Chapter 4

Bioaccumulation and

Biosorption

The Prospects and Future Applications

P.F. Steffi^1,*¹ and P.F. Mishel ²

4.1 Introduction

The rapid development of industry and modern technologies has shown the release of variable

hazardous compounds into the surroundings, including heavy metals (Qiu et al. 2021). Heavy

metals are utilized in the mining, metallurgical, electronics and electroplating sectors. Many modern

operations produce trash that contains heavy metals which are harmful to both lower and higher

living beings (Devanesan and AlSalhi 2021). There are a number of ways for removing heavy metal

ions now in use. Precipitation, ion exchange, membrane processes, evaporation and filtration are

the most significant (Danouche et al. 2021). The use of these approaches is frequently coupled

with technological challenges, such as waste management (Pushkar et al. 2021). Biotechnological

strategies that utilize biological materials such as bacteria and plants could be a viable alternative to

the chemical and physical systems currently in use (Reddy et al. 2021).

Metals can be bound by biological material through biosorption and bioaccumulation processes

(Abdul Jaffar et al. 2015). During the biosorption process, metal ions are adsorbed on the surface of

a sorbent. Biosorption is a metabolically passive energy-producing process that uses dead biomass

as a fuel source. Biosorption is a process that has a few distinct characteristics (Hansda et al. 2016).

It has great effectiveness in sequestering dissolved metals from very dilute complicated solutions. As

a result, biosorption is an excellent choice for treating high-volume, low-concentration complicated

wastewaters (Joshi et al. 2011).

On the other hand, bioaccumulation can only occur in living beings due to the transit of

pollutants into the cell and the accumulation of metals within the cell (Kumar et al. 2021). The initial

phase in bioaccumulation is biosorption. Bioaccumulative chemicals are those that accumulate in

living beings to the point where their concentrations in bodily tissues continue to rise (Kumar et al.

2007). Bioaccumulation is also known as bioconcentration in fish and other aquatic creatures. The

1 PG and Research Department of Microbiology, Cauvery College for Women (Autonomous), Trichy.

2 Department of Botany, Bharathidasan University, Trichy.

* Corresponding author: steffi.mb@cauverycollege.ac.in