeneration of biosorbent have been summarized.