Bioaccumulation and biosorption of zinc by a novel Streptomyces K11 strain isolated from highly alkaline aluminium brown mud disposal site

Abstract Zinc biosorption and bioaccumulation by a novel extremely Zn tolerant Streptomyces K11 strain isolated from highly alkaline environment were examined. Temperature, similarly as biosorbent preparation, has negligible effect on the biosorption capacity but very strong effect on the process kinetics. Initial adsorption rate increased almost 10 times with the temperature increase from 10 to 50 °C and it was 30 times higher when non-dried biomass was used. The biosorption study revealed that the process was mainly chemically controlled, however at lower temperature intra-particle diffusion played significant role in the zinc biosorption. The experimental data fitted the Langmuir isotherm model with the maximum biosorption capacity 0.75 mmol g −1 . The results of bioaccumulation onto a living biomass of Streptomyces K11 indicated very high bioaccumulation capacity of 4.4 mmol g −1 . Zinc extracellular uptake (43%) slightly exceeded the intracellular accumulation (36%). High zinc bioaccumulation capacity was obviously related to extremely high zinc tolerance of Streptomyces K11.