The Use of the Fungi Penicillium and Rhizopus to Remove Some Heavy Metals from the Wastewater in Hospital in Mosul City

Abstract

The importance of using microorganisms to detoxify heavy metals lies in the huge quantities that are discarded daily to rivers from various sources, including hospitals wastewater, which leads to contamination and increased dangerous effects on humans and the environment. The study aimed to detoxify some heavy metals from the wastewater of Mosul hospital by using the fungi penicillium and Rhizopus.

The study has been conducted from the 1st of January to 30th of April 2020 and it included isolation and diagnosis of some fungi from the surrounding sewage and soils. The fungi penicillium and Rhizopus were selected for having the highest frequency and studying their efficiency in removing the toxicity of the elements lead, cadmium, and copper from the wastewater of Mosul hospital. The concentrations of Pb, Cd and Cu elements were measured before and after the fungi cultivation process using an atomic observation device for an incubation period of 0, 3, 5, 7 and 10 days to find out the percentage of precipitation of each element compared to the standard of curve that was previously prepared.The results showed superiority of penicillium in sedimentation of Pb and Cd, as it reached 61.25%, 78.18% on the tenth day of incubation compared to Rhizopus 53.75%, 72.73%. respectively, Whereas, the rate of copper precipitation of the fungus Rhizopus on the tenth day was 87.18% and it was higher than that of penicillium 73.07% for the same incubation period. The study demonstrated the efficiency of using the fungi penicillium and Rhizopus in removing lead, cadmium and copper and reducing it is toxicity in hospital wastewater.