Cadmium Biosoption by Immobilized Dead yeast cells From Bioethanol Industries

Dead yeast cells are an abundant residue of the Brazilian ethanol industry and the industries still don’t have a proper or desirable destiny for all these cells, which means tons of vitamins and proteins that have not a major end. In the other hand, heavy metal residues are a problem, especially for leather industry, where Brazil is also a great producer. In this work, dead yeast cells were used to evaluate cadmium biosorption samples. Results have shown that dried dead yeast cells at 20 % (W/V) immobilized in Na-alginate beads 0.5 % can be an efficient alternative for the capture of cadmium. The average biosorption rate was 122.10 mg Cd/ g of dry biomass in comparison to the control using only the Na-alginate beads 0.5 % where the biosorption rate achieved 57.29 mg Cd/g of dry biomass. This research opens wide opportunities to allies two major residues created in Brazilian industries with a noble end for the industries it selves as for the environment.