Assessment of By-Product from Botryosphaeria rhodina MAMB-05 as an Effective Biosorbent of Pb(II).

In this work, two types of biomass preparations (VMSM and M3) from the filamentous fungus Botryosphaeria rhodina MAMB-05, which were previously used in a process of production of β-glucan, were assessed as biosorbents of lead. The operating conditions, optimized through response surface methodology and experimental design, were shown to be pH 5.29 and a biosorbent dose of 0.23 g/L for the VMSM biomass type; and pH 5.06 and a dose of biosorbent of 0.60 g/L for the M3 biomass type, at a constant temperature of 27 °C. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy analyzed the presence of functional groups on the biomass surface. In addition to give an extra value to the by-product biomass, the VMSM-type from B. rhodina MAMB-05 showed an excellent lead biosorption capacity (qm) with a value of 403.4 mg/g for the Langmuir model, comparing favorably with literature results, while the M3 subtype biomass showed a value of 96.05 mg/g.